Popcorn Time is back • Hacker News Board

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#111

Post by habitue » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:14 PM UTC

dspillett wrote: post #102

hnarn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you were thrown off because you failed to see the difference between simply copying copyrighted content without permission (filesharing), and copying something and claiming that you in fact created it yourself, explicitly (I made this!) or implicitly, by not attributing the original author (plagiarism).

There is no difference. The content producer worked on the content and wants what they want in exchange for it (indirectly for the effort): money. The ripper worked on ripping the content and wants what they want for it (indirectly for the effort): recognition. One of the usual complains was their "internal rips" being posted elsewhere even when posted without any attribution being removed (or at least with no claim…

There is a difference. When movies are copied, nobody takes the credits out and adds their name into them. We're talking about attribution vs. copyright. They're completely separate issues, and it trips people up every time something like this gets posted.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#112

Post by computer » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:20 PM UTC

spaznode wrote: post #110

Hey wait, http://www.time4popcorn.eu/ app compared to one referenced in this article is much much more functionally complete for what you see right now today. Like tv series / playback torrent network seems to always work immediately. The get-popcorn app as it is now provides none of it. So "blah blah blah" about all the promises and project mission. If you just want to have some f-in popcorn time enjoyment. If get-p…

Your time4popcorn runs code with full access to your computer directly from a server controlled by unnamed individuals who are acting in completely mysterious ways. I.e. on every load of the app, it downloads code from a server controlled by the time4popcorn guys, and then executes it locally with access to your entire system.

I would never trust such an app.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#113

Post by habitue » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:22 PM UTC

tzs wrote: post #59

ekianjo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which exists solely to facilitate piracy. Let's not use the words the big majors wants people to use. The right wording is copyright infringement and that's it.

If you are a plaintiff writing a complaint, an interested party writing an amicus brief, a legal scholar writing a law review article, and so on, then indeed the right wording is copyright infringement and arguably "that's it". If you are speaking outside of a formal legal context, than it most certainly is not the case that "that's it". In ordinary English, we overload and generalize many criminal terms, such as "pi…

He's making a point to raise awareness of a propaganda term that's made it into the common lexicon, and saying its use should be discontinued when discussing copyright infringement. He's expressing a prescriptive statement, and you're replying with a descriptive statement.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#114

Post by spaznode » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:25 PM UTC

computer wrote: post #112

spaznode wrote: post #110

Hey wait, http://www.time4popcorn.eu/ app compared to one referenced in this article is much much more functionally complete for what you see right now today. Like tv series / playback torrent network seems to always work immediately. The get-popcorn app as it is now provides none of it. So "blah blah blah" about all the promises and project mission. If you just want to have some f-in popcorn time enjoyment. If get-p…

Your time4popcorn runs code with full access to your computer directly from a server controlled by unnamed individuals who are acting in completely mysterious ways. I.e. on every load of the app, it downloads code from a server controlled by the time4popcorn guys, and then executes it locally with access to your entire system. I would never trust such an app.

Ohhh ..uhhh shit. Well, good point then. Glad I asked. =/

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#115

Post by gnopgnip » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:42 PM UTC

exelius wrote: post #88

JonLim wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They've definitely been baking advertisements into movies and television shows for years now. My ideal pragmatic solution would be a platform (or two, or five) that acts like a dumb pipe for content providers to license their content to, and receive some form of compensation every time it is watched, prorated into the amount of the episode/movie is actually watched. However, given the difficult licensing issues found…

This solution is what the content creators want too: the problem is how to pay for it. Micropayments are the obvious choice, but they're currently impractical for a number of reasons (Bitcoin is promising but has yet to clear adoption hurdles necessary to hit the mainstream). I don't know that this will ever come to pass though. Micropayment tech is just too far off, and workable online distribution models are alread…

A distributed network is not well suited to micropayments. With every user it exponentially increases the resources used. Bitcoin can handle about 7 transactions a second maximum. Much less currently.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#116

Post by xsmasher » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:50 PM UTC

glaugh wrote: post #101

happywolf wrote: post #85

Some of the reactions here remind me of the time when mp3 starting to gain traction (circa ~1995). A lot of people were worried this new file format would mark the end of entertainment business: who would spend money to buy songs when they could download for free in mp3 format? I guess I don't need to point out how much money Apple has made through iTunes by selling unprotected audio tracks for the past years. In oth…

My brother works in Hollywood, and would make the distinction that while musicians can make money on tour and with merch, movies basically only make money from selling the right to watch the thing. I'd like to justify pirating movies, but I actually find that logic compelling. Ideas on other ways for folks in movies to get paid?

