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Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

torrentfreak.com

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Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#41

Post by realusername »

qwerty1234599 wrote: post #14
slykar wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess Netflix needs their developers for all the random UI changes nobody is asking for and some "unrelated recommendations" engine.

Have you used any pirate streaming websites? They're pure garbage, bad UX, bad image quality, choppy video. The only reason anybody uses them is the price or lack of legal options

I find their UI pretty good and at least they work consistently, I was sometimes pirating shows I had access for free on Amazon prime due to DRM issues, a good example it's not only about pricing.

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#42

Post by tsukurimashou »

chris_wot wrote: post #29
qwerty1234599 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used any pirate streaming websites? They're pure garbage, bad UX, bad image quality, choppy video. The only reason anybody uses them is the price or lack of legal options

Popcorn Time’s UI is very easy to use, and rarely has problems.

Popcorn time is cancer for me, I always have issues where I cannot play the video anymore, the loader varies (sometimes it loads fast, sometime slow, not matter the download rate). I think these problems are probably caused by Electron / some bad JS code but still I fint it frustrating, other than that Popcorn time is a fantastic idea. But I just cannot like their UI / UX.

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#43

Post by close04 »

PeterStuer wrote: post #36

Services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video would be a lot more successful if only their catalogs in regions outside of the US would be comparable to their home turf. If US clients would have the tiny tiny catalogs they offer e.g. in most of Europe, you would also be scratching your head how this could ever justify the subscription cost.

The major difference is that the EU does not behave like a unified body when it comes to purchasing the distribution rights. So Netflix negotiates with each country individually.

Unless you share it with family so more people get value out of it, it is indeed hard to justify the subscription for many people.

Edit:

> make the shows and movies available on servers in Canada

Is this a real protection against getting caught? I would have imagined Russia or the Ukraine to be better options for being outside of the reach of the FBI.

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#44

Post by 72deluxe »

slykar wrote: post #9
mapleoin wrote: post #2

So two programmers ran a streaming website bigger than Netflix from their garage?

I guess Netflix needs their developers for all the random UI changes nobody is asking for and some "unrelated recommendations" engine.

You had noticed that too? I have it on my APple TV, my "smart" TV, Android and iOS/iPad OS. I am baffled by the constant updates to it.

I literally cannot work out why they need to "update" it once a week (at least!). Since its inception, it has let you add films to a list, remove them from the list, browse said list, and watch a film and scrub/seek. What else is there that possibly needs "updating" every single week???

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#45

Post by rambojazz »

wp381640 wrote: post #33
55555 wrote: post #21

There is no way they had more paying subscribers than Netflix. Netflix has 160 million paying customers. These two guys had "more" and made only 1 million dollars total. What? Probably their total pageviews vs Netflix's total paying customers or something dumb like that.

The DOJ presser said the site was "larger" than Netflix, Hulu and Amazon combined in terms of available content - some media reports have misreported it as larger by subscriber count

Yeah the title is definitely misguided.

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#46

Post by PikachuEXE »

realusername wrote: post #41
qwerty1234599 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you used any pirate streaming websites? They're pure garbage, bad UX, bad image quality, choppy video. The only reason anybody uses them is the price or lack of legal options

I find their UI pretty good and at least they work consistently, I was sometimes pirating shows I had access for free on Amazon prime due to DRM issues, a good example it's not only about pricing.

I hate DRM too I buy games and play pirated version instead

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#47

Post by jmcs »

wp381640 wrote: post #33
55555 wrote: post #21

There is no way they had more paying subscribers than Netflix. Netflix has 160 million paying customers. These two guys had "more" and made only 1 million dollars total. What? Probably their total pageviews vs Netflix's total paying customers or something dumb like that.

The DOJ presser said the site was "larger" than Netflix, Hulu and Amazon combined in terms of available content - some media reports have misreported it as larger by subscriber count

That goes without saying, content providers are shooting themselves in the foot with an atomic shotgun with the current fragmentation and lots of content is not legally available anywhere.

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#48

Post by zaarn »

Snetry wrote: post #40
zaarn wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streaming is a service question. Netflix/D+/AMZN offers you a limited catalogue for 10$ or so a month. You select a movie from their website and it starts playing on your phone or computer. Pirates offer you everything for free . You select a movie from their website and it starts playing on your phone or computer. Why would any customer pick the more expensive product? Netflix and Friends need to offer a better serv…

Netflix and Steam don't have a lot in common outside of being a platform for their respective media Netflix and Stadia (or something like Xbox game pass) are more comparable in my opinion

It's not a direct comparison on purpose. Steam offers a service for relatively low cost and a fairly good user experience. Pirates have difficulties providing the same.

Netflix has a much lower bar on providing that service.

I don't think Stadia has much options for pirates.

Re: Two Las Vegas Men Plead Guilty in U.S. Criminal Streaming Piracy Case

#50

Post by latchkey »

mirimir wrote: post #38
latchkey wrote: post #20

Why would you do this from within the US? The mind boggles.

Well, TFA says: > "Specifically, Polo used sophisticated computer programming to [get pirated stuff] and then make the shows and movies available on servers in Canada," officials said. So the fact that they were in the US is irrelevant. But I'm sure that they got caught because they didn't know how to stay anonymous. Or were too lazy. Or got too greedy. I mean, there are far better hosting alternatives than Canada. I…

I disagree on irrelevant. The fact that they stayed in the US definitely makes it harder to be anonymous (friends, relatives, language, police presence, etc)... it also makes it easier to be caught.
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