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Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

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Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#151

Post by pirate-Loo6uoDu »

hotpotamus wrote: post #123
pirate-Loo6uoDu wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a justification, just an explanation of what needs to change if people want me to pay for that content. Like I say I pretty much never pirate things if they're on steam, I've probably paid tens of thousands out to steam over the years. (That being said, I do have access to cable television, netflix, and amazon prime streaming as well as the piracy setup, so people are getting paid. I'm not going to go buy a…

You started the post with "I have a confession". I felt that guilt was implied.

Ahh, fair enough. I meant it more as just a turn of phrase, implying that it's a sordid affair. A little bit implying that I was going again church heterodoxy, that there were pressures to feel guilty. More "gay in the 70's" than "burn down an orphanage".

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#152

Post by anon9191 »

Reasons (TV/Movie) piracy is better than any paid service:

* All in one place/App/UI. Be it Plex/Jellyfin/Emby/Kodi/etc, you only have 1 app UI/UX to deal with. No more wondering "What network was that on?", "Wait, it's on 2 services but which one has my watched status?", "What does clicking forward/back do in this App?", "How do I turn on subtitles?", etc

* Local playback. You never have to wait on your internet or deal with lower quality if something goes amiss.

* More features. Ability to download a show/movie to your iPad for travel (Yes, this has improved on the streaming platforms but is not always easy or ubiquitous)

* Access forever. If you hoard at least. You cannot find certain shows online anymore. The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are good examples. I know some people might find watching old episodes of daily news shows to be odd but I find them interesting and still humorous. All you can find is scattered clips online. Also shows that were never super popular can be impossible to find on streaming and often impossible to buy.

* No Ads. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

* Tech/Job improvement Aspect. This is less about piracy directly and the skills you are forced to learn to maintain an *arr+plex+UnRaid/FreeNAS/Debian/etc box.

You are correct that the cost is not cheap, I've probably sunk $5K+ into my servers but I find the process to be both informative and enjoyable.

Lastly, I would happily pay $100-150+ a month for a service that gave me all of the above (aside from server management experience). 1 App, offline/local caching, no ads, all content. But it will never happen. Netflix gave us some golden years where they had almost everything someone would want but then the content providers started to pull back their content to their own "platforms" and now it's a mess. Even things like Amazon Channels, Apple TV (no, not the device, no, not the service, the app :rolleyes:), or now even Plex (with their newest release) that attempt to serve as directory that can either play the content directly or bounce you directly into the app to play are a far cry from what you get from an only-Plex (or insert other media server) setup.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#153

Post by delecti »

Sounds like piracy is a hobby for you rather than a means to an end. I've "recreationally pirated" before, and now I only pirate as a means to an end (and usually only when "necessary"). I don't regret either era. If you are enjoying the time you spend recreationally pirating and hoarding media, then it seems fine to me, as long as you're aware of any potential legal issues in your jurisdiction.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#154

Post by pirate-Loo6uoDu »

nkrisc wrote: post #147
l33t2328 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense is data hoarding a problem? I’ve only ever heard the term used in jest, at least partially, and in particular not ever with the same severity that actual hoarding receives.

Like all "problems", it's only a problem if it has negative consequences for you. Drinking alcohol isn't a problem until it is. Collecting old newspapers isn't a problem until it is. Hoarding data isn't a problem until it is. This post seems a bit tongue-in-cheek, but if it's costing the OP more money than they'd like to spend on it, then it is a problem. Or maybe it's not.

It's not, I'm living well within my means. If I was concerned about the money I could probably spend more of my time to find the content on sketchy streaming sites like putlocker.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#155

Post by karaterobot »

> Streaming services still have significant service problems that need to be addressed.

This is true. I spend a lot on media, but also pirate things too, because it's often a better experience. One search engine for everything, and I don't need to sign up for 10 different services?! Wow!

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#156

Post by sjostrom7 »

paranoidrobot wrote: post #14

When Netflix first launched, it was great - they had a massive catalogue of older/pre-existing content, and were making a bunch of their own new, original content that likely wouldn't have been made elsewhere. Their UX was also pretty great - and made finding interesting content easy. They made it dead-easy to sign up, there was no pushy retention teams or hoops to jump through if you wanted to cancel. That's why I p…

And if they have the content you're looking for today, it'll be gone next week...

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#157

Post by pirate-Loo6uoDu »

colinmhayes wrote: post #138
l33t2328 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense is data hoarding a problem? I’ve only ever heard the term used in jest, at least partially, and in particular not ever with the same severity that actual hoarding receives.

Well it's costing this guy $45 a month apparently.

That server does a lot of other stuff. Controls zigbee devices, runs a small intranet search, handles internet archiving workloads...

The hard drives are the main power cost though.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#159

Post by pirate-Loo6uoDu »

esperent wrote: post #137
pirate-Loo6uoDu wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not actually a problem, by any means. I live quite comfortably. The point I'm really trying to make here is that I would pay for things if it was convenient to do so. I'm already spending more money to do this myself, and if the industry was a bit better that money could be going to artists instead of hard drives.

I think the point being made by other people here still stands though. It's not piracy that costs you money. It's your desire to store/hoard huge amounts of data. Whether or not that's a problem is up to you, but if you deleted things after you watched them the costs would go down to nothing except 4the normal costs of running a computer.

I don't disagree with that point, you could probably find everything I've got on sketchy streaming sites if you spent enough time.

Re: Tell HN: I probably spend more on piracy than if I just paid for content

#160

Post by Mashimo »

Sakos wrote: post #87
dimitar wrote: post #13

Why do you need 30TB? You can always download again if you need to watch again.

Then I guess you only watch extremely popular stuff? It's easy to get stuck trying to find moderately successful shows or games from the 90s. Kenan & Kel was a gigantic pain to find. I'm never going to delete that.

There is watching unpopular stuff and there is watching 30 TB of unpopular stuff.
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