A curated list of warez and piracy links • Hacker News Board

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#151

Post by chexx » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

DrBazza wrote: post #128

latexr wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The same way free-to-air TV pays for itself - adverts. Either a couple of ad breaks in the film, or rotating watermarks on screen throughout the film. Please no. Watching La vita è Bella[1] or a Clockwork Orange[2] and being interrupted by an ad for toothpaste or a theme park would muddy the experience. That model would make most good films unpalatable. Were that the only legal way to consume movies, piracy would c…

> Please no. Agreed, but how else would you release a "free" version of a movie that funds itself as per the parent comment? Watermarks are probably the optimal solution, but people are used to advert funded TV/movies.

Non-intrusive product placement. Kind of like cigarettes.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#152

Post by selfhoster11 » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

matthewhammond wrote: post #138

Youden wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for others but I generally turn to piracy when legal options are unavailable or unviable. For example it's basically impossible to legally watch anime with English subtitles in my region, so I have no alternative to piracy. It's the same story for more mainstream content. There was no legal way to stream Game of Thrones in English when it was being aired. There's no way legal way to stream Star Trek Dis…

The problem is that the definition of 'unavailable' or 'unviable' can quickly expand to include more or less anything. Have to wait a week for the film to be available in your area? It's not available on your chosen streaming service? The file costs a dollar more than you want to pay or doesn't come with the full set of download rights you want? People use all of these and more as excuses for pirating. If a programme…

A film is just a bag of bytes. Consider we live in an age where:

- 20+MBit connections are the norm in the Western world

- there are no border checks or national firewalls to impede the flow of information worldwide (barring tyrannical regimes)

- the cost of making a copy and sending it out to anywhere around the world approximately = free

- we've had 20+ years to work on the service problem of piracy, to reach an acceptable equilibrium

It seems outrageous that we have fractured streaming services, no true digital ownership (even to match what we had for decades with VHS and optical discs), that restricting download rights is even a thing (I got my bag of bytes and paid for it, what is it to you what program or hardware I use to play it?), or that we have to wait at all for a film to be released in all geographies (I don't care that I'm in the Philippines - I already speak English and can't be bothered to wait for the official dubbing) if the bytes can come streaming down the pipe in less than a second.

I'm not entitled. I do have high expectations because we live in the goddamn future and copyright cartels are LARPing a world of digital cavemen. Like hell I'm gonna be content with that.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#153

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:33 PM UTC

red_trumpet wrote: post #124

pchangr wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s exactly how it works in Germany.. but you can just route your traffic through more favorable jurisdictions

I think streaming of illegal content became illegal in Germany in 2017. See here: https://www.simplegermany.com/streaming-in-germany/#Is_strea...

[deleted]

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#154

Post by Youden » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 5:47 PM UTC

ogogmad wrote: post #32

Youden wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But I asked whether copyright enforcement was necessary for films to get adequately funded. I addressed that by referencing a study that concludes piracy has no measurable impact on revenue.

>> But I asked whether copyright enforcement was necessary for films to get adequately funded. > I addressed that by referencing a study that concludes piracy has no measurable impact on revenue. I'm weary of studies in general because they're capable of justifying absolute bullshit. Anyway, your study was conducted in a regime where getting films for free is illegal and therefore somewhat less convenient than it cou…

> I'm weary of studies in general because they're capable of justifying absolute bullshit.

Do you have a proposal for an alternative process?

> Anyway, your study was conducted in a regime where getting films for free is illegal and therefore somewhat less convenient than it could be if it were legal.

In Switzerland, the country I live in, piracy is legal. You might be interested in researching the consequences.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#155

Post by danielrpa » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:08 PM UTC

XCabbage wrote: post #74

ogogmad wrote: post #3

How are films supposed to get funded if people get them for free? The current status quo is that we have two methods of obtaining a film: - Via file sharing. You have to wait for the whole film to finish downloading before you can watch it. This is inconvenient. - Via streaming services. You can watch a film before it's finished downloading. The latter costs money, but is more convenient. While certainly some of that…

> How are films supposed to get funded if people get them for free? Let me pay money and download a DRM-free mp4 that I can keep forever and watch anywhere. I'd do it and so would a sizable percentage of existing pirates. > The latter costs money, but is more convenient. Not really. If my internet connection is fast, I can download a movie in a few minutes and watch it in VLC, which is more user-friendly than any web…

> Let me pay money and download a DRM-free mp4 that I can keep forever and watch anywhere. I'd do it and so would a sizable percentage of existing pirates.

