Popcorn Time in Your Browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#121

Post by martypitt » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #108

Narkov wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything right? Except of course monitize it. Giving stuff away is pretty easy to do. Making a business out of it is much harder.

You've fallen into the classic trap: No one is obliged to give you money. Finding a business model that works is your problem, not your customers. Forced lock-in is a model, but it's a violent one that makes people want to leave, and it's entirely predicated on there never being an escape hatch for your trapped customers. There is now an escape hatch for content customers. They're no longer beholden to the choice of…

No one is obliged to give me money -- unless they consume the content I created. At that point, they are.

Anything else assumes that because content exists, people have the right to consume it -- for free if they can work out how.

Let's be clear: I fully agree that Hollywood needs to catch up, and make content accessible in the way that Popcorn time has. But I don't have the right to consume content illegally, just because I find their business model inconvenient.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#122

Post by michaelbuddy » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:27 PM UTC

dmarg wrote: post #115

Sir_Substance wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've fallen into the classic trap: No one is obliged to give you money. Finding a business model that works is your problem, not your customers. Forced lock-in is a model, but it's a violent one that makes people want to leave, and it's entirely predicated on there never being an escape hatch for your trapped customers. There is now an escape hatch for content customers. They're no longer beholden to the choice of…

>>No one is obliged to give you money. Finding a business model that works is your problem, not your customers. This struck a chord with me and is exactly the reason why Hollywood and the Music Industry are flailing. They are trying to continue their business model that worked for so long into this new day and age. Adapt or die essentially.

You mean you don't like watching all those unskippable previews and commercials on your blu-ray, or "downloading" the included digital drm file off your disney DVD so you can take your copy of cinderella with you anywhere, anytime.* Or what about renting that great movie and having a 24 hour window to watch it.

*Maximum of 2 downloads. Approved devices only, Void where prohibited

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#123

Post by forgottenpass » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:28 PM UTC

smhg wrote: post #87

bsaul wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that what your boss tells you whenever you ask for a raise ? edit : that's not just a snarky comment. i always find it amusing whenever people advocate giving other's people's work away for free.

My comment was not meant to participate in the free vs paid discussion. That's indeed a whole other thing. Your question itself, snarky or not, makes me sad. Doesn't that imply you spend a large part of your day doing something you don't like just for the sake of making money?

Your question itself, snarky or not, makes me sad. Doesn't that imply you spend a large part of your day doing something you don't like just for the sake of making money?

What world do you live in where businesses exist to advance humanity and people work on things they like? I'd really like to move there. The world I live in, only a handful of companies believe in their feel-good mission statements and it's a luxury for someone's passions to overlap with an obtainable well paying job.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#124

Post by LLWM » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:30 PM UTC

diyorgasms wrote: post #69

k-mcgrady wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> "Why is it that in 2015, I can't go to a site, give them money, and get a high-quality mkv download" Because it's costly and unnecessary for a business to cater to every specific need. How many people even know what an MKV file is? And if they did how many people have the bandwidth to download one? There are so many options available to people now (theatres, DVD, Bluray, iTunes, Amazon, Netflix) that people are re…

I don't see anything unreasonable about asking the studios to provide their product in a particular format. What if you wanted to purchase a movie, and the studios only offered it on Betamax? Relying on Flash or Silverlight is similar. I use Linux, and Flash is officially unsupported on Linux. Silverlight has never been officially supported on Linux. If these are the options, then I cannot watch the movie out of the…

It's also totally reasonable for them to not provide their product in a form that only a tiny percentage of people actually need. Might as well complain that they no longer sell VHS tapes because "all I have is a VCR and I just want content in a form I can watch". At some point you have to recognize that you need to meet them halfway. I mean heck, you even recognize that Flash isn't supported on Linux. How hard is it to replace the word "Flash" in that sentence with "Hulu"?

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#125

Post by jenscow » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:32 PM UTC

efdee wrote: post #26

nothrabannosir wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never used either, so I'm genuinely curious: what does Netflix lack, from that list?

I very much enjoyed Netflix while staying with family in the US. In Belgium, however, the available content is so limited that it's just not worth it. Not even Friends, Simpsons, X-Files, nothing.

