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Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

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Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#501

Post by superuser2 »

laughinghan wrote: post #186
edw519 wrote: post #79

I don't know which I feel saddest about: 1. Whether or not this is actually illegal, it is clearly unethical and not in the spirit of good clean business and technology practices we should all be aspire to. 2. That it quickly made it to #1 on Hacker News. 3. That I seem to be one of the few who cares while most others nit on details.

I'll bite. Why do you think this "clearly unethical"? I don't think it's clear at all. Everyone I know pirates movies, TV shows, and music. Everyone I know also jaywalks. I also know people who use drugs illegally, as well as participate in or facilitate underage drinking, and I don't have a problem with any of it. Are these unethical? Someone clearly thought so. Do I care? You know what the truth is, for me, and eve…

You are declaring yourself entitled to other people's creative output. They go to work every day and practice their crafts. You benefit from their work, but refuse to pay the craftsmen.

Car theft is a stupid analogy because that deprives someone of a car.

The better analogy is that an electrician came and rewired your house. (The lighting rig for a single scene is probably thirty times as complex.) You paid for parts and gas, but decided not to pay for the labor listed in the quote you accepted. You've valued his labor at $0, which is fine, but not if you expect him to perform it.

I don't like making distributors rich either. I would love to see a nonprofit HBO-like studio selling online subscriptions. But the market hasn't yet created one capable of producing content I want. Sounds like a brilliant startup opportunity.

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#503

Post by tripzilch »

pygy_ wrote: post #472
pyre wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Selling alcohol to minors is unethical. Do I need to > get into that? Let's. Example: The legal drinking age in Detroit, Michigan, USA is 21 years of age. The legal drinking age in Windsor, Ontario, Canada (right across the river from Detroit) is 19 years old. A 19 year old US citizen drives across the Detroit River and buys a drink at a bar. Is the bar acting unethically? If not, how is it any different (ethically…

The younger you start using an addictive substance, the more likely you are to become addicted. Putting an age limit on drugs use is a matter of public health, and protecting people who are not mature enough to understand the consequences of their acts. Some people take more time than others to reach maturity, so I agree that setting an arbitrary age is not ideal, but it makes some sense.

If it were that simple, a country like the Netherlands which has a legal drinking age of 16 (for ABVfive years later, so significantly less people in the US should suffer alcohol addiction, right?

Incidentally, we don't get to take a driver's license test until we're 18, so that's kind of reversed. Care to guess who has more problems with driving under the influence?

Won't somebody please think of the CHILDREN?!

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#504

Post by pygy_ »

tripzilch wrote: post #503
pygy_ wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The younger you start using an addictive substance, the more likely you are to become addicted. Putting an age limit on drugs use is a matter of public health, and protecting people who are not mature enough to understand the consequences of their acts. Some people take more time than others to reach maturity, so I agree that setting an arbitrary age is not ideal, but it makes some sense.

If it were that simple, a country like the Netherlands which has a legal drinking age of 16 (for ABV five years later, so significantly less people in the US should suffer alcohol addiction, right? Incidentally, we don't get to take a driver's license test until we're 18, so that's kind of reversed. Care to guess who has more problems with driving under the influence? Won't somebody please think of the CHILDREN?!

Your comparison doesn't make any sense. There are other factors, notably cultural, involved. For example, the praise of individualism in the US (which may encourage reckless behavior), and the limited social security net (poverty increases the risk of substance abuse).

When you control for other factors, the pattern I described emerge. See:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1994....

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?volume=160&...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2005....

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1081/JA-120025123

There are more if you care to look for them.

Of course children have to be protected. That's the whole point of education, gradually removing barriers while you teach them (or let them learn) how to get along by themselves. Whether or not the society should have a word on the topic is open for debate. I'm for, to some extent, as you probably guessed.

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#505

Post by enjalot »

david_shaw wrote: post #288
enjalot wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it a 'human right' to make money off of Game of Thrones or Batman Begins? Copyright is a monopoly granted by congress' interpretation of the constitution's directive to promote progress of science and the useful arts. I think it's time to reinterpret.