This. DRM is a major incentive for piracy. I regret every single DRMed music and video purchase I've ever made.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#156

Post by danielrpa » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:16 PM UTC

p1necone wrote: post #24

ogogmad wrote: post #3

How are films supposed to get funded if people get them for free? The current status quo is that we have two methods of obtaining a film: - Via file sharing. You have to wait for the whole film to finish downloading before you can watch it. This is inconvenient. - Via streaming services. You can watch a film before it's finished downloading. The latter costs money, but is more convenient. While certainly some of that…

I subscribe to three different streaming services, and if I really like something that isn't on them I'll buy a Blu Ray or DVD. I also rent stuff on YouTube. But I have no qualms about pirating things that simply aren't purchasable without jumping through hoops (or at all as is the case for most older TV shows that are even a little bit obscure).

Unfortunately you don't really own an individual license to the content if you get a BluRay - your content is still tied to the media. Some of my BluRays are unplayable due to scratches, which means that my license is gone. Ok, these are the terms, but with terms like that piracy wins.

I'd like a full quality, DRM-free file with my BluRay purchases. And then I'd just skip the BluRay and buy the file itself...

They don't sell the DRM-free file because of piracy... But in fact, there is more piracy because they don't sell the file!

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#157

Post by vukgr » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:39 PM UTC

TheFreim wrote: post #147

vukgr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who works on mods for games with no mod api, so using dll injection, hooking, code editing, etc... (basically very similar to what cracks do), it's very easy to get flagged for doing stuff like that. But even doing simple stuff like compiling with winsock, or with the wrong(!?) compile flags will trigger most AV. We almost always have to just report the dlls as false positive and pray microsoft actually ad…

How would you suggest someone get started modding games that don't have an api? What background knowledge should I develop?

It really depends on the game/platform, but getting used to using a reverse engineering tool and a debugger is a must. If you can, use IDA, I'm stuck with Ghidra for now but most of the time I have to work against it to get stuff done. Even with C output you'll still need to get used to working with assembly to hook stuff, and do other code modifications. (You can use a library like detours, but when things start crashing it really helps to know exactly what every piece of your code is doing.) Also imgui/nuklear really help with getting a nice GUI for your mods early on.

Though tbh the best thing you can do is just pick up a game you like and just have a go at reversing it, it'll be a bit slow but the more you reverse the easier it gets. After you reverse it it's just a matter of looking up each topic (ie dll injection, hooking, etc) as you need them. None of them are that hard, they just seem overwhelming if you try doing them all at once.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#158

Post by Asooka » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:46 PM UTC

ogogmad wrote: post #3

How are films supposed to get funded if people get them for free? The current status quo is that we have two methods of obtaining a film: - Via file sharing. You have to wait for the whole film to finish downloading before you can watch it. This is inconvenient. - Via streaming services. You can watch a film before it's finished downloading. The latter costs money, but is more convenient. While certainly some of that…

The same way as always, by people paying for them. Just because people pirate, doesn't mean they don't pay.

The fact is, piracy is widespread and profits are growing. There doesn't seem to be a big effect of piracy on the market as a whole. People do understand the concept of paying for what they use. The right way to battle piracy is to make payment super easy for the kind of use people expect.

As a more practical matter, I see the fight against piracy resulting in the creation of totalitarian systems of control on the internet, along with systems to block people from having control over their devices and data, which I do not agree with.

I agree that people should be paid something for their work. I also postulate that letting people with lower income pirate the majority of their entertainment results in a better market in the long run, when they (hopefully) get the means to contribute back. I see the current Draconian measures as not helping anyone, except the people implementing them and the less savoury branches of government.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#159

Post by kyriakos » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:54 PM UTC

charcircuit wrote: post #99

sorenjan wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For video, you can use DaVinci Resolve instead of Adobe. The base version is free for non commercial use, and it's a very capable program. I think it makes sense, Adobe has benefited a lot by having their software pirated and becoming the de facto standard, but they like to pretend that they're against piracy of all kind.

DaVinci Resolve doesn't support mp4 files which makes it a poor option from the get go.

Doesn't accept my gopro videos for sure so it was useless to me when I tried it.

Re: A curated list of warez and piracy links

#160

Post by kyriakos » Fri, Jan 07, 2022, 6:59 PM UTC

maccard wrote: post #61

I subscribe to Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon (although that's just a byproduct of prime), and am happy to continue paying ~£30/month (which is roughly what a basic Cable package would cost me), and even pay the occasional £20 one off for a digital purchase of a "cinema" movie (see: Disney+'s recent releases, new bond movie etc). However, when studios resort to pulling tricks like [0], artificially limiting content (joh…

Not just tricks. I pay for Netflix and amazon but want to watch Mandalorian, Disney is not available in my country so my options is either try my luck with a vpn or pirate it. If Disney did their homework and launched world wide they'd have my money. Same applies to HBO Max.