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Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

getpopcornti.me

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Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#241
post #160

>YIFY torrents Why bother.

Yeah, considering the terrible quality of YIFY's movie rips I wouldn't see this as being competitive with legal alternatives at all. All the audio is low bitrate stereo, and the 1080p video never goes above 2500 kbps. The second there is any motion the entire thing falls apart into a blocky mess. Such low bitrates do make it easy to stream, but I don't think the site is correct in saying you are watching "the best qu…

XBMCtorrent has other providers (such as Kickass). http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=174736

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#242
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it always need to be about the money?? Imagine giving a candy to a child. You make the child happy, and that is your reward. Or do you expect the child to say something like "let me pay you"?...

Just for fun, apply that logic to your work.

They already have been paid. Or you think mr. sound technician guy or lovely ms. Magda the hairdresser will receive money until his last day just because they have worked on a movie. The only one who will have that right is a company, who had nothing to do with filmaking process, they just invested, and for sure, after the premiere they've got, or not, a lot of money. Even the main actors release "rights".

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#243
post #186
post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a left of center guy, but this kind of thinking is a very ugly slippery slope. Its not that anyone should always expect to pay for things that are beneficial, its the fact that people who very recently WORKED to create the very thing you are benefiting from should be PAID for their work. If everyone followed your logic, we wouldn't have 12 Years A Slave. The props cost money. The costumes cost money. The cameras…

If a movie looks good, ill go to see it. That's how Hollywood makes money. Unfortunately the majority of blockbusters are trash. That's what projects like this are for.

If it's trash then wouldn't it make sense to just not watch it at all? Why is it that we somehow 'deserve' to watch a film at whatever price we think is reasonable, when the whole thing is optional anyway?

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#244
post #229

[deleted]

> It shouldn't be my responsibility to try to get these movies legally Ignoring that statement, which is a nice way to excuse your obvious criminal act(s), despite the correctness of the situation, paying these fees is fine when it's only a few, but the key is that we need centralized services to offer everything easily. If every content creator starts to have their own distribution method, get ready to complain abou…

>Ignoring that statement, which is a nice way to excuse your obvious criminal act(s)

What's your suggestion, then? Should I refuse to consume them or force myself to go to cinema even though I don't want to? (nor have the time to do so.) I'm all ears.

>the key is that we need centralized services to offer everything easily. If every content creator starts to have their own distribution method, get ready to complain about the "expensive" $10-15 fees you pay for 15 different services!

Of course. It shouldn't get to the point where buying individual movies would be more cheaper to pay for streaming services. Studio executives should leave their egos aside and start acting reasonably. Who wouldn't pay, say, 15-20$ a month and you're allowed to watch 5 movies each month (and extra 3-5$ for each individual movie after that). That's a good and a fair deal for both parties.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#245
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

quandrangle didn't say don't pay anyone. They said just because something is good, doesn't mean we have to pay every time we consume it. There are other conceivable ways of funding these things. Like crowd-funding, micropayments, whatever. If everyone followed quadrangle's logic, people who wanted to produce movies would find another way to fund them.

Please explain how crowd-funding a movie even makes sense? There are plenty of movies with actors I love that are terrible. Have you seen RED (or worse, RED 2)? For the same reason your boss doesn't pay you for the month you haven't worked yet, you shouldn't expect people to produce movies without any reliable way of getting paid.

But there are lots of crowdfunding successes for videogames, even though they present the same problem that you don't know in advance how good it will be. So I don't think the situation is hopeless.

Another idea which I think has promise is payment by social conventions. Tipping culture in the US is like this: you are not legally required to pay waitstaff, but everyone does because they would be considered assholes if they didn't. People joke that it's ridiculous that rock bands and web cartoonists make most of their money selling t-shirts, but actually if we are aiming for social pressure t-shirts are the ideal currency---everyone you interact with in your daily life can see that you bought one. So if we got a convention going that "if you regularly read a webcomic you oughta buy the t-shirt", then it would be easy to ostracize the people who violate it.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it less ethical than corporations lead by "the man" that refuses to use new technology for fear of not being able to wring every drop of profit out of people? Look at staggered releases of Movie/DVD/rentals/redbox and the fake scarcity to protect profits. I know companies need profit... but on the same time, if it really is THAT easy to get movies to people - then it's time for a shakeup that moves the industry fo…

Movies and music are a luxury item, not an essential. So it is very difficult to construct an ethical argument that supports piracy of newly released works, as there is basically negligible harm to the consumer in not receiving such items for free. (Compare this to, for example, patents on medical products being used to induce scarcity. The stakes here are life and death - so there is a strong ethical case in favour…

I never said that we should receive them for free. Re-read my post. Slowly.

Look at MP3s, Napster and iTunes. The Music industry refused to offer digital alternatives leading to Napster. It was(/is) easier to get music for free. Why would I buy a CD with a rootkit on it (look up Sony Fiasco #87), or pay $15 for a CD when I only want one song? Why go to the store when I can get it sitting at home?

It was easier to get for free, and the industry suffered for not giving customers what they wanted.

Now we have iTunes/Amazon/etc and I can buy a CD OR just a single song! Or I can subscribe to Pandora/LastFM/etc to get music other ways.

I get to support the artists I like with ease! EVEN THOUGH I can get it "for free". It's not a BURDER to support my music entertainment "needs" and I have multiple options.

Now... compare that to Movies where they make fake scarcity by forcing a release cycle that basically forces people to pay multiple times. Movie. Followed by DVD. Followed by DVD Ultimate Edition. Followed by Red Box. etc... (not to mention DRM and other restrictions). Followed by broken availability (This only available on Netflix... that only on Amazon... Hulu... Disney... blah blah bleh)

There is no reason they can't do Movie followed by general release. Rentals on the same day as DVD release. Available in multiple places easily.

Or do you honestly believe there is a good reason for a months long delay forced on Red Box (or similar) before they can start renting a DVD? AFTER Months long delays to get to DVD?

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it less ethical than corporations lead by "the man" that refuses to use new technology for fear of not being able to wring every drop of profit out of people? Look at staggered releases of Movie/DVD/rentals/redbox and the fake scarcity to protect profits. I know companies need profit... but on the same time, if it really is THAT easy to get movies to people - then it's time for a shakeup that moves the industry fo…

I think you mean redbox.

Woops... Freudian slip. Thank you.

Re: Popcorn Time – Watch torrent movies instantly

#250
post #101

I clicked "12 years a slave", a movie I have not yet had an opportunity to watch and it started streaming in less than a minute in high quality. I immediately quit the application as it should not be so easy to benefit from someone else's hard work without compensating them. Please, movie people, let me pay for this. You might kill the cinemas, but you'll still get paid.

That could be a valid idea for a startup, where movie people can sign up to sell 'virtual tickets' that provide users with the legal right to watch a movie no matter where they got it from. It could even be transferrable, identifiable tickets (... ahem, cryptocurrency, ahem). Most copyright disclaimers allow that already ("without the expressed written consent of the copyright owner" etc). Has anyone ever implemented…

There's UltraViolet, which is perhaps similar to what you're talking about (provided you own the content, you can in theory download/stream from any UltraViolet-enabled provider as long as they have that content)
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