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Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#231

Post by jesuscript »

zug_zug wrote: post #141

I disagree that we're at peak monetization (see what the price of a premium cable package used to be) Since you mention Spotify I'm super happy with it. It's basically everything I ever wanted consistently. Can recommend new music better than any person I know, and I can feed it any song that I and somebody else like as a radio station and get a pretty decent list of songs we both don't mind. Granted I don't listen t…

It can’t just be a me thing because when piracy showed up, it became a everyone thing. For it to return, it would return for all of us at the same time. The monetized ecosystems will metastasize to a point where everyone will go ‘the fuck? I think not’.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#232

Post by scarface74 »

shadowgovt wrote: post #58
terabytest wrote: post #10

I'm not going to speak about my personal practices, but I find the current landscape of streaming services unusable and unsustainable from a customer perspective. I share a Netflix and Prime account with my parents, and support for that is soon going to end. I don't feel like either of those services provide enough value to me to consider paying for them entirely by myself. The content is mediocre at best, finding an…

Add to that the fact that there's this disquieting connection between the IP ownership and the video tech. Couple services with plenty of good content managed to put together teams to build their mobile / web apps that can barely code their ways out of a paper bag (in the non-trivial space of high-capacity video streaming, nonetheless). It's enough to make me yell "Just give me the damn file and I'll play it myself."

Video tech for streaming is more or less off the shelf from cloud providers (disclaimer: I work for one).

As far as I know, the only two companies that have their own video streaming expertise of any note are Netflix and Disney (after the BAMTech acquisition).

Any other company with sufficient funding can outsource it.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#233

Post by cryptonym »

bobdvb wrote: post #171

I'll stand out here, because I work for a major sports streaming service. So let me be heard about live streaming at least: 1) Content needs to get paid for, if you're watching an illegally restreamed match then you're not rewarding people like me for the hard work we've done to get that game to you. It's not just faceless corporations, we're people and it's really hard to make a profit in the streaming world, so eve…

It's not about bad people not willing to pay, it's about your employer or their partners trying to milk consumer with different platforms and artificial restrictions. When you push too far, people will try alternatives ways (potentially illegal) or stop watching.

Sure, you will always find some people who will never pay. Focusing your business on this audience doesn't sound smart.

Just design something convenient and most people will be happy to pay. Basically, I wouldn't blame people for the current streaming landscape.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#234

Post by FriedrichN »

ranting-moth wrote: post #215

Regarding youtube and ads, I feel like they've issued an ultimatum. Either you pay us or you effectively can't use the service. It's entirely within their rights, it's their business. Personally I question that tactic since I'd think it drives people away. The size of youtube is worth a lot. I'm sure it's working temporarily at least and some staff are getting massive bonuses for driving up revenue. But does youtube'…

I use uBlock Origin and I never see YouTube ads.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#235

Post by drivingmenuts »

I’m far less inclined than I used to be. I’ve reached the equilibrium of not being interested in what I can’t afford or don’t need. I have two streaming services and I don’t need any commercial software at the moment, and I limit my software exploration to what’s freely available. I’m kinda over the whole piracy, information-wants-to-be-free thing.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#236

Post by scarface74 »

Sholmesy wrote: post #180

The incentives are misaligned. Netflix, Amazon, Disney et al, aren't interested in showing me what I want to watch for a purchase price, they are after my attention, and to divert me to their most profitable revenue stream (Netflix in house creations etc). My attention is not for sale, I'll buy content if it is sold in a manner that is attractive to me in a consumer friendly model, Louis CK selling his standup specia…

Of course your attention is for sale. Even now, you are posting to a site whose entire purpose for existing is to advertise YC funded companies.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#237

Post by ectopod »

yardie wrote: post #133
100011_100001 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are missing an important thing. Netflix allowed a huge library of DVDs to be rented. You could have 3-4 DVDs on rotation for a rather cheap price. This happened when Blockbuster would charge you $5 per movie, and Netflix would charge $10.99 for unlimited DVDs, but you could only have 3 DVDs checked out. That's why Netflix was huge and killed Video Store rentals.

BTW, this is still the case. https://dvd.netflix.com/ Netflix has never dropped their DVD service even though they wanted to many times. There are still places in the US where broadband is unavailable. Also, due to first sale they don't have same license restrictions as they would on streaming. Once they buy the disc they can rent it as many times they want for as long as they want. I've considered re-adding the DVD…

In the UK second hand DVDs are very cheap on eBay. A classic film might cost $2.50. Action trash is buy one get one free for $2. Both prices include postage.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#238

Post by Sholmesy »

Freebytes wrote: post #196
Sholmesy wrote: post #180

The incentives are misaligned. Netflix, Amazon, Disney et al, aren't interested in showing me what I want to watch for a purchase price, they are after my attention, and to divert me to their most profitable revenue stream (Netflix in house creations etc). My attention is not for sale, I'll buy content if it is sold in a manner that is attractive to me in a consumer friendly model, Louis CK selling his standup specia…

They also have a tendency to edit, remove episodes, etc. And it does not even need to be for political correctness either. It could be licensing rights to music in shows. They will sometimes edit a show to remove the music or remove the episode altogether. (This happened with Scrubs.) They will remove content that involves people talking about suicide. They will remove content that is offensive. They have even gone b…

Peep Show, 30 Rock, Community. Modern classics, editing out "offensive" material, that was actually making a point about how offensive it is.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#239

Post by ct0 »

jesuscript wrote: post #12
chewmieser wrote: post #6

I pirated a lot when I was younger and couldn't afford it. It's a headache I don't need anymore - worrying about VPNs or seedboxes, torrent sites moving to different domains or being shut down, maintaining ratios, letters from your ISP... Nowadays entertainment is quite accessible through subscriptions and I just wait for decent sales on the games I want to play.

That’s one of the reasons I kind of gave up on, but it is 2023. I wonder how streamlined piracy has gotten.

https://wiki.servarr.com/
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