The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017) • Hacker News Board

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#431

Post by twothamendment » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:27 AM UTC

jobu wrote: post #417

phil248 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

> But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. It amazes me how actively hostile most of the TV networks are towards viewers. It's very obvious that we're the product and the advertisers are the customer. If the NBC app crashes in the middle of a show you're forced to re-watch all of the ads from the beginning. If an advertisement doesn't lo…

I've been around some TV news people. They can't imagine why we aren't glued to our sets because they told us to come at 6pm and 10pm. They think they teased a good story earlier in the day. They think they are being so generous to let us watch something when we want to. It is already a huge leap to break the schedule and play on demand.

Yes, someday they will realize most people under 45 don't watch TV news. That someday will come when their current viewers die. The stations will be lost -they already "tried" streaming. Who wants to bet that they will desperately add more advertisements to any stream they can.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#432

Post by twothamendment » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:30 AM UTC

empthought wrote: post #10

jjeaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But let's be honest, 99.99% of Kodi and Plex use is purely for pirated content. Otherwise, I'm not sure where everyone is getting all these non DRM digital downloads. And most aren't using special plugins with Kodi, they just use Kodi to play their content they get from torrents and Usenet.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I only use Plex for format-shifting DVDs I've purchased. While this may be a violation of the DMCA's prohibition against breaking copy protection, it is not piracy or even actionable copyright infringement.

I knew I wasn't the only one. Once I have a disc in hand I'm going to handle it once, get it on the NAS and watch it on any device in my house without thinking about the media that it was purchased on. Throw an old laptop SSD, a raspberry pi and a USB wifi into the mix and you can stream your collection while driving across the country.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#433

Post by make3 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:33 AM UTC

jstarfish wrote: post #406

yellow_postit wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just don’t watch it. I don’t get why that’s so hard.

Nobody here got anywhere in life by making a habit of giving up at the first sign of resistance.

people survive when if they don't get to watch their favorite show

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#434

Post by spraak » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:38 AM UTC

jimmies wrote: post #62

I can't read the article because the website is down. But I have something to say about torrenting movies. Late last year, my old parents who don't speak English came to visit me for a couple of months in the US. I'm just a graduate student with a limited budget, and my mom is car sick so we couldn't go out every night. I didn't want them to waste time on Facebook after dinner until we went to bed, so I had to think…

That's a sweet story, thanks for sharing.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#435

Post by paulie_a » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:49 AM UTC

phil248 wrote: post #205

jimmies wrote: post #62

I can't read the article because the website is down. But I have something to say about torrenting movies. Late last year, my old parents who don't speak English came to visit me for a couple of months in the US. I'm just a graduate student with a limited budget, and my mom is car sick so we couldn't go out every night. I didn't want them to waste time on Facebook after dinner until we went to bed, so I had to think…

Torrenting for me has always been about convenience, not money. I recently wanted to watch a new show called A.P. Bio. It's free on NBC's website. But after struggling through one episode with lags and ads with no volume control, I gave up and just torrented the show. Until they master such exotic technologies as "streaming video" and "volume control" they're going to keep driving people to torrenting. Netflix figure…

I've attempted to pay for some shows and movies but after a while I've become sick of drm, slow downloads or crappy streaming. It is simply more convenient to just get it from a high quality source.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#436

Post by hn_throw_1234 » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:50 AM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #361

andrestan wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"enforce its commercial appropriation of European culture, history and stories" How do you actually mean by this? It seems to me that the vast majority of big Hollywood movies are of US origin and not European. For example see here, http://www.businessinsider.com/highest-grossing-movies-of-20... where only Beauty and the Beast could argued is "appropriation of European culture". If anything, it seems like the EU not…

You've got it ass about tit, Europeans can't create works based on US culture and sell it to them, but the US did just that to them 100 years ago but then forced crazy copyright on the rest of the world. No-one can sell derivatives back to the US. The US can use elves, orcs, dwarves, vampires, werewolves, Repunzels, Thors, Lokis, fairy godmothers, Romeos, Juliets, etc. commercially all they want. But we can't use Sup…

While there's little question that the US has extended copyright protections for too long (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act), it truly baffles me that anyone could assert that copyright isn't, in the first instance, done for the sake of the creators. It costs incredible amounts of money/talent to create stories, characters, entire worlds for film or the written word. That some believe creators shouldn't have rights over original stories in order to recoup those costs still makes no sense to me. Let's reward innovation and creators for their contributions to society.