I don't know the details, but this could be due to local TV stations buying exclusivity for this content in your country.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#126

Post by donutz » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:34 PM UTC

martypitt wrote: post #121

Sir_Substance wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've fallen into the classic trap: No one is obliged to give you money. Finding a business model that works is your problem, not your customers. Forced lock-in is a model, but it's a violent one that makes people want to leave, and it's entirely predicated on there never being an escape hatch for your trapped customers. There is now an escape hatch for content customers. They're no longer beholden to the choice of…

No one is obliged to give me money -- unless they consume the content I created. At that point, they are. Anything else assumes that because content exists, people have the right to consume it -- for free if they can work out how. Let's be clear: I fully agree that Hollywood needs to catch up, and make content accessible in the way that Popcorn time has. But I don't have the right to consume content illegally, just b…

> No one is obliged to give me money -- unless they consume the content I created. At that point, they are.

Umm, no. I don't owe buskers one penny, even if I enjoy their street performance.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#127

Post by zuron7 » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:36 PM UTC

DigitalSea wrote: post #7

You know the traditional business model of Hollywood is well and truly broken when an open source application like Popcorn Time comes along and does everything right. What Popcorn Time has done by making accessing content on demand easier than ever before is nothing short of impressive. They're the Netflix of piracy and I think Hollywood can learn a lot from Popcorn Time (but as history has proven, they won't).

The west at least has apps like Netflix to legally watch movies. In countries like India, the only legal options we have are YouTube and a bunch of smaller companies with a small collection of Hindi Movies (<10000 movies). You want to watch Hollywood? You're best off buying a DVD for 6$, which for a country like ours is a lot of money.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#128

Post by Sir_Substance » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:42 PM UTC

martypitt wrote: post #121

Sir_Substance wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've fallen into the classic trap: No one is obliged to give you money. Finding a business model that works is your problem, not your customers. Forced lock-in is a model, but it's a violent one that makes people want to leave, and it's entirely predicated on there never being an escape hatch for your trapped customers. There is now an escape hatch for content customers. They're no longer beholden to the choice of…

No one is obliged to give me money -- unless they consume the content I created. At that point, they are. Anything else assumes that because content exists, people have the right to consume it -- for free if they can work out how. Let's be clear: I fully agree that Hollywood needs to catch up, and make content accessible in the way that Popcorn time has. But I don't have the right to consume content illegally, just b…

>No one is obliged to give me money -- unless they consume the content I created. At that point, they are.

Historically no, they're not. Paying for a concert before you saw it was unheard of 150 years ago, and your ancestors would have considered you a mug for giving over your money before you knew if it was going to be a good show.

The norm for human history is that you see the show first and then decide afterwards how much it was worth, hence artists passing their hat around the audience. Bad shows got no money, which is how it works for literally everyone else today. We get paid at the end of the month, not the start, and bad enough fuckups get you fired.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#129

Post by throwawaykf05 » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:43 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #108

Narkov wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything right? Except of course monitize it. Giving stuff away is pretty easy to do. Making a business out of it is much harder.

You've fallen into the classic trap: No one is obliged to give you money. Finding a business model that works is your problem, not your customers. Forced lock-in is a model, but it's a violent one that makes people want to leave, and it's entirely predicated on there never being an escape hatch for your trapped customers. There is now an escape hatch for content customers. They're no longer beholden to the choice of…

> No one is obliged to give you money.

Yes they are, if you create something that they derive value from. Whether it is to be given away for free or paid for is your prerogative as the value creator, not theirs.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#130

Post by kalleboo » Tue, May 19, 2015, 1:44 PM UTC

martingordon wrote: post #80

DigitalSea wrote: post #7

You know the traditional business model of Hollywood is well and truly broken when an open source application like Popcorn Time comes along and does everything right. What Popcorn Time has done by making accessing content on demand easier than ever before is nothing short of impressive. They're the Netflix of piracy and I think Hollywood can learn a lot from Popcorn Time (but as history has proven, they won't).

How does this differ from iTunes? There's a business model that works, and the experience is pretty much exactly like Popcorn Time, except iTunes has those pesky Rent/Buy buttons.

I've been trying to watch a movie I bought on iTunes on my AppleTV all afternoon. I've committed the cardinal sin of moving between two different countries (!!!) so this movie is on the iTunes account in the country I lived in before. Playing it from iTunes with AirPlay it kept stopping for some reason, playing it with home sharing worked for a while, and then I tried to buy a song I liked from the movie on my computer and it stopped and lost where it was in the movie.

I got pissed off and just pirated it and used Beamer.app to send the video to the AppleTV, it played back flawlessly.

I'm happy to pay for a movie. I've funded several documentary projects on Kickstarter. Just give me an MP4 or MKV file so I can trust that I can play it today and 10 years from now on any device I own.

DRM doesn't work. It only punishes the actual customers.