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Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

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Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#101

Post by zanny »

zaroth wrote: post #60

If I were going to download copyrighted material, I certainly wouldn't do it over BitTorrent. When the software architecture ensures the only target is the end user, surely end users will end up targeted. When that happens, that single download which would have fallen below the $1,000 threshold is now actually criminal distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution. Your VPN provider's IP address i…

At this point there are tens to hundreds of millions of pirates in the world. Current policy in the US is six strikes to lose service with your ISP, not criminal prosecution for seeding downloads. That happens of course, but it is blisteringly rare and is a blatant attempt at fear mongering. The proverbial cat is out of the bag, and it will take a lot of stick to put it back in, and even then you will never be able to put a lid back on considering how technology has effectively digitized all information so well.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#102

Post by anigbrowl »

e12e wrote: post #82
forrestthewoods wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I call bullshit. Absolute bullshit. If I gave you a credit card that gave you unlimited access to digital content you probably wouldn't be complaining. Certainly not if you live in the US or much of Europe. If you have a $69 AppleTV then iTunes is a spectacular user experience. Search for almost anything you want and hit play. If it didn't cost $5 to rent a movie it's superior to torrents. This is where someone chime…

I can't comment on why other people copy digital content, but I use eg: youtube-dl to save content from being banned from youtube - most likely due to dmca takedowns. That's for music. I also buy some music via bandcamp. As for streaming services, I was an early Spotify-user -- and the experience was pretty bad: it was a roulette to see how much was left of any given playlist each time I logged on. To be fair, Spotif…

Amazon won't (legally) let you watch all content outside of the US

Because in many cases they have only purchased US rights. Someone else may already have the distribution rights in other countries. As I have explained before, films are often financed by using pre-sales agreements with foreign distributors as collateral for a production loan.

For example, If I am developing a film I might go a film market and say 'hey, I am making a film about X with a budget of Y, and I have an agreement from film star Z to participate.' Suppose film star Z is very popular in South East Asia; so distributors from China, Japan, South Korea, and a few other countries all say 'oh, film star Z! We would pay $10 million each to have the rights to that movie.' So then I'd get them to sign an agreement to that effect and open up bank accounts in those countries. Then I would take those letters to a US bank and say 'look I have $30 million in presales commitments, so give me money.' In other words the foreign distributors are entering into a binding contract to purchase the film at a certain price by a certain date if it meets certain agreed-upon requirements about delivery format, quality, and content. Those contracts are good enough to borrow money against, and that (in a nutshell) is how many films get made.

Amazon is usually buying a limited set of rights because they buy already-copleted films for the most part. They're not in the film-financing business in a big way so far, so they're not in a position to bid on worldwide rights in the first place.

As mentioned, if you give me access to high-quality (encoded) content without DRM, I'm willing to pay for it. If not, you're simply charging for an inferior product.

Oh, DRM. What about all the people that will take advantage of the absence of DRM to just copy it about freely and untraceably? Fine, so you're not one of them, that's nice, but it doesn't solve my problem as a film producer. I'm not sure the value of (sales lost to anti-DRM purists) exceeds the value of (sales lost to rampant casual copying).

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#103

Post by manigandham »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #78
lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

I call bullshit. Absolute bullshit. If I gave you a credit card that gave you unlimited access to digital content you probably wouldn't be complaining. Certainly not if you live in the US or much of Europe. If you have a $69 AppleTV then iTunes is a spectacular user experience. Search for almost anything you want and hit play. If it didn't cost $5 to rent a movie it's superior to torrents. This is where someone chime…

Agreed. Free is the best feature of piracy. Once the paid options get to parity on quality and UX soon, it'll make it completely obvious that the only reason to still pirate is because its free.

EDIT: Bring on the downvotes. It's ok, we all want free stuff.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#104

Post by Nursie »

abandonliberty wrote: post #86
zaroth wrote: post #60

If I were going to download copyrighted material, I certainly wouldn't do it over BitTorrent. When the software architecture ensures the only target is the end user, surely end users will end up targeted. When that happens, that single download which would have fallen below the $1,000 threshold is now actually criminal distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution. Your VPN provider's IP address i…

Could you elaborate how this is more secure?

More secure? Not necessarily, but usenet is download-only, so usenet users could not be charged with uploading/distribution.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#105

Post by pyre »

vlunkr wrote: post #55
lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

Exactly, this has happened before, the entertainment industry needs to learn their lesson. Remember when Napster was huge and the music industry was in a big panic for a few years? They finally got it shut down, but by the time they did there were several alternatives out there. The thing that finally made a difference was iTunes downloads. It was a reasonable alternative to piracy and people appreciated that. Instea…

> they met them halfway

iTunes' success was a bit of a fluke. The music execs didn't really think that it would amount to anything, so they threw Steve Jobs a bone.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#106

Post by sroerick »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #8
sroerick wrote: post #3

Does anybody know what it would require to fork Popcorn Time to only support Creative Commons and public domain content? I've spent a lot of time boycotting copyrighted works and I'd like to have a nice user interface to do this.

I really like that idea. I don't know what the goal of Popcorn Time is (maybe they want change in the industry, maybe they just like free stuff) but if the goal is to make access to content even easier than it already is then running the project with only CC/public domain content would be a good way to go. Show that it works and start getting bigger creators signing on (kind of the way BitTorrent does legitimate stuf…

BitTorrent Inc. is fine and I respect the work they're doing negotiating with major labels/ studios.

But I can't support DRM on my torrents.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#107

Post by sroerick »

mahouse wrote: post #5
sroerick wrote: post #3

Does anybody know what it would require to fork Popcorn Time to only support Creative Commons and public domain content? I've spent a lot of time boycotting copyrighted works and I'd like to have a nice user interface to do this.

What better boycott than to pirate it?

I'd rather support artists who aren't using the copyright empire in order to monetize their art.

I think any adult should be able to give up The Avengers for moral reasons.

You don't need movie franchises that much.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#108

Post by rhino369 »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #66
natdempk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true to the point where you can barely believe services release the products they do. The experience on Popcorn Time vs HBO GO isn't even comparable. HBO GO serves their content through a laggy flash player that you can't even force to play HD. Why would anyone watch non-HD content in a terrible browser player that wastes additional battery when they can open Popcorn Time in the time that it takes for the HBO…

Reminds me of what Gabe Newell said about piracy: It's not a pricing issue, but a service issue.

Then why are so many Steam games pirated?

I'm not doubting that service can be a cause. But I think it's crazy to pretend getting something for nothing isn't a good motivation.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#109

Post by meric »

natdempk wrote: post #22
lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

This is true to the point where you can barely believe services release the products they do. The experience on Popcorn Time vs HBO GO isn't even comparable. HBO GO serves their content through a laggy flash player that you can't even force to play HD. Why would anyone watch non-HD content in a terrible browser player that wastes additional battery when they can open Popcorn Time in the time that it takes for the HBO…

HBO NOW isn't built by HBO and is much better than HBO GO.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#110

Post by sroerick »

e12e wrote: post #88
sroerick wrote: post #3

Does anybody know what it would require to fork Popcorn Time to only support Creative Commons and public domain content? I've spent a lot of time boycotting copyrighted works and I'd like to have a nice user interface to do this.

Somewhat related, if drm-free, pay-what-you-want, torrent-distributed original content is your thing, check out vodo.net. Eg: http://vodo.net/joshbernhard/pioneerone/

Vodo is awesome, and Pioneer One is an awesome show.

I highly suggest everyone check it out and support the creators.

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