>Is it a 'human right' to make money off of Game of Thrones or Batman Begins? Is it a right to make money off of Game of Thrones? No. Is it their right to charge for content they've created? In my opinion, yes. I am a huge advocate of open source software. I'm not an advocate of taking other peoples' software and forcing it to be free, against the creators' wishes. Sharing a book, or facts from a library or notes fro…

My point was that copyright is not a matter of rights, it is a matter of business.

If I am going to spend a year of my life developing something I intend to sell, I should make sure it's a good idea not only to make it, but also to try and sell it in a form like a fat client. If I do it anyway and no one buys it, regardless of the reason it was bad business.

Nobody weeps for the carriage makers because we like our cars. No one will weep for the media makers who couldn't adapt to the new market forces.

Treating piracy as anything other than a force of nature will only leave you drowned when the DRM dam breaks. All the examples you cite of being willing to pay content distributors are examples of businesses who have adapted to the new realities of the market.

I don't think businesses should be forced to give away things for free, I just think they don't need artificial monopolies in order to profitably contribute to science and the useful arts.

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#506

Post by rmc »

cabalamat wrote: post #214
rmc wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't buy bottled water for the bottles, otherwise they'd throw away the water, and keep the bottles. Instead they keep/use the water and throw away the bottles. The water is what they pay money for, you can get that for free at home.

> People don't buy bottled water for the bottles, otherwise they'd throw away the water, and keep the bottles. Speak for yourself; I personally have done this.

OK, I'm sure there are counter-examples to just about ever rule. However I think it's accurate to say that the vast majority of the population buy bottled water for the water, not the bottles. My point stands.

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#507

Post by crumblan »

david_shaw wrote: post #499
crumblan wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, the false dichotomy that there are no other options between piracy and purchase. > If sales don't increase, you've worked hard and not been compensated. That's the same thing that would happen if nobody downloaded it for free but only a few people purchased it.

>That's the same thing that would happen if nobody downloaded it for free but only a few people purchased it. Agreed. In that case, I think it would make sense to conclude "there is little to no interest in my app," instead of "people want my app but would rather not pay for it."

Yeah, there's a continuum of

don't want > I'll take it > I'd pay for it

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#508

Post by thenonsequitur »

laughinghan wrote: post #399
dorian-graph wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't feel think something being 'socially acceptable' in a group is a good way to measure if it's good. If the existence or state of things is determined by groupthink in different circumstances the world is in a lot of trouble and doesn't have a strong foundation. We live in a strangely retarded relativistic and selfish world where everything is everyone's and nothing is anyone's. A world with no measuring sticks…

Wow, finally a thoughtful, non-knee-jerk response. Thank you for taking the time to write this. I don't feel think something being 'socially acceptable' in a group is a good way to measure if it's good. I agree with that, I was more trying to say that I don't really choose my actions based on whether I think they're "good" or "bad". In fact, when I chide someone, I tell them what they're doing is "uncool". This made…

I personally agree that copying answers where the copier knows how to do it is a victimless act. But to take the position of devil's advocate here, one could say that there are actually potential victims.

One potential victim is an employer who believes they are hiring someone with objectively-evaluated qualifications. I think this argument is easily shot down; institutional evaluations are not actually objective, and in fact the person doing the copying is actually in a better position to evaluate their abilities than the institution. But, someone else may believe differently on these points than me.

Another potential victim is the person being copied from. They may feel socially pressured to allow someone to copy from them whether they actually want to allow it or not, and they may submit to that social pressure (and this isn't made up -- in certain circles it would be considered a little rude to not allow your friends to copy your answers). But if the institution finds out about it, both parties (copier and copiee) may get in trouble. While this is probably a rare case, it's still true that a person knowingly using that social pressure to their advantage is doing something unethical.

Anyway, I basically agree with you on this point, but it's fair to say that this issue is not as definitively clear-cut as you make it out to be.

Re: Show HN: movies.io — torrent search like it should be

#509

Post by kasbah »

nddrylliog wrote: post #382
geargrinder wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you feel about sharing all the code that you created for this site so we can use it for some projects we might have in mind?

I feel good about it. We'll definitely start open-sourcing code, we'll announce it on the blog (still need to set that up). Open-source rocks.

I second that request. Do you think what you have built so far could be made to work for e-books and publications as well?
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