Kevin Smith has taken his last two movies on the road, selling out venues with a combined "Movie + Q&A" performance. He's presumably making more this way than he would with the traditional theatrical distribution, and he still has the option of putting it on VOD later.

It doesn't scale, though. I don't want to wait around for movies the way you wait for concerts to come around. It is an unpirateable experience, though.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#117

Post by dublinben » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:54 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #96

dublinben wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still can't buy movies in a DRM-free, open format at any price or convenience level. You might consider the status quo easy and cheap, but I'm still unimpressed. Until MPAA-approved services offer a product that is superior (or at least equivalent) to the illicit services, this conflict will continue.

Define the convenience level you would like. Search > Download in iTunes and search > stream on Netflix seem hard to beat for convenience.

1. Search on website that doesn't require proprietary plugins like flash or silverlight.

2. Download file directly with browser, without having to install further proprietary software.

3. Copy file to any device of my choosing.

4. Play file on device using only free software.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#118

Post by dspillett » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 4:58 PM UTC

habitue wrote: post #111

dspillett wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no difference. The content producer worked on the content and wants what they want in exchange for it (indirectly for the effort): money. The ripper worked on ripping the content and wants what they want for it (indirectly for the effort): recognition. One of the usual complains was their "internal rips" being posted elsewhere even when posted without any attribution being removed (or at least with no claim…

There is a difference. When movies are copied, nobody takes the credits out and adds their name into them. We're talking about attribution vs. copyright. They're completely separate issues, and it trips people up every time something like this gets posted.

In both cases we are talking about taking what you want distributing it to others because you can irrespective of the views of the content creator(s) and other interested parties.

In both cases someone is saying "how dare you do what I don't want you to do?" because they believe they have the right to control such activities and the other party either disagrees with that belief or simply doesn't care.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#119

Post by js2 » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 5:15 PM UTC

glaugh wrote: post #101

happywolf wrote: post #85

Some of the reactions here remind me of the time when mp3 starting to gain traction (circa ~1995). A lot of people were worried this new file format would mark the end of entertainment business: who would spend money to buy songs when they could download for free in mp3 format? I guess I don't need to point out how much money Apple has made through iTunes by selling unprotected audio tracks for the past years. In oth…

My brother works in Hollywood, and would make the distinction that while musicians can make money on tour and with merch, movies basically only make money from selling the right to watch the thing. I'd like to justify pirating movies, but I actually find that logic compelling. Ideas on other ways for folks in movies to get paid?

The movie/tv/cable/theater industry's problem is that it's greedy at every level. Region locked DVDs, release windows, forced previews, commercials in the theater before your movie, commercials on paid streaming content (I'm looking at you Cosmos), Amazon for one thing, Apple for another, Netflix for a third, etc, etc. It wreaks of screw the customer, I'm getting mine.

Yes, a lot of this is a consequence of a free market. But so what? The end-result is that popcorn time is a compelling product not solely to get the content for free, but mostly because it's the least hassle way to get content at all.

Re: Popcorn Time is back

#120

Post by mwilkison » Wed, Apr 30, 2014, 5:17 PM UTC

happywolf wrote: post #85

Some of the reactions here remind me of the time when mp3 starting to gain traction (circa ~1995). A lot of people were worried this new file format would mark the end of entertainment business: who would spend money to buy songs when they could download for free in mp3 format? I guess I don't need to point out how much money Apple has made through iTunes by selling unprotected audio tracks for the past years. In oth…

How feasible would it be to build an alt coin on top of Popcorn-Time. Call it PopCoin or Popcorn-Coin or something :). You pay every time you watch a movie, you get paid for hosting torrents and some percentage of each transaction is routed to the content creator/whoever owns the rights to the content?