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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

#931

Post by int_19h »

corethree wrote: post #918
smsm42 wrote: post #917

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't need anything like that, including paying any attention to an opinion of an internet ignoramus about what I am or am not. You can shove your moralization where the sun does not shine until you hear it click. I pointed out the deficiencies in your rants already, so I am done, and you can keep throwing names around as much as you want, nobody really cares.

Doesn't change a thing. Convenience doesn't matter. Owning a subscription and then subsequently pirating an illegal version (which I'm positive it's not all you're doing) doesn't mean fuck all. I own it, I want you to obtain said media through one venue. That's my fucking right. Even if that venue makes you jump through 30 hoops doesn't mean shit. You don't jump through the hoops your a fucking thief. All you need to…

> That's my fucking right.

Says who?

There's no natural right to copyright. It's explicitly an artificial monopoly on content.

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

#932

Post by int_19h »

heavyset_go wrote: post #123
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 think the cable TV model was a mature business model for extracting the most amount of value possible from paying viewers before they choose to leave. Every streaming service will converge to what cable TV is like: paid channels, maximum amount of ads, additional premium content, attempts at lock-in, exclusive licensing of content, etc. Not adopting the cable business model is leaving billions of dollars on the tab…

> maximum amount of ads, additional premium content, attempts at lock-in, exclusive licensing of content, etc.

To be fair, this is describing oligopolic capitalism in general; streaming services is just where it's most visibly on display for the general public. But the same modus operandi is pervasive throughout the economy: attract customers with good deals initially while maximizing lock-in by all means at your disposal, then start fleecing them. There's simply no economic incentive not to do this, and ethics don't even enter into the equation at the scale those companies operate.

In a more diverse market, competition provides some, albeit limited, check on all this, but very aggressive anti-monopoly regulation is required to keep the market diverse enough for that. I don't just mean breaking up actual monopolies, but even any semblance of market dominance must be mercilessly crushed to maintain competitiveness. Any form of "laissez faire" in the presence of private property inevitably leads to oligopolies.

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

#933

Post by int_19h »

WWLink wrote: post #270
feoren wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're missing a 4th group: people who would enjoy watching content X, but simply won't bother if it's too annoying. The alternative isn't piracy, it's just doing something else with your time. There's not that many shows or movies that I care enough about to keep one subscription open for it. I had an HBO subscription for Game of Thrones, but I also enjoyed Succession, Last Week Tonight, and some other random stuff.…

I support your move, it's better than piracy. The problem with piracy is if you become a fan of a series and gossip with your friends about it, now you're marketing that company's crappy service. It's a weird way to go about things.

You're not marketing the company service if you explicitly say that you pirated X, and offer help to anyone who would like to do the same.

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

#934

Post by int_19h »

josephg wrote: post #447
martindbp wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The services have taken the piss and now they'll get the repercussions of it. Whose fault is it really that all content is not available on a single service? It's nobody's fault, it was inevitable given how things work. How could you "fix" it? You'd need legislation saying that all content must be made available for licensing at the same price for every service. But that's not enough, because why would HBO sell the…

There was a wonderful point made by Gabe Newell a few years ago on this. He said the only thing you need to do to “beat piracy” is provide a better service than piracy offers. And that’s pretty easy, for all manner of reasons. I thought he was way too optimistic at the time - but here I am years later with hundreds of games in my steam library. I haven’t pirated a video game in years. I think Gabe’s rule is like grav…

There is a very simple thing that I would personally want that would make piracy not worth the bother: disentangle the content and the platforms.

I don't want to have a dozen different apps with different (but equally crappy) UX, and I don't want to track which megacorp owns the license to my favorite movie to know what subscription I need this month to have access to it. I want to go to a single marketplace (like e.g. Steam), pick the titles I actually care about, and have access to it. I don't want to care who gets that money, and the platform and the rights owners can and should figure this out between themselves. If prices for that particular piece of content change next months because it changed owners, let me know and approve the exact amount by which my combined subscription will change next month.

Note that this doesn't imply that there should be just one marketplace. Let there be many indepedent ones, all participating in the same system that routes the money from consumers to rights owners, and providing the same catalog and pricing, but different UX etc.

But that would kill lock-in. And lock-in is how they can squeeze the most out of us. So it won't happen, and piracy it is.

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

#935

Post by int_19h »

cableshaft wrote: post #800
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't care about multiple services, they really care about the hassle. Cable TV sort of already solved this with how they handle movie packages like HBO or Starz. You pay your cable company a little more and you can watch those channels (or stream them). No need to worry about logins, accounts, separate apps/interfaces, etc.

Digital sort of has this, at least on Amazon. I can watch Paramount or Starz or HBO Max content via Amazon Prime if I have a subscription to them, for example.

But not Disney or Netflix or ...

And so many things are platform-exclusive these days.

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

#936

Post by int_19h »

Mindwipe wrote: post #887
Aeolun wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotify can just raise prices by 50% and make money? If they tell me the choice is between Spotify disappearing and me paying more, the choice is extremely easy.

If Spotify raises prices they have to pay the vast majority of that out to labels still, it's all percentage models. And they likely lose subscribers to they literally get poorer. Spotify knows it's only way out is exclusive content, hence the Rogan deal et al.

Image we actually had a law like that.

Then Spotify would have to charge whatever they need to charge to remain profitable without exclusive content. And the labels would have to charge Spotify whatever they need to charge for Spotify to exist, because otherwise they wouldn't have anywhere to sell their content.

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

#937

Post by int_19h »

lolinder wrote: post #88
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.

This is "Hacker" news for a bunch of independent definitions of "Hacker", and for most of us the definition isn't "breaks into computer systems and leaks stuff on the internet". For myself, when I think of the hacker ethos I think of Stallman and the GPL, which is explicitly designed around the idea that information can be ethically sold as long as you're actually selling it [0]. It's free as in freedom, not free as…

I distinctly recall Stallman himself saying that copyleft wouldn't really be necessary if copyright weren't a thing.

In any case, hacking as a concept predates Stallman and FSF - indeed, they're the product of that mindset, not its originators. And the original hackers didn't care about copyright - just look at the early history of Unix.

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

#938

Post by int_19h »

edmundsauto wrote: post #861
TeMPOraL wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No ads used to be the main selling point of cable , decades ago, which goes to show that advertising is a cancer and will thoroughly corrupt and consume every communication medium over time.

As far back as I can remember (mid 80s) cable always had ads. The premium channels like HBO did not, but most channels did. Did you mean premium channels, or was there a time in the early 80s when >50% of channels carried by your provider didn't have ads?

Mid-80s is exactly when that became to change.

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/26/arts/will-cable-tv-be-inv...

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

#939

Post by int_19h »

Moldoteck wrote: post #568
api wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

businesses don't need to be just profitable, they need growth and it can be achieved by increasing nr of users, or prices, or some sort of upselling. As result prices will always increase as much as possible to keep most users but grow the profit

They want growth. They don't need growth.

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

#940

Post by sersi »

spike021 wrote: post #348
sersi wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least for now, I'm still sharing netflix and amazon prime video with my parent who live in a different country 10,000 miles away. The day I get a message stopping me from doing that is the day I cancel my subscriptions.

I haven't been so lucky with Netflix. Relatives who live in other cities have gotten a message that they can't use mine unless I do the thing to add a new user for $7.99 or however much it is. Occasionally it works for them but most times it does not.

I wonder if it depends on countries. I'm based in Asia my parents are in Europe.
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