Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 272 posts

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#31

Post by duaneb »

lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

At some time pirates will need to address the convenience of being free. I use amazon video, which has had a grand total of three films I wanted but could not find. These are extremely convenient, easy to use services. The argument that piracy is more convenient may still hold water, but less each year.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#32

Post by realusername »

_rpd wrote: post #13

Popcorn Time doesn't anonymize BitTorrent participation, right? Just makes it easier?

Yes, it's just a BitTorrent client at the end, nothing is changing on that. The improvements are mostly on the UI and the ease to find things.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#33

Post by lvs »

natdempk wrote: post #22
lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

This is true to the point where you can barely believe services release the products they do. The experience on Popcorn Time vs HBO GO isn't even comparable. HBO GO serves their content through a laggy flash player that you can't even force to play HD. Why would anyone watch non-HD content in a terrible browser player that wastes additional battery when they can open Popcorn Time in the time that it takes for the HBO…

I completely agree re: the quality of streaming service apps. The Amazon Prime Video player is a joke. HBO GO is one of the buggiest apps I've ever used on Android. Netflix has gone a long way to improving their service and is probably the most satisfactory of them. Generally speaking, though, the experience of using these apps and the predictability/accessibility of content is not going to outcompete free & easy.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#34

Post by Crito »

takasc2 wrote: post #9

What mistifies me is the sheer callousness/arrogance of the popcorn time developers. They must know they are playing with fire in a very public way but there is no need for them to be doing so. If they were just releasing a torrent client with streaming and media managment capabilities (the interesting part of the app) they would be fine but they insist on being as provocative and explicit about their desire to viola…

Why is it more moral for the developers to lie about their motivations? Surely, all else being equal, the developers being honest is a more desirable personality trait.

They could claim that it isn't just for watching pirated hollywood movies, but that would be a blatantly transparent lie. If they do not fear retribution, why should they lie?

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#35

Post by untog »

xnull6guest wrote: post #30
untog wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's an idea: read the article. If you still have questions after you've done that, then maybe ask them.

I just did this. It is not that ads are not possible, it is that ads are currently not shown. So here's a question: do we expect that to continue in perpetuity? My expectation would be that of the root comment: the website will in the future support its traffic and hosting costs with ads and make huge margins. Is there some reason why this expectation is foolish?

It's an expectation without proof. We have no evidence suggesting they will do that, nor any suggesting they won't. So it's a pretty academic conversation. They could turn Popcorn Time into a Bitcoin mining outfit without telling anyone, too.

With the advent of S3 storage and the like I would imagine their hosting costs are very small, and almost all at download time, not run time.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#36

Post by NathanCH »

wmf wrote: post #28
natdempk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true to the point where you can barely believe services release the products they do. The experience on Popcorn Time vs HBO GO isn't even comparable. HBO GO serves their content through a laggy flash player that you can't even force to play HD. Why would anyone watch non-HD content in a terrible browser player that wastes additional battery when they can open Popcorn Time in the time that it takes for the HBO…

Are you using a computer? I think most people watch TV on a TV, where "legit" apps aren't based on Flash.

I think that further proves his point. It shouldn't matter what device I'm consuming the content on.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#37

Post by rhino369 »

lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

Amazon Instant and iTunes work pretty well and have almost anything that Popcorn Time has. I really doubt people are doing Popcorn time because it is easier.

Not paying anything is a huge feature.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#38

Post by anigbrowl »

lvs wrote: post #12

There would be less incentive toward this kind of piracy if content producers and distributors could get their collective acts together with more liberal licensing. Popcorn Time is winning because it's easier to use and find content than any pay service. Like anything, you compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but…

I would take these arguments more seriously if they reflected the actual market. Films are licensed to distributors in different countries on a case-by-case basis and license periods typically run for 10 years. Only the 6 major studios have offices on every continent and even they don't run distribution operations in every single country.

compete by making a better product/service -- not by complaining that your competitors are unfair. Of course, they are certainly unfair here, but the rules of competition are the same.

I'm pretty sure I could outdo you in competitive economic terms if I could just help myself to any of your assets that I feel like using whenever I feel like using them. If you would find that situation unfair, would the solution be for you to just work harder?

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#39

Post by w4rh4wk5 »

wmf wrote: post #28
natdempk wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true to the point where you can barely believe services release the products they do. The experience on Popcorn Time vs HBO GO isn't even comparable. HBO GO serves their content through a laggy flash player that you can't even force to play HD. Why would anyone watch non-HD content in a terrible browser player that wastes additional battery when they can open Popcorn Time in the time that it takes for the HBO…

Are you using a computer? I think most people watch TV on a TV, where "legit" apps aren't based on Flash.

i have a sony bravia at home and using its interface with the provided apps simply sucks. it's slow and cumbersome, while in contrast it's so easy to plugin a PC with wireless keyboard / controller / remote and just use regular applications, a state-of-the-art web browser and so on.

Re: Inside Popcorn Time, the Piracy Party Hollywood Can't Stop

#40

Post by xnull6guest »

untog wrote: post #35
xnull6guest wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just did this. It is not that ads are not possible, it is that ads are currently not shown. So here's a question: do we expect that to continue in perpetuity? My expectation would be that of the root comment: the website will in the future support its traffic and hosting costs with ads and make huge margins. Is there some reason why this expectation is foolish?

It's an expectation without proof. We have no evidence suggesting they will do that, nor any suggesting they won't. So it's a pretty academic conversation. They could turn Popcorn Time into a Bitcoin mining outfit without telling anyone, too. With the advent of S3 storage and the like I would imagine their hosting costs are very small, and almost all at download time, not run time.

All expectations have no proof? Yes it's speculation.

Re: evidence. The evidence we do have is from precedent - former file sharing services that have made money from similar types of technologies (notably bit-torrent). It is an established fact that money can be made via advertizing and given both that CPUs are terrible at mining cryptocurrencies and that it would dramatically degrade performance the bitcoin suggestion is unlikely.

Agreed that it is speculation. But this is what the OP asked for at the top: speculations as to why the developers would invest in the project.

RE: costs being relatively low. Agreed. Revenue from ads are similarly small. The calculus is performed at scale - which is exactly what this technology hopes to be. The relatively low costs are what makes large margins with advertizing possible.

Post reply on HN