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Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

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Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#421
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No comment on responsibility or culpability. But, "I want everything for $9 that used to cost $99" is an unreasonable expectation. People paying for cable and satellite are paying way more than the cost of even 5 of these unbundled services. And pay for tv still has commercials. These direct from content producer unbundled apps are still significantly cheaper than the old world. People's expectation of what content s…

Is it really? The amount of people willing (and able) to pay today 10-20 is likely ten times the people who paid 100-200 in previous generation. You see the same in gaming and film, where you have many many more consumers today than you had 30 years ago, and still they complain about “piracy is killing industry”, while their profits are through the roof.

It's also worth mentioning that these services are very big outside the US. Premium (cable) TV was never such a big thing in other countries, and those where it was somewhat popular never charged as much as the US.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then there is apple and ios where you can't really pirate the software effectively.

Eh. Most software can be pirated on iOS. Obtain an IPA (easy), resign it with Cydia Impactor and most apps will work no problem. There is now a "hack store" software that uses your Apple credentials to resign all the IPAs you give it and push them to your (non-jailbroken) phone.

There is really no benefit to "pirating" most iOS apps. Almost all of the apps that I spend money on, I'm actually paying for a service.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#423
post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could for years do something about it. I.e. start offering DRM-free video for sale. They never cared, so the conclusion is that they don't want to do anything proper about it, they will only spread the DRM paranoia.

To be fair, iTunes and Amazon do/did offer DRM-free for some music selections. I think blaming the distributors is misplacing the blame. The problem is that the distributors don't have the legal right to do that without contractual buy-in from content owners who fear that their golden goose will dry up if content is offered without DRM or if digital content can be kept and used in perpetuity by consumers.

Amazon has never sold DRM'd digital music and Apple has sold all of its music DRM free for over a decade.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean most of this in a devil's-advocate sense: The proper economic arrangement for those who wish to make a living with creative works is patronage. Someone asks you to make something, you make it for them, then you get paid. You then don't get paid until you make another work. Thus content creators shouldn't have an automatic entitlement to get paid each time someone reads/listens to/watches a work. If you work on…

> Thus content creators shouldn't have an automatic entitlement to get paid each time someone reads/listens to/watches a work. If those are the conditions for which the work was created, then they absolutely do. Regardless, downloading a work and distributing it, that’s theft. If the creator/financer made it available, then that’s their prerogative. At some point in the chain, that content left someone’s server under…

If a work is truly useful, it's better for more members of a society to have it at a low cost. The other way around benefits one person at the expense of society.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#425
post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are valid arguments for whether it is right nor wrong, but it is most certainly not "theft". Call it copyright infringement or piracy or whatever else.

It's worse than theft. When you steal a car, only that car is lost. When you infringe copyright on a massive scale, it dilutes the value of the original work and reduces the value of all future copies. This can be seen with music today. Rampant sharing made it so you can't really sell albums anymore. If you want to make a living, you almost have to go with a big label. It's also why most software companies have now h…

Absolute rubbish - and quite sadly I note that you're just parroting industry talking points.

>This can be seen with music today. Rampant sharing made it so you can't really sell albums anymore. If you want to make a living, you almost have to go with a big label.

This didn't happen due to piracy. Music piracy is dramatically down compared to the lofty heights of the late 00's. The culprit is music streaming platforms, who used their official licenses from the music labels to dramatically dilute the perceived value of music.

Music piracy was popular, yes, but everyone knew it was illegal. That combined with the relative lack of convenience (compared to streaming) meant that it never had the effect of dilution that streaming has caused.

Now that consumers can get a near-complete music collection for $10 a month, and the entire thing is legal and endorsed by record labels, there is a general perception that music has no value.

As always, the big companies cause the damage, take the profits, and pass off the blame on the little guys. It's a story as old as time, and people keep falling for it. Compare this to 'jaywalking' or 'litterbug's.

>It's also why most software companies have now have SAAS and we now are renting software by the month instead of being able to buy a copy.

How on earth you connect SAAS to piracy, I'll never know. In reality, that's being caused by companies realising that they can make a hell of a lot more money, and more consistent money, by moving to the SAAS model.

>All of those people I remember a decade ago who claimed they were sharing music to help the indy artist are nowhere to be found and their actions have only hurt any chances of an Indy artist to make a living.

Except numerous indie artists did make their break though internet piracy. A number would even put their own music on the pirate bay as a marketing ploy.

This isn't really a thing now, because gasp music piracy is dying, and now the Spotify's and Apple Music's of the world are the sole gatekeepers to music - for most people, at least.