It seems to me that you may be more opposed to a seeming US monopoly on entertainment than you are to the effects of copyright law. You don't argue against the merits or lack thereof of copyrights but rather make distinctions about the US vs Europe. Don't fall victim to mood affiliation.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#437

Post by jjeaff » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:56 AM UTC

monksy wrote: post #163

jjeaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But let's be honest, 99.99% of Kodi and Plex use is purely for pirated content. Otherwise, I'm not sure where everyone is getting all these non DRM digital downloads. And most aren't using special plugins with Kodi, they just use Kodi to play their content they get from torrents and Usenet.

> But let's be honest, 99.99% of Kodi and Plex use is purely for pirated content. While you're grouping them in that category, why not put Microsoft Windows Media Center, XBox Media Center, and Playstation Media Center, and Apple TV in that category as well.

Sure, but Plex and Kodi are geared for library and collection organization. They take your files and parse filenames based on common naming patterns used in Usenet and torrent sites. Then create a beautiful collection from them.

The one off video players are more likely used for home videos or one off video files.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#438

Post by King-Aaron » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:59 AM UTC

matt_j wrote: post #418

taneq wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Convenience, sure, but don't forget that games on Steam are often deeply discounted compared with off-the-shelf prices. PC games (at least in Australia) are often $60 - $90 on the shelves. Many of these games can be had on Steam for $20 or less, and sometimes for only a few dollars in a bundle or on sale.

An $80 packaged game on a shelf probably nets the developer the same profit as a $20 digital version of the same game delivered via Steam. Packaging, distribution and retail markup are a big chunk of the price.

As an aside to this, I find it astonishing that you even still see packaged games on the shelf. The last couple of games I bought from a retailer were just a carboard box, a dvd sleeve inside and a business card with a download link on it inside that... No need to pay a markup for literally nothing.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#439

Post by jjeaff » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 5:59 AM UTC

cheeze wrote: post #29

jjeaff wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But let's be honest, 99.99% of Kodi and Plex use is purely for pirated content. Otherwise, I'm not sure where everyone is getting all these non DRM digital downloads. And most aren't using special plugins with Kodi, they just use Kodi to play their content they get from torrents and Usenet.

I use plex to share home movies which were ripped from DVD (and converted earlier from VHS) 100% legally (although the MPAA is probably trying to make it illegal to record home movies these days too /s)

Home videos is an edge case use for Kodi and Plex. They have built in integration with services like IMDb for goodness sake. They don't even have good interfaces for namings and cataloging home videos. Getting custom stuff into Plex is basically kind of hacky. Not nearly as easy as dropping in a movie and letting it sync all the info from imdb automatically.

Re: The Long, Slow Decline of BitTorrent (2017)

#440

Post by tripletmass » Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 6:01 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #394

icebraining wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand what is the profit for movie companies in narrowing down their own market. The movie company sold the rights to show that movie in the UK to some other company instead of Netflix, probably for more money than Netflix offered them. Also, you're paying a fixed monthly fee, and unless you're part of the small minority that travels a lot, you're not likely to drop Netflix over not being able to watch c…

Licensing a movie in such a way that it can be played in France but not Poland seems as ridiculous as licensing it such that it can be played in Pennsylvania but not Minnesota. When will this Stone Age practice go away?

Telling people who have already licensed the movie in any territory that they must stop because $newlocale could resolve beautifully at $7 a showing for 5 in 4K VR, or that they need to go fund the footwork of censoring it for DPRK in 2018Q3 is evil. It's fine to let people seek a fine new venue available in locales they mean to not be seeing hurricanes in (but might.) New Search should get you. But not like 'Dear Farenheit 451' tyvm.