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Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

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271–280 of 415 posts

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#271

What you’re describing is data hoarding. I pirate a ton too, but you know what I do with a movie or TV show after I’ve watched it? I delete it. Poof, gone. But it’s still in the most important dataset I have. My memory. To help with the metadata of my own memory, I write down a list of the films I’ve seen. I only keep the movies I really love and want to rewatch (Robocop). That TV show I just finished that was great…

> Your piracy is an excuse for data hoarding, which is a problem.

Not OP, but I’m guilty of this.

However, I also rewatch anything I like and love introducing people to things they haven’t seen. It’s great being able to share a large library of curated content.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#272
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rewatch things all the time. If I’m doing side work at night and just want something on the background I’ll put on a movie or show that I’ve seen before. Beyond that, hard drives are cheap! I have a single 18 TB disk in my main computer that runs Plex. It lets me and my kids watch content from anywhere with an Internet connection. 18 TB hard drives are about $300.

After 4tb dlof data I started to get weirded out by running too big disks. Resilvering might take ages. So long that raid2 might be mandatory. I haven't calculated the right risk factor but I still only use 4tb disks

A rebuild of a 160tb raid 6 array of 12 18tb disks for me takes around 3.3 days.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#273

None of the streaming services allow you to watch purchased content at HD quality with Linux, and DRM is evil, so I don't use them. I don't really watch TV so it's not the end of the world for me, but they shouldn't be surprised at all that there's rampant piracy when you take the most high-skilled tech people and force them to pirate content to be able to watch it at all. It's ironic to me that we caved and let them…

I forgot about how much services absolutely suck on Linux even if you legally paid for them! I paid for Disney+ to watch Mandalorian and I spent an hour trying to watch it on my Linux device because I don't have a smart TV. Apparently Disney just outright blocks any Linux devices from using their service. I really hate piracy, but I hate DRM so so much more.

I never did get it to work either so I just cancelled the subscription

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that excuse justifies much more than digital piracy. You don't "have to pay for" a car if you can steal one.

You'd be denying someone else use of the car. Stealing, especially of physical things, is a far greater moral wrong than copyright infringement.

I understand, but that was not the argument I was replying to. The original comment was far broader.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#275

When Netflix first launched, it was great - they had a massive catalogue of older/pre-existing content, and were making a bunch of their own new, original content that likely wouldn't have been made elsewhere. Their UX was also pretty great - and made finding interesting content easy. They made it dead-easy to sign up, there was no pushy retention teams or hoops to jump through if you wanted to cancel. That's why I p…

I can't imagine anyone at 'Amazon Video' actually uses the service, else they'd realise that the UI is horrific...and whole service is terrible. I only have it as its "free" with my delivery options.

I don't think its a revenue generator for them, I think its we have to have X. Music, video, etc. Look at Audiable, still exists kind of outside of Amazon.com

If they really want to make it into a thing, it cannot be within amazon.com. Call it something else, rip out and make it into a service not an addon to prime.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense is data hoarding a problem? I’ve only ever heard the term used in jest, at least partially, and in particular not ever with the same severity that actual hoarding receives.

When it causes undesired effects like spending more on hardware than you probably should.

> spending more on hardware than you probably should

Should is a tricky word. What is OPs income? What's the rest of their budget look like. What standards are you applying to their spending habits? What hardships do your models forecast for OP as a result of their hobby?

If you know what OP should do, presumably you have this data and can provide your numbers.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#278
post #91

As a 5TB MP3 hoarder myself (along with ~50GB/day of movie/TV pirating), I was curious as to how much content 30TB actually is, so I checked the average file size for my last 300 downloads of mostly 1080p shows and 2160p movies. They averaged 3GB, so that's roughly 10,000 pieces of long form video. Presuming an average bitrate of 14Mbps, 30TB is ~4,760 hours. The average adult watches 3 hours per day. Given the OP's…

Why do you have 5tb of mp3? Im the exact opposite I hoard all my video but stream all my music. Im curious why not use a streaming service for music? Is there a reason to use a streaming service for video but not music?

I'm definitely an edge case for music. I've been obsessed with metal since the mid-90s, and have downloaded quite literally every release. Unfortunately, the streaming services don't seem to care much about having a complete (or even particularly good) catalog of metal, so some of my favorite bands and albums don't exist on those platforms. This is made worse due to a significant portion of metal bands being off the grid, with little-to-zero web presence outside of a Metal Archives[1] listing.

This obsession has led to developing a system for filtering releases into lists of albums that I actually enjoy, so I don't miss anything good. I download 100% of releases and throw all of them into Winamp, then play the second track -- there are a lot of atmospheric intro tracks in metal. If the first 1s doesn't grab me, I skip to about 0:30 and give it another 2-3s. If nothing grabs my attention or it's a sub-genre that I'm not interested in, the album gets removed from the playlist.

Anything remaining at the end gets a full track 2 play, and if the whole song meets my approval, I'll listen to the whole album. If the album is something I'd listen to more than a few times, it goes on the permanent playlist -- currently at ~450 albums and another ~500 random tracks.

[1] https://www.metal-archives.com/

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard drive prices fluctuate a lot. I put this together in early 2018. In early 2018 an 8TB seagate drive cost ~$200 according to https://jcmit.net/diskprice.htm . I'm also counting usable storage, not snapraid or anything like that. The reality is it's 39.12 TiB not counting SSD cache. > The story looks faked all over the place. I also bought a pretty nice case that can store 10+ hard drives, and a PCIe sata adapter.…

Don't take it personally. I am just being skeptical because you created a new account. Does the country where you are actively prosecute piracy, or are you a public person, who does not want their relationship with copyright disclosed for the sake of keeping public image?

My regular account is pretty closely related to me professionally. My current country does not activity prosecute piracy but there's no telling what the future will bring career wise. It's not only prosecution that I'd be worried about, it's also persecution.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#280
Hoard because a) You never know when the content will be removed, b) you never know when you will be stuck without internet, c) you never know when you will feel like exercising your right as a customer to not barter with a business for whatever reason you desire, d) want to stream the content via your own software whatever that may be, e) because the corporations got greedy and the customer is paying.
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