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Netflix: Piracy is difficult to compete against and growing rapidly

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

#581

Post by fragmede »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #562
sharkjacobs wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the services have taken the piss? Which services do you mean? Netflix? Or do you mean the other 7 services, which didn’t exist back then. There was a brief window of time when streaming was able to compete with piracy (free) and it’s when there was just one streaming service. Netflix was able to have a robust (if not comprehensive) catalogue (because it had no competitors), and was dedicated to user experience (bec…

Aren't they raking in millions or billions now? Not enough money to pay for the deals now? What is stopping them? Also their browser and software limitations are of their own making. Do away with those, and I might even consider a subscription. Obviously I will not, if they continue to discriminate against me.

https://techland.time.com/2011/12/01/hbo-boss-to-netflix-you...

HBO Boss to Netflix: You’ll Never Get Our Shows (2011)

Money can't buy everything.

though apparently 2023 called to say that's no longer true. HBO is exploring licensing their content to Netflix.

https://www.vulture.com/2023/07/hbo-tv-shows-netflix-wbd-lic...

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

#582

Post by JodieBenitez »

ausbah wrote: post #491
JodieBenitez wrote: post #411

Content fragmentation, platform fragmentation, geo-locking, DRMs, "woke" censorship and revisionism... no wonder piracy is on the rise, again. At some point I had like 3 different paying streaming services, and they still failed to provide enough content of interest. All canceled now. The dollar bin dvds at my local thrift store is a much better offer... this and piratebay.

>"woke" censorship and revisionism you being the only comment in the whole thread giving this as a reason makes me think this might not really be a reason

Call it what you want, but I'm not gonna pay for content that is revised/censored to fit whatever current trend. I'm old enough that I've seen Darryl Hannah's butt on the silver screen as a youngster from the movie Splash and I won't pay to be lectured either. I wish media corps would consider their content like art works as much as entertainment and distribute them as is, not butchered. That includes "enhancements" like new dubbing and colors.

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

#583

Post by fragmede »

ihsw wrote: post #147
api wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are no longer under zero interest rates. Things have to actually be profitable.

No subscriber told streaming services that they needed to drop literal billions of dollars on content production. I do not want to subsidize their poor decision making. This is why streaming is so expensive.

They did say that, when they decided that what is playing is actually important to them, so if I can't get my Star Trek on my Netflix, I'm not going to pay for Netflix, it means that everyone has to make their own, exclusive content.

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

#584

Post by crashingintoyou »

izacus wrote: post #495
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…

Yeah, also pirated content has: - 4K HDR video, not whatever the heck the buggy client delivers. - Atmos/TrueHD audio track that actually works, not whatever the broken app delivers (I'm looking at you Sky and rest of the ilk that still deliver HBO content with stereo). - Subtitles for ALL the languages, not just one or two. And those languages don't disappear when I go on a vacation, leaving me stuck with german aud…

> (Netflix, Spotify and YouTube all blessed me with "all your downloaded content is gone" experience on long flights).

I've definitely had Netflix region-lock most of my content when I made the mistake of briefly switching on wifi to find my connecting gate at some airport. Apparently even though the content was available at my starting point and at my destination that didn't apply to the connecting country.

Have yet to hit that with Youtube, and I really hate Spotify so avoid using it.

> - Doesn't randomly disappear after 6 months when I started watching the series because some license expired.

A few days back Prime lost both of the two series that I was in the middle of watching at the start of February. Super-annoying!

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

#585

Post by walteweiss »

snvzz wrote: post #384
xpl wrote: post #341

Piracy isn't difficult to compete against. You just need to provide a service at least as usable as piracy. I won't mind paying a couple of bucks, I just need a usable service which: 1. Doesn't restrict what content I can watch from which country and doesn't prevent me from using VPN. This is outright ridiculous and I deeply hate streaming services just for that. 2. Has all the content from multiple studios, not just…

3. lets me watch 4k streams on my haiku, aros, openbsd systems. Artificial DRM-based restrictions ultimately mean not getting the quality you pay for. Netflix specifically becomes 720p garbage. But I can just rely on less official sources. In this case I get a DRM-free, very high quality file that plays everywhere, forever.

What an interesting choice of platforms! How / where do you use them? Why them specifically?

