U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD" • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#101

Post by ACCount36 » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:51 PM UTC

cvoss wrote: post #54

rcpt wrote: post #9

Our own great firewall

The Great Firewall of China is a censorship program. This proposed US legislation puts the power of blocking under the authority of its court system and only in the domain of copyright law. The courts are historically very concerned with upholding 1st Amendment rights to a degree that often (but not always) surpasses analogous rights in many sister liberal democracies. Anything that remotely smells of censorship woul…

This is a censorship program.

Every time a system that allows for internet content to be blocked is created, it's extended, misused and abused shortly thereafter.

"The tools already exist, why don't we use them to fight terrorists/pirates/cybercriminals/gays/undesirables too".

The slope isn't just slippery - it's made of Teflon and coated with baby oil.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#102

Post by spullara » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

my son gets all the old movies from the local library

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#103

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

mindslight wrote: post #11

johnisgood wrote: post #8

Amazing. These kind of bills / laws are being passed left and right "recently".

Both major parties are corpo-authoritarian, with the main dynamics of elections being to gauge how much the public is willing to accept and to make half the people think they actually wanted the resulting policies. And for this round the people have spoken that they want it good and hard.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#104

Post by leptons » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:52 PM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #79

johnisgood wrote: post #8

Amazing. These kind of bills / laws are being passed left and right "recently".

> These kind of bills / laws are being passed It hasn’t been passed!

I have no doubt that it will pass. If it is overly broad and can be used to needlessly hurt someone, Republicans love it, and they are the ones with power right now.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#105

Post by parliament32 » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:53 PM UTC

blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

This is precisely the problem, and the whole reason why we still pirate TV/movies. I would have no problem paying $XX to a unified service that has basically everything; I have no interest in paying a dozen different streaming platforms for effectively "cable packages" that often add/remove/shift content around.

The music industry figured this out: I pay Spotify, they have 95% of music content I could ever way, the UX is good enough. I have no reason to pirate music anymore.

Why is this so hard for the film industry?

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#106

Post by Me1000 » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

pwthornton wrote: post #55

blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

You can’t find them to rent on iTunes and similar platforms?

Not OP, but yes believe it or not it's impossible to find certain movies anywhere other than pirating them. One example is "Pirates of Silicon Valley", I watched it when I was young and recently wanted to watch it again. I pay for basically all the streaming services, I'm would have been happy to rent it from any service at all. I spent several hours trying to find a way to pay to watch it and never could.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#107

Post by FirmwareBurner » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

tarnith wrote: post #94

blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

Video games too. Try to buy Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005). You can't.

>Try to buy Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005). You can't.

I searched the biggest used online (flea)marketplace in my country and I could find the DVD for sale from several people. So I can buy it and play it right now legally if I want to, without resorting to piracy.

What point were you trying to make with this? Because I also can't buy a brand new 1969 Ford Mustang. Nothing is made forever.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#108

Post by lupusreal » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

elijaht wrote: post #53

blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

I watch a decent amount of movies, I can count on one hand the number of times I couldn’t rent it for I think there are plenty of problems with the streaming model, but I think it’s borderline bad faith to try and make the claim that piracy is needed because it’s hard to navigate streaming sites. It’s certainly easier than finding obscure movies was pre-streaming

Even when Amazon Prime has it, the rental terms are dogshit. I used to rent VHS and DVDs from the store and got to watch them as many times as I wanted for a week. With Amazon Prime, once I start watching it I only have 48 hours and then I have to rent it again. Friends coming over in 3 days and you think they'll like the movie you just rented? Too bad, have to pay them again.

It's flagrant bullshit that physical media, with real scarcity, had better rental terms than digital.

So why the hell shouldn't I pirate it? I get a better product, it's free, and all the people who made it are dead now anyway so spare me any bullshit moralizing.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#109

Post by bilekas » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:56 PM UTC

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #107

tarnith wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video games too. Try to buy Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005). You can't.

>Try to buy Need For Speed Most Wanted (2005). You can't. I searched the biggest used online (flea)marketplace in my country and I could find the DVD for sale from several people. So I can buy it and play it right now legally if I want to, without resorting to piracy. What point were you trying to make with this? Because I also can't buy a brand new 1969 Ford Mustang. Nothing is made forever.

The point could be made that if it's not available from the publisher for sale then piracy is not illegal.

Re: U.S. senators introduce new pirate site blocking bill, "Block BEARD"

#110

Post by haunter » Thu, Jul 31, 2025, 5:56 PM UTC

blackjack_ wrote: post #30

I've been trying to watch old 80s-90s movies recently. I'm happy to pay $5 or whatever, and they just aren't available anywhere. Rental stores are dead, so I can't go rent them from blockbuster or whatever, and streaming sites have splintered to the point I'm not even sure what is a scam and what is a legitimate business anymore. Trying to even find availability of what films exist on which streaming sites has been a…

Not just 80s-90s but try everything non-vanilla Hollywood stuff. Asian cinema, MENA, Eastern Europe etc. Piracy is just superior because I can actually watch what I want.