Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again? • Hacker News Board

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

#431

Post by wikfwikf » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:34 PM UTC

ajb wrote: post #275

lordswork wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The problem with that is that legally, the contract to pay a provider, and the instruction to your credit-card company to pay a recurring amount, are two separate things. Some companies will send threatening letters, dept collectors etc after you if you just cancel the CC instruction. It's different on the apple store, where Apple forced providers to agree that a subscription could be unilaterally cancelled via the s…

This would be annoying for people whose credit card just happened to expire and who then have to deal with not having the service for a period, re-signing up, losing loyalty bonuses, etc.

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

#432

Post by petodo » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

Again? I've never stopped pirating in last almost 30 years. Just moved from BBS and direct sharing/exchange through DC++/Napster via DDL filehostings like Napster/Mega/etc. to torrent in the end, but stil ocassionaly use DDL (Mega/Uptobox). I remember paying around 2008 maybe for Rapidshare for few months to avoid download limits and then maybe in 2018-2019 I paid for hacked Netflix account for like 5USD for year which seemed reasonable price, but anyway end up pirating everything instead watching Netflix, which I used entirely to show my kids Peppa pig and nothing else, the app experience and content was worse than my pirating experience (I can search via search plugins within qbit and I check new releases at YTS/xREL/Pahe/RlsBB).

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

#433

Post by barkerja » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

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…

> I need a subscription to this obscure random service and then also pay a rental fee on top to even get to watch it

That's not true. There are a number of services/products you can simply purchase or rent content without an additional subscription fee.

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

#434

Post by freedomben » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:35 PM UTC

patentatt wrote: post #322

sidewndr46 wrote: post #18

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…

I dropped Prime for the first time in many years just last month. 2-day shipping is pretty much standard now at Target and Walmart, there was nothing terribly compelling on Prime Video, and I never even used any other services. Why again have I been shoveling ~$12/month in perpetuity to Amazon?

Prime shipping for me is now a week or two! It's not uncommon to wait 12 days for an order that's Prime from the Amazon warehouse to arrive at my house, and I don't exactly live in a super rural area. It's ludicrous IMHO to pay for prime now when we barely use prime video and super saver shipping wouldn't take much longer than prime.

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

#435

Post by Mezzie » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:36 PM UTC

sct202 wrote: post #304

politelemon wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worst part for me is that even libraries, who want to promote openness and reading, are perfectly comfortable with delivering books using Adobe's horrible DRM delivery solution.

Libraries have to play in the rules the publishers give them or else they get cut off from the supply of ebooks. They already have to pay more for the ebooks that expire after a certain number of loans.

Yeah, it's a major misconception to state that they're happy about it. Talk to librarians after hours and they will rant. (And most of us have personal DRM stripped libraries).

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

#436

Post by LiquidInsect » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:37 PM UTC

tnel77 wrote: post #407

FullMetalBitch wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how frecuently movies (and third party shows) disappear from one platform to appear in other that seems hellish. It's easier to pirate stuff.

It depends on the movie. Friends might drop from Netflix, but there’s a lot of content being made that’s wholly owned by the streaming service itself that will stick around forever. Especially with Disney.

HBO is proving that to not necessarily be the case.

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

#437

Post by tmtvl » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:37 PM UTC

Piracy always seems kinda stupid to me. If you don't want to put in the effort to get some content legit, just don't consume it. If you do want to consume some content, then put in the effort to do it legitimately.

Like if Spotify is too much of a bother, just don't listen to it. Go to Bandcamp or 7Digital or whatever and buy whatever you're into. "Oh, but they don't have this one album I want," is crap. If you really wanted it you'd jump through the hoops. Wanting it badly enough that you can't settle for anything else but not so bad that you don't want to put in the effort is just you making excuses.

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

#438

Post by dml2135 » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:37 PM UTC

sleepybrett wrote: post #373

Freebytes wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This happens in physical media release as well, mostly i've seen music replaced with cheaper licensed music, I think the most recent physical releases of 'Community' still contain the episode that includes the 'Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' episode, that has been removed from netflix due to the use of Blackface (One character arrives at the game in blackface (actually jet black with a white wig) because his characte…

This famously happened to Daria. I'm not sure if a version with the original soundtrack even exists anymore.

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

#439

Post by Mezzie » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

sleepybrett wrote: post #373

Freebytes wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This happens in physical media release as well, mostly i've seen music replaced with cheaper licensed music, I think the most recent physical releases of 'Community' still contain the episode that includes the 'Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' episode, that has been removed from netflix due to the use of Blackface (One character arrives at the game in blackface (actually jet black with a white wig) because his characte…

> mostly i've seen music replaced with cheaper licensed music

Which completely changes the vibe of some shows. Daria needs the 90s music, I'm sorry.

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

#440

Post by subpixel » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 4:38 PM UTC

FullMetalBitch wrote: post #314

SamuelAdams wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My household has one streaming service at a time. We have lists (shared reminder lists in iOS) that we make for whenever a friend mentions a good movie - it goes on the Apple TV list, or Disney plus list, etc. then once enough films build up (can take 2-6 months sometimes) we purchase a subscription and watch all those shows for one month.

Considering how frecuently movies (and third party shows) disappear from one platform to appear in other that seems hellish. It's easier to pirate stuff.

My experience is that the learning curve for piracy has increased quite a bit. IIUC you need some private tracker to reliably source things, something that takes time and connections most people don't have.

Despite being strongly motivated to find and watch things that are inexplicably unavailable to me (especially new foreign cinema) I usually just wait, and then sign up for a trial of whatever service has it a year or more after I read the review.