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Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#561
post #301

I pirate everything. Haven't subscribed to a service like Spotify, Netflix, etc. in many years. I can listen to my music in CD-quality and bring it anywhere. Same with any movie, TV show, etc. And I know that no one is selling what I find interesting as analytics data. At the same time, I want to support creators, and I'll donate/use services like Bandcamp to directly support folks I appreciate. I have a $100/mo "don…

The challenge with this is actually supporting creators for complex works that are published by these companies. Take a TV show for example - hundreds of people work on these things. There's no real way to support the show when you pirate something. TV shows don't have patreons or kickstarters. Piracy is quite attractive because of how hostile the copyright holders are to end users. Sticking it to the megacorps that…

I think this is where NFT could actually be useful. Buy a video, and you have a license for it. The money goes to the people who made it. Maybe you resell that license sometime, whatever.

The point is that you can get the actual video file from ~wherever~ and you're legally fine because you own the license.

Now the streaming platforms compete for being the best video delivery service for the array of things you own a license for.

Movies Anywhere is the closest thing to this I have seen. It only works for movies though, and it's a centralized service.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#562
Streaming services subscription model is wired. I refuse to pay for something that I can barely use 2-4 hours per month (considering 4 streaming services).

Most absurd is situation, when I need to use software for business, but natively it has build in spyware and my data analyzing for AI (yes, Adobe, its you) and also there is no option to use it offline for more than one week, so piracy is only way how to have working software that I actually pay for. It absolutely ridiculous consisering that I pay for this software over 7 years.

There are no professional alternatives yet. Monopoly of Adobe with their agressive dictate needs to be broken.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#563
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a Prime account, but I'll soon be cancelling it I feel. The same products can had on eBay for less money with no shipping charges added. Prime video is quite unique, but I'm very much past them putting pre-roll ads on the content I want to watch. It's universally an advert for their own craptastic, homegrown version of an existing well-defined format. If I was interested in watching Law & Order I can start fro…

yeah, I canceled Prime a few years ago. I reasoned that if I needed the product fast then it would be faster to physically go to target or walmart. And if I didn't need it fast, then the default shipping would be fine. Their add-on services all felt lackluster too. Most of the prime video content is not well-rated.

I just cancelled Prime for the same reason.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#565
It might just be that I haven't really been pirating the last 5+ years, but it seems harder to find things now. TPB isn't a great source anymore. I'd join a private one and seed my fair share (I have a seedbox), but I don't really know what the good ones with good collections are. I'd go back to piracy for certain things like Portlandia, which I pay $7 a month for with AMC+. There's no other programming I care about with AMC+, but I can't find a good source for all the seasons of Portlandia.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#566
I buy cds and dvds and rip them still. Archive.org is mostly where I find new things to watch online.

I'm really not interested in modern media anymore. It will take my whole life to get through what was produced in 10 years or so that I was interested before I had children.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know I'm not going to change your mind, but this viewpoint just seems so strange and morbidly fascinating. What exactly does "exposure to homosexuality" even mean? These shows and movies aren't depicting gay sex. They aren't trying to convince straight kids that they are gay. They aren't even advocating politics. What specific content do you object to? My kid is Disney movie aged, and we've watched em all--it's exh…

Each of us is an inexperienced parent; we can all only do what we think is right. What I think is right may differ from you, and that's completely ok. My main objection to this really started when I saw the short "Out" listed prominently on my kids Disney+ account. Its an animated kid friendly short detailing how to come out to your family. While I don't think that watching a show like this will turn someone gay I do…

Do you also object to content aimed at children that discusses hetero relationships? That could potentially lead to confusion in children who are not heterosexual.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#569
post #556
post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you access the seedbox anonymously? Unless you use Tor (which doesn't seem practical for movies), they surely see where your connections come from, don't they?

You can buy seedboxes and VPNs with cash-purchased bitcoin.

Right. But if you only buy a seedbox and connect to it from your home IP, then it does not matter that you paid with bitcoins, right?

If you connect to it through a VPN, then that's a second level of indirection, but still you must trust the VPN. Because even if you paid with bitcoins, the VPN knows your home IP and it knows that you connect to a seedbox.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you are open to Piracy again?

#570
YouTube Premium has been an amazing alternative to piracy IMO. A lot of music I listen to (covers, Marcus Veltri) don't even make it to MP3s and such, so just ad free is good enough. The recommendation engine is spot on, it's how I discovered Japanese city pop.

YouTube Music has everything that Spotify has, but better algorithm imo. Instead of radio/playlist stuff, I can just pick a song and it will autogenerate based on the mood of that song. So if you pick a song that's good to sing to, you get other songs to sing along to. Play something from a soundtrack, and it pulls similar soundtrack songs.

I think this is the way to beat piracy; offer something more than just the song, video, all that. Steam achievements and "skip intro" isn't enough though.

There are things that I've been to pirate though - all the Sims expansions, all the crap that goes on Netflix for 5 months then gets removed, things unique to one platform that doesn't have anything else (e.g. certain HBO stuff), things with lots of seasons but incomplete sets of them.

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