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In general, when major harm is happening in the world, it is always being caused by those with major power - and that means corporations and governments. Those with power will always try to misdirect the anger of those wronged upon each other - look at the way the 'debate' over immigration in US politics has overtaken real issues like healthcare, taxing the rich/corporations, or tackling climate change.

Immigration is being pushed as a social issue by corporate media and politicians as a wedge issue which doesn't matter to the average person, but gets them really riled up so they don't get too upset about anything which actually matters.

Try not to fall into that trap.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#426
post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't Google/Apple all have pay per view for movies and shows? You don't have to have a subscription.

Because of politics and DRM, Apple doesn't offer Disney movies in 4K, for example. I really don't give a rats behind about Hollywood politics. I would have purchased if I could get DRM free movies. Alas, this is not an option. So I go the "remux" way, where everything is free, quality is better than all streaming services and there is no DRM. It's up to Hollywood to make change.

You should be able to buy and watch 4K Movies on the Vudu app, tie your iTunes account to the Movies Anywhere apps and your movie purchases will transfer to your iTunes library (but not in 4K). You can also link your Amazon Prime and Google Play accounts.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you product doesn't make money because of piracy, then perhaps your product sucks. GoT was the most pirated show ever, and also the most popular show ever. Piracy isn't that big of a deal if you make a good product, it actually helps.

So people are pirating out of altruism or because they want to steal content. You didn’t pay for the right to the content — it isn’t yours. It’s stealing no matter how you justify it. The creator and financer of the content isn’t getting paid when you steal. And GoT was popular which is why it was pirated, not the other way around.

"Our experience is, it all leads to more penetration, more paying subs, more health for HBO, less reliance on having to do paid advertising… If you go around the world, I think you’re right, Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world. Well, you know, that’s better than an Emmy." - Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2014/04/15/game-of-t...

Multiple studies in various countries have shown that pirates tend to spend much more on content than non-pirates. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/evkmz7/study-again-shows-...

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#428
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entitlement people feel to steal is always surprising. Especially on this board. I understand a lot of reddit is younger and irresponsible so piracy-as-the-norm is a popular trope, but among the engineers whose livelihoods depend on subscription models, we still promote service theft without so much as a hint of shame? If the economics of a service don't make sense to you, then do not subscribe. But to turn aroun…

> If the economics of a service don't make sense to you, then do not subscribe. That’s exactly what I’m doing. What does it matter exactly if I pirate or not? The money would not reach “engineers” and “artists” either way.

If you weren’t pirating, you’d have to find some other way to spend your time. Presumably you find watching pirated content superior to the free, legal alternatives (e.g. DVDs from the library) available or you wouldn’t be doing it.

If piracy wasn’t available , you might find yourself paying for some content even if not everything you pirate.

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#429
post #373
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>However, should you be able to share your Netflix username and password with everyone on the block? Presumably, your Netflix subscription has limitations on how many people can simultaneously watch it. So, yes, you should be able to share it with everyone on the block. Why not? By doing so, you're potentially preventing yourself from using it during that time, for instance if it has a maximum of 4 simultaneous strea…

The terms of service someone posted above says you "may not share with individuals beyond your household". Your neighbor is not within your household.

Interesting. My mother in law is on our family account with T-mobile. She doesn't live with us. T-mobile offers a Netflix Family Plan as part of our package. Does that mean my MIL shouldn't have access to our Netflix account?

Re: Netflix, HBO and Cable Giants Are Coming for Password Sharers

#430
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entitlement people feel to steal is always surprising. Especially on this board. I understand a lot of reddit is younger and irresponsible so piracy-as-the-norm is a popular trope, but among the engineers whose livelihoods depend on subscription models, we still promote service theft without so much as a hint of shame? If the economics of a service don't make sense to you, then do not subscribe. But to turn aroun…

I think the issue here is that culture should on some level be free. This is why libraries are free. Personally, I want to financially support media creators, but every time I get a forced prereel commercial, or Hulu inserts ads in a service I pay for, I make a mental note to care a little less. Every time I’m region restricted, I make a mental note. Every time my browser widevine plugin breaks and I can’t watch some…

This isn't a bad idea. If the production of the show has already been funded, then theoretically Disney can charge less for the distribution rights.

The problem is they won't do that though, they'll just pocket the extra. Bit of a tangent, but this is one of the major failings of our current economic model IMO - it is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged (because shareholders need profits), for companies to milk consumers for all they can.

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