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

#586

Post by Anon4Now »

prawn wrote: post #207
wackget wrote: post #31

I have one point which I really feel exemplifies the entire Netflix experience: before you sign up, they do not give you a list of what's available to watch. Seriously, check out their website. It's basically a landing page which says "give us your money". The prices aren't even displayed. There is no list of shows, save for a few measly screenshots of featured/well-known titles. There is a search box which lets you…

If you search "dune streaming" in Australia, the top result (besides Google's little bits) is Netflix with the page title "Watch Dune". If you visit that page as a subscriber, it doesn't say they don't have it. It just has the metadata and a "Remind me" button. If you visit in incognito, you get a 'not found' error. Maybe they have it for another locale. Maybe they used to have it. Maybe they will have it in the futu…

You could try using Yandex instead of Google. They're more than happy to list free options on the first page of results.

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

#587

Post by crashingintoyou »

machomaster wrote: post #571
rekoil wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally find that Spotifys offline content has worked reliably over the years. You just gotta remember that when you get a new device you have to go to library and click download and then leave Spotify open for a few hours. Spotify is also a great example of how to beat piracy. I haven't downloaded an mp3 file since I got a Spotify Premium account in 2007. OK that's probably a slight overstatement, but it's near…

One of Spotify's biggest problems is their terrible UI, lacking even the basic functionality. I don't understand how they haven't been able do the bare minimum for 15 years now.

I've been hoping to Spotify to go out of business since they went and took Rogan's podcast and a few others as Spotify-exclusive. Not always a Rogan fan, but he's occasionally had some interesting guests. However the Spotify experience was so bad I abandoned podcasts that required me to use their client.

(Suppose I should think of dialing back my Spotify hate a little now that apparently in the renewal they're no longer keeping Rogan as Spotify-exclusive)

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

#588

Post by Robin_Message »

rrr_oh_man wrote: post #572
machomaster wrote: post #571

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of Spotify's biggest problems is their terrible UI, lacking even the basic functionality. I don't understand how they haven't been able do the bare minimum for 15 years now.

Like what?

My three biggest pet peeves are:

- You can't turn your queue into a playlist (and you can't see previous queue as part of the queue, only as limited history.)

- Clicking a song or album sometimes clears your queue and starts playing that instead (I know there is a logic to it, but a mistake or mis-click is easy).

- There is no shortcut to add to queue, just long press then find the menu item.

It's possible everyone else is only listening to albums or curating playlists then playing them, but I like to pick things as I go like a jukebox and it sucks at it.

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

#589

Post by superhuzza »

mgoetzke wrote: post #539
rekoil wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally find that Spotifys offline content has worked reliably over the years. You just gotta remember that when you get a new device you have to go to library and click download and then leave Spotify open for a few hours. Spotify is also a great example of how to beat piracy. I haven't downloaded an mp3 file since I got a Spotify Premium account in 2007. OK that's probably a slight overstatement, but it's near…

Apple Music and Youtube Music both suffer from the issue of vanishing content. I have playlist where a growing percentage of songs are grayed out, not available, while they do exist in the store, just as part of a different album now. Very frustrating. Does Spotify do that ?

It does indeed happen. There seems to be a few different types of it. Sometimes a whole band will just disappear off the platform - chalk it up to contractual disagreement. Sometimes a particular album will not be available on Spotify, but other albums from the same band will be - likely some issue with the label that produced the album. Finally, sometimes the particular version of the song you like (e.g. a certain live version, acoustic version, whatever) will disappear but others will remain (e.g. studio version).

However, it really doesn't happen that often. I probably have a few thousand songs save on Spotify and perhaps a dozen have been taken off after many years of using the platform.

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

#590

Post by kalleboo »

echelon wrote: post #206
kylebenzle wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is HACKER news, our central ethos is (should be) all information wants to be free. Sad to see the desire to pay for content is getting upvoted.

> all information wants to be free Including your personal information, browsing habits, purchase history, genome, genetic disorders, medical history, sexual partners, kinks, embarrassing photos and videos, moments of social faux pas, biggest fears, darkest secrets, cheating, illegal behaviors, personal psychiatrist notes, privileged lawyer information, passwords, private keys, bitcoin keys, financial statements, tax…

Yes, going by how easily that stuff all ends us being leaked, it very much appears like that information is desperate to be free. Keeping it tied down is difficult work.
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