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

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261–270 of 641 posts

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

#261

As I've gotten older, I think my morals have gotten more defined. I no longer think that piracy is acceptable. Someone spends time and money to produce something, and I think they get the right to sell it however they like. My choice, of course, is to pay for the content, or just not to consume it. I don't believe I have an inherent right to consume any content I want for free. The counter argument is usually that a…

Regarding your last paragraph, could you expand a bit on why you believe that copying creative content does indeed remove something from the author? I guess the usual argument is that a copy of something cannot, by definition be theft. The author still has the object in question. Sometimes people counter by saying that a potential sale has been lost, but you can’t steal something that you didn’t have in the first pla…

Sure! These are my opinions of course.

If I spend a lot of time, effort, or money creating something, I may have plans to try to make money on it. If many people copy it for free, they may not be stealing as physical object from me, but they are removing my ability to generate revenue from them based off of my time, effort, or money.

And of course, taking it to the extreme, people simply will stop creating works. Or, some folks may not be able to afford to create works.

I'm well aware that most here won't agree with me, but I think it's on the creator to be able to determine what they want to do with their creations, and that it's not ok for me to arbitrarily tell them that their work is completely worthless, except I really really want to utilize it.

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

#262

As I've gotten older, I think my morals have gotten more defined. I no longer think that piracy is acceptable. Someone spends time and money to produce something, and I think they get the right to sell it however they like. My choice, of course, is to pay for the content, or just not to consume it. I don't believe I have an inherent right to consume any content I want for free. The counter argument is usually that a…

That’s interesting, because as I’ve gotten older, I don’t think piracy is good or bad (or in general, my taste for amorality is much more refined), just a strategic counter attack on an opposing force that is just as fluid in its tactics. We approached a middle ground of pricing and accessibility, but it only lasted so long. The other side over monetized, so the consumer has to counter attack and stop paying. It’s a…

I don't think that someone else acting immorally gives me the license to also act against my morals, but that's just me.

If I think that Amazon is being unfair about how they make Rings of Power available, that's totally fine, I just don't consume it.

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

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are correct, obviously. > I still want to participate in the collective modern culture ... so somethings got to give. Same comment applies to this forum. I want to participate in discussions on HN, and therefore I am subject to the occasional job ad from YC companies. It's not perfect, but it's a bit facetious to compare that to the attention grabbing of Youtube/Amazon, etc who will intentionally curtail my effor…

It is very much a dark pattern that “continue watching” isn’t in the first row on the streaming services and “my list” isn’t the second row.

I agree.

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

#265
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Prime account, but I'll soon be cancelling it I feel. The same products can had on eBay for less money with no shipping charges added. Prime video is quite unique, but I'm very much past them putting pre-roll ads on the content I want to watch. It's universally an advert for their own craptastic, homegrown version of an existing well-defined format. If I was interested in watching Law & Order I can start fro…

> The same products can had on eBay for less money with no shipping charges added. eBay sellers also tend to ship promptly, which used to be one of the main reasons to use Amazon/Prime. The latter's shipping speeds have increased by orders of magnitude in some parts of the country over the last couple years. It's not uncommon these days for a Prime order to sit in limbo for 3-4 days before being shipped, while the sa…

Prime delivery was a once a week thing in a remote town in Utah several years ago. On the other hand, my parents live in a rural area in the midwest and frequently get packages next day or two day. I'm guessing the difference is down to distribution centers.

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

#266

I've tested recently a very "refined" ipTV service that for the price of a single "mainstream" subscription "aggregates" all the newest content of all services + TV + Non Subscription services Movies, they provide simple to use apps for all Smart TV platforms, OS and phones, great user experience, 1 single account and app for everything. Clearly all this is illegal but in a way, removes the direct legal risk of downl…

Refined like „elegant“?

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

#267

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…

I’ve been a Spotify premium customer for years. For music discovery, they’re incredible. But I really hate two things about Spotify: 1. Sometimes music I have in playlists disappears, for licensing reasons. I understand the reasoning but it makes me irrationally angry 2. There’s still no way to remove playlists from the home screen. No, spotify, I still don’t want to listen to your Dad Jokes podcast. I feel like some…

I’ve been making playlist for years, and I’ve noticed Spotify mangle songs on some of the older ones. Like one of my earliest playlist now contains a few tracks of super obscure jazz from the 40s that I’m pretty sure I never added. What they replaced I’ll never know.

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

#268
post #202
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. I do the same thing, and the key is to cancel the subscription immediately upon signing up. You keep the one month you've already paid for, and don't need to worry about recurring cost.

But that's literally (literally 'literally', not an annoying turn of phrase) a monthly 'chore' to sign up for (and cancel) the next one.

I recently forgot to cancel a one month free trial for a HTC Vive marketplace (yes, even they got some bullshit monthly sub going), and they locked me into a year long commitment.

I’ve turned very sour to these monthly renewals and accounts I can’t keep track of anymore.

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

#269
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this sounds economical but also a major chore

Auto-expiring temporary credit card numbers can help automate cancellations after N months, but figuring what shows are on what services and signing up for them as needed is still a major chore.

Do you have more details? I found that in my case the credit card provider has ways to continue paying for the subscription through the magic of recurring charges that is very difficult to stop (survives credit card cancelation/number changes).

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

#270
post #216

Let me share my perspective on piracy as a citizen of Russian Federation who don't think about relocation. I was a youtube/Spotify/last.fm/[smth other I don't remember] subscriber before 2022. Actually it was kind of pride in younger population in Russia for games: "I pay for all games I like". My son, my friends has hundreds of games bought on Steam. That was a big step actually. How sanctions worked? For me: - yout…

I get the financial thing

but it's a bit stupid to cut off a country from shows. This is lost soft power, and gives more space for Putin's shows.

Russia no longer being able to watch shows demonstrates what 'content' is now about : 'content' that consumers pay for. They're no longer about meaning, meant to be provocative, influential, spark a discussion, or anything. They are meant to be sold, not actually viewed.

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