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Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

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Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#171

Post by tomatotomato37 »

viraptor wrote: post #75
scarface74 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Your circle” unless it includes families with small kids, isn’t Disney’s primary audience. Most normal middle class people aren’t going to go through the trouble of pirating movies and setting up a Plex server and then worry about setting up their router to get a good connection while they are away from home and even then deal with the abysmally slow upload speed of the typical home network instead of spending $8 a…

That sounds terribly complicated. You know you can google "watch ... online free" and get a streamable version in the first two pages of results, right?

Streaming sites with good SEO tend to be the riskest in terms of malware though.

Actually adding on to that, the timing of this piracy boom is really unfortunate, as the cryptoboom made it advantagous again to target home computers with malware for cryptominers. It's frustrating having to go setup shit like sandboxie for pirated software again like it's the early 2000s

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#173

Post by jdc0589 »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #159

No shit. Valve worked out the key to combating piracy in the early 2000s. To quote Gaben himself: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to y…

there's a cliff though. I pay for prime and Netflix, and once or twice a month I'll rent a movie from Google Play if it's something I really want to see.

however, in my mind paying any more than that approximate monthly total is unreasonable, and not an option.

And to the article's credit, I think about booting my Plex setup back up pretty frequently now.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#174

Post by draugadrotten »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #159

No shit. Valve worked out the key to combating piracy in the early 2000s. To quote Gaben himself: "We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to y…

Valve is right. I haven't pirated a single game since I started using Steam, and I have spent dollars on games I will never ever have time to play. There is no way I will subscribe to 10 different movie streaming services. I want it all in one client. If they want to charge me 50 dollars for the latest movies, so be it. I just want the convenience of one single source available 24x7 wherever I am. Until then, /r/usenet.

Apple TV, I know this is where you are going. Netflix, I know you tried and failed.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#175

Post by Freak_NL »

blaser-waffle wrote: post #168
Freak_NL wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> battle royale I don't think it's the Highlander end-game they are envisioning, rather there seems to be a drive towards a new (imagined) equilibrium with specific streaming services servicing specific demographics — like Disney is aiming straight for the 'wholesome and family-friendly'-niche. Of course we all lose as consumers (until you hoist the Jolly Roger in despair).

Disney owns wayyy too many different subsidiary companies and IPs to just focus on wholesome, family programming. Like they own Fox, FX, ESPN, National Geographic, Hulu, Lucasfilm, Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, huge chunks of other networks like A&E and Vice Media. You know that hip, edgy Vice News, the one with stories about doing drugs in war torn Africa? Yeah Disney owns like ~16-20% of that. Disney is EVERYWHERE;…

That's Disney the company. Disney+, the streaming service, is pursuing family-friendly.

All the edgier material goes on Hulu apparently.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#176

Post by Slartie »

lucasverra wrote: post #89
cptskippy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look forward to Netflix et al removing the account deactivate button from our profile pages in favor of a phone number that calls into an IVR Labyrinth.

simpler method trick 1) Create virtual card 2) Switch payment method to new card 3) Delete virtual card 4) Cha ching !

This will just result in you getting lots of debt collection fees and an abysmal credit rating.

If you never again plan on taking part in the economy, it may be a convenient solution, though.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#178

Post by commandlinefan »

xfitm3 wrote: post #82

I will always pirate shows. I cut the cord 11 years ago due to my objection of cable company billing practices. The entire industry is greedy. I was a netflix subscriber for awhile but I burned thru all the good stuff and left.

I don’t even know if I’m “pirating” or not. There’s pretty much nothing on Netflix anymore, and I can’t even figure out how to sign up for HBO streaming (I think I have to get a code from cable provider first?) if I even cared enough to do so. I have found a few ad-supported/free streaming sites like Tubi and Popcornflix, plus some public domain streaming sites like publicdomainflix and archive.org. Are they legitimate? I don’t know - I have no way of even finding out.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#179

Post by jowsie »

vinceguidry wrote: post #165
eyegor wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why in my circle we set up the town pump plex server. Originally it was for streaming older movies (pre 1970) which you can't stream from any major service but the new era of fragmentation has drastically expanded it. We bought a retired datacenter rack and everyone contributes a few bucks a month to cover running costs. Then we have scripts scraping the top x movies/shows from torrent sites once a week and a…

This makes me wonder if there's a luxury service somewhere providing the kind of access people want at an expensive, but reasonable price. So I don't have to go about building and maintaining a public resource.

r/plexshares on reddit is a sort of open secret.

Re: Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy

#180

Post by commandlinefan »

tyingq wrote: post #102

Hasn't driven me to piracy. It has, however, driven me to subscribe/unsubscribe as needed. Paid for a month of HBO, for example, mostly for the Chernobyl series, watched that and a few movies, unsubscribed. I think that pattern might hurt these services more than piracy.

> subscribe/unsubscribe as needed

… if you remember to unsubscribe. I wonder how many of these monthly streaming services rely on the gym model where they hope that it’s more trouble to unsubscribe than it is to just pay for the service month after month.

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