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I'm done with Google

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Re: I'm done with Google

#211

Post by FridgeSeal »

f1refly wrote: post #49
gleenn wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question, what's the difference between a pricing and service problem?

A service problem is when the media mafia refuses to sell me files that I can keep. I'd like to open some website and pay 15 bucks for a movie (the same as I'd buy for a recent bluray in a store) where I'm then allowed to just download a .mkv that I can throw on my nas. Major streaming sites refuse to serve me content with resolution higher that 480p (I think?) because my computer obeys me and not them. Sure looks gr…

Netflix and friends won’t even reliably serve me 4K, even once you’ve jumped through all the hoops (sufficient network speed, right OS, right browser/application, 4K source content, the expensive plan, a screen capable of 4K etc).

Meanwhile in pirating land:

Pick your desired resolution, want 8/10 bit HDR? You can have that too. Pick your desired format. Downloads quickly, don’t have to worry about network interruptions.

Re: I'm done with Google

#212

Post by sizzle »

VLC might play that .mp4 but honestly it’s hostile UX like this that my parents and family can’t navigate alone or rob us of our time together troubleshooting google apps/Android OS because some goog product org somewhere is doing god knows what to increase engagement metrics in their apps and justify their promotion/bonus to tweak things that break goog apps for end users not using flagship latest-gen Pixel phones.

This is why I switched to iPhone/apple products and never looked back, and I say that as a former Android fanboy who started with the G1 and flashed custom roms and participated in XDA forums for years to make our Android phones make sense to us UX/UI wise.

iOS simply solves 95% of all the issues I had when using Android, while respecting my settings as configured and upholding my privacy. Good riddance Android/Google, never again.

Re: I'm done with Google

#213

Post by bo1024 »

kelnos wrote: post #192
bo1024 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that selling music/movies/ebooks/etc doesn't make financial sense without DRM and control? What about the history of vinyl, CDs, DVDs, Blu-Rays, bandcamp, DRM-free ebooks, GOG games, etc?

To be fair, both DVDs and Blurays have DRM on them. Of course, DVD's DRM has been broken for quite some time. For Bluray, older discs are rippable, but it's a cat-and-mouse game as old keys are revoked and new keys distributed for newer releases. While I agree with you that some creators do believe they can still make a living with DRM-free content, many do not, which includes essentially anything from a major movie…

I doubt it's about what the creators themselves believe or want...

Re: I'm done with Google

#214

Post by Closi »

unity1001 wrote: post #199
JodieBenitez wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even a hardcore pirate like me tried to do the right thing when it comes to music - I got Spotify. This is not the right thing to do. Spotify is peanuts to artists. If you want to do the right thing, buy music at Bandcamp: you get files you can keep forever and artists get a fair share of your money.

> This is not the right thing to do. Spotify is peanuts to artists. If you want to do the right thing, buy music at Bandcamp The right thing to do is to directly subscribe to their Patreon. It not only gets you access to exclusives, behind the scenes and even events, it also crowdfunds the future projects of the artist.

The right thing to do is to identify where the artist lives, then withdraw unmarked and untraceable cash which you post through their mailbox as a 'gift'. This means that you can guarantee all the money goes directly to the artist.

Re: I'm done with Google

#215

Post by cableshaft »

tluyben2 wrote: post #72
22289d wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't pirate for similar reasons. I just like the UX better. I like all these apps on my tv full of content. Until like 2015 pirating was the better UX so I did that. But now it's a pain in the ass relative to what streaming offers. I always thought if they want me to pay, they gotta make it worth it. And they have. So they get my money.

> And they have. So they get my money. Sure, as long as that holds. I like the music services as they have all the weird stuff I listen to. I like the book services as they have all the weird stuff I read. But movies/tvshows are a different ballgame; if i'm watching some series or saw some trailer and I want to see it but it doesn't appear in the netflix/hbo/disney/apple in my country, I am not going to wait or not w…

It's almost completely gone in the US on Netflix also. I've had better luck watching older movies on Youtube 'Free with Ads' service, especially 80s and 90s movies, than I've had on Netflix. And there's no ads if you get Youtube's premium service (I currently don't, but don't mind the ads).

Currently on there is Wrongfully Accused (funny Leslie Nielsen movie), Glengarry Glen Ross, Robocop (1987), Ghost in the Shell, The Mask, License to Drive, The Neverending Story, Tombstone, Leon The Professonal, The Amityville Horror, Over the Top (some Stallone movie), Miracle on 34th Street, Con Air, Edward Scissorhands, Gone Fishin', Look Who's Talking, While You Were Sleeping, The Craft, Red Dawn, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Secret of Nimh, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Mad Max, Das Boot, Little Shop of Horrors, Hackers, Children of the Corn, Death on the Nile (1978 version, remade recently), Delirious, Rock-a-Doodle, The Big Boss (Bruce Lee, 1971), Babes in Toyland, Samson an Delilah (1950), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Seven Year Itch (Marilyn Monroe, 1955) .... okay, I'm just going to stop now, but it keeps going, I'm only a third of the way though the list.

