Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#161

Post by ninth_ant » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 1:56 AM UTC

frompdx wrote: post #7

It's even harder to compete when you don't have the content users want while charging more than ever.

I find it entirely baffling that the top shows on Netflix are lighthearted shows (usually comedies) that go on for many seasons. Friends, Seinfeld, suits, office, Gilmore girls, supernatural

But… Netflix doesn’t make these kinds of shows. They give small orders of episodes to niche shows and cancel them quickly before they have time to gain an audience.

Obviously they know which shows people watch, but why doesn’t that translate into them making those shows at presumably less cost?

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#162

Post by pcchristie » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 1:57 AM UTC

breckenedge wrote: post #114

ta8645 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Netflix had seen themselves strictly as a distribution service, they might have taken an open-to-all, low-margin, high-volume approach, which had a chance to become ubiquitous and unassailable. Basically, they could have been the Cable-over-IP provider for everyone. But it's a lot harder to get there, from here.

They did that, and for a few years their catalog was total crap and getting worse. Then Stranger Things came along.

Did they? I thought pretty early they saw the writing on the wall given the low barrier to entry for a juggernaut like Disney to compete with them, and went hard at their "Originals". I remember an interview with Hastings saying as much, that "in the future we won't have all the content, just the best content."

It would have been bold of them to essentially pull back and try and broker a deal where they accepted lower margins as a mere distributor rather than doing what they did and seek safety with their own library of IP.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#163

Post by NoPedantsThanks » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 1:58 AM UTC

mhss wrote: post #153

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

> Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). I think you overestimate how "easy" piracy is for the average user. Netflix revenue keeps growing (and subscribers), despite the "crackdown" on password sharing that many predicted would cause massive cancellations.

They talk about piracy "services," which is not your normal torrent user presumably. I guess it's Popcorn Time and the like, which makes it somewhat easier for the general populace.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#164

Post by selcuka » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 1:59 AM UTC

mhss wrote: post #153

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

> Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). I think you overestimate how "easy" piracy is for the average user. Netflix revenue keeps growing (and subscribers), despite the "crackdown" on password sharing that many predicted would cause massive cancellations.

> I think you overestimate how "easy" piracy is for the average user. Netflix revenue keeps growing [...]

According to TFA piracy is also growing rapidly, so it's apparently easy enough.

You may be thinking of usenet, torrenting, seedboxes etc. when it comes to piracy, but there are also (ad supported) public web sites where you can watch almost any content, or IPTV providers where you can pay a yearly fee and watch most things streaming providers offer once set up.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#165

Post by Loughla » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 1:59 AM UTC

mhss wrote: post #153

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

> Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). I think you overestimate how "easy" piracy is for the average user. Netflix revenue keeps growing (and subscribers), despite the "crackdown" on password sharing that many predicted would cause massive cancellations.

My parents found free sports online when their team was playing a team that wasn't shown locally.

They're completely inept at technology.

It's very easy these days.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#166

Post by mike_d » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 2:01 AM UTC

mhss wrote: post #153

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

> Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). I think you overestimate how "easy" piracy is for the average user. Netflix revenue keeps growing (and subscribers), despite the "crackdown" on password sharing that many predicted would cause massive cancellations.

> I think you overestimate how "easy" piracy is for the average user.

You overestimate your view of piracy. The average person isn't curating libraries of lossless music collections and carefully re-encoding Anime dubs to match their sound system.

People are Googling for the hundreds of sites that will stream a feed of a DirecTV box somewhere showing an NFL game, or show grandma how to connect to the Plex server their cousin runs.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#167

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 2:02 AM UTC

miki123211 wrote: post #92

What are non-tech-savvy people actually using for piracy these days? Torrents require you to own a PC (there's no way to torrent on a phone or smart TV AFAIK), Usenet requires you to have some tech knowledge, same goes for Plex / Jellyfin. I feel like piracy nowadays is a lot harder for an average Joe than it used to be. People now expect that they can turn on their TV, open an app, enter a title in the search box an…

[deleted]

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#168

Post by jasonwatkinspdx » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 2:04 AM UTC

emporas wrote: post #57

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

Kick.com is banned in Greece as of June. It has some betting streams, not sure if someone bets on the platform, but it got banned anyway for illegal gambling. I don't care personally, just to put it out there. P2P download of files did fall a lot in the last decade, i think a second wave is coming.

Kick isn't really a streaming site, it's a front started by the Stake bitcoin casino after Twitch changed policy to ban streaming bitcoin slots.

Stake had been handing out huge contracts to major streamers to show themselves having fun gambling on Stake, particularly xQc and TrainwreksTV. These streamers would act as if they were betting with their own money, including getting into six figure bets, without being clear they were on a contract that basically made it all upside to them even if they lost millions. The audience for these streamers slants young, and that didn't sit well with Twitch advertisers, hence the change in policy.

Train et all didn't want their golden goose to end, so they worked with Stake to create Kick, with Train as one of the cofounders, and xQc and others pulling their audience over.

One of Kick's selling points to streamers has been to be a wild west as far as copyright and content goes. They quickly took in all the streamers too toxic for other platforms, including people who'd done things like film themselves committing sexual assaults on Twitch. They've encouraged people to restream copyright content like marvel movies, and even porn.

I don't know what the laws are like in Greece, but considering this free for all approach it's not surprising they'd run afowl of regulations somehow. Frankly it's amazing Kick hasn't gotten nailed by some sort of major anti piracy action, but I suppose being based out of the Seychelles complicates that for copyright holders.

In any case, the point is Kick is an aberration. It's way too toxic for mainstream advertisers, so the only thing sustaining it financially is Stake paying people to stream gambling on Stake.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#169

Post by bilalq » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 2:04 AM UTC

zug_zug wrote: post #132

PlutoIsAPlanet wrote: post #9

Streaming became popular because it was easier than piracy and better than TV (watch anywhere, on demand, pickup where you left off etc). Streaming is no longer easier than piracy, why pay for 8 different services and have to waste your time figuring out whats on what when you can just have one service for free, even if its illegal, and have it all under one roof. The services have taken the piss and now they'll get…

I used to try to go 100% online rental (primarily amazon rentals if I didn't want hassle). I figured it was hard to argue a 3.99 rental was any worse than blockbuster. So on vacation I tried to airplay mission impossible from amazon rental to the TV, and the screen just went black for copy-protection. So I refunded my rental and torrented it instead. I don't usually torrent, but sometimes the ecosystems put it square…

Try disabling hardware acceleration in your browser. It'll probably fix the black screen issue.

The situation is still ridiculous though. Streaming is no longer easier than piracy.

Re: Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

#170

Post by angoragoats » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 2:04 AM UTC

ESTheComposer wrote: post #128

RiverCrochet wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If someone spent time and money producing something, no matter how small, and they dictate they want $x for you to own/consume it, then you are stealing if you don't give them $x for it. Not quite. It's not stealing unless they are deprived of the original item (this is not to be confused with the money they think it is worth if they sell it or "sell" it). What is happening is copying, not stealing.

You are depriving them of revenue, it is stealing.

It’s not though:

* It’s definitely not stealing in the legal sense of the term, which requires a party to be deprived of physical property that they own.

* It’s also not in the colloquial sense of the term, because if you call this stealing you’d also have apply the stealing label to blocking ads/trackers on the web, taking advantage of free trials for services without any intent of becoming a subscriber, or countless other activities that could be considered “depriving someone of revenue.”

In the US, we do in fact have a legal term for the crime at play here — but the term is copyright infringement, not “stealing” or “IP theft” or whatever other stupid label the content cartels want to apply to it.