Also it's newer, but one of my favorite movies is currently free with ads on there: Kung Fu Hustle, a hilarious and ridiculous spectacle with excellent choreography.

Only downside is you never know how long they'll stay on there, it doesn't seem to be as long as other services, so you kind of need to check the list often and watch the ones you want to see while they're on there. I think I had a similar comment on here six months ago and the list I had then would have been completely different.

Re: I'm done with Google

#216

Post by Izkata »

Tepix wrote: post #135
friend_and_foe wrote: post #32

I am proud to say I don't use a single google service, and haven't in years. Now, if someone sends me a YouTube link, I watch it (in an invidious instance, of course) and I use some metasearch engines which rely on google to a large degree, hut I don't have a google account, I use no google services, have no google applications installed anywhere. The same applies to Meta and Microsoft as well, and some others. I hav…

I'm sorry, but if you use youtube, you are using Google services. But good on you for avoiding their services, i do the same (however, i still use Google maps regularly for navigation because Apple maps has let me down too often). I also watch youtube. Regarding video game consoles, you could get an older one that has no cloud connectivity. They are cheap and the games are still great.

He mentioned Invidious, which is an alternate frontend to youtube: https://invidious.io/

Basically the same as the search engines he mentioned that rely on google, but he doesn't use google directly.

Re: I'm done with Google

#217

Post by astkaasa »

satvikchoudhary wrote: post #66
yellow_lead wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even a hardcore pirate like me tried to do the right thing when it comes to music - I got Spotify. But when I moved to Taiwan, I tried to switch my payment location to get regional pricing and they refuse to accept my Taiwan debit card. Now I pirate music or use Vanced (YouTube).

Is Vance still working?

check revanced, it works just fine with specific version

Re: I'm done with Google

#218

Post by mrtksn »

rapht wrote: post #58

There's a language issue which has not been tackled by regulators and which is actually the mere definition of what happens when I choose to "buy" or "purchase" something. This is because until recently (by the timescale of "buying things") there were no intangibles to be bought or sold. An intangible is mostly a right to something - in other words, it's paperwork. But some things are both tangible and intangible, i.…

The action taken by the user is still "buying", the confusion comes from legacy when the industry was pretending that you are not buying a song or movie but a cassette or a disk.

See, back in the they when you purchased something physical like a VHS tape, that was useful mental model because it resembled the purchase of bread or tomatoes.

Then people started finding ways to reproduce the contents of these physical objects for re-sell or distribution without a license and the illusion of purchasing physical songs and movies fell apart.

People would argue that piracy is not stealing because the original still remained in its place.

Today we experience the act of purchasing a movie or a song in much purer form. No more charade trying to make it look like as if you are purchasing avocados, you get exactly what you are paying for: the right to enjoy the media in the medium.

People no longer can pretend that they purchased Die Hard 3 and they own the movie and they can do whatever they want with it. The producer(and those who hold the rights) still own the movie, you just pay to enjoy it in the form you paid for and you can't do anything else with it.

You don't even own the right to watch it the way you want, just because you payed for a ticked and watched in the movie theater doesn't give you the right to watch it on iTunes or Netflix. You pay for each medium.

Re: I'm done with Google

#219

Post by Izkata »

halfbrite wrote: post #12

> She has a copy of it I got on google play for her which she can play on her tablet. > So I pirate the movie (please don't arrest me, it's google's fault). Is it pirated if you already own a legally valid license? How about rips of blu-rays you own, which you solely use and do not intend to share? Is that pirating or using your legally owned product on a different medium?

In the US, circumventing DRM includes "avoid" and "bypass", so I'd guess it does violate this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201 (though I wouldn't call it pirating).

Re: I'm done with Google

#220

Post by anonzzzies »

artogahr wrote: post #155
anonzzzies wrote: post #54

We need a z-lib for movies, shows and music. Revive bittorrent (yes, i know it still exists but it simply doesn't have much content; not many people sharing/seeding anything but blockbusters) or, make a better bittorrent.

I wouldn't say "it doesn't have much content". 95% of the time I can find what I look from first try just using 1337x.

I usually can find what I look for, but it doesn't download because there are no seeders. For awful hollywood sequel movies there are 1000s of seeders, but when you look for something that isn't or wasn't a blockbuster (or popular anime), you will find it pretty much impossible to actually download it. I use rtorrent on a server and some things only come in after many months; some things simply never do.

The popular stuff will be available anyway; i'm more worried about the fringe stuff which gets removed (from netflix etc) for reasons of woke-ness etc.

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