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Popcorn Time in Your Browser

popcorninyourbrowser.net

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Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#61

Post by sillygoose »

bsaul wrote: post #40
ThomPete wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that is only a problem that the movie industry itself keeps alive because it refuses to move past the idea of creating false scarcity.

Oh no, not that price scarcity theory again.... A van gogh isn't more expensive than my drawing because they're rarer or built with rarer materials. Intrinsic value is much more complicated and subtle than that... Giving money for something is also a mean to encourage people to produce more content, for example. It's also a way to say "thank you, keep going on please". edit : or maybe that's what you meant too, in wh…

> A van gogh isn't more expensive than my drawing because they're rarer or built with rarer materials. Intrinsic value is much more complicated and subtle than that

Actually, value is subjective. For example, if I didn't know I could sell a Van Gogh for a lot of money, it would be just as worthless to me as anything else I don't want.

In other words, a Van Gogh, just like everything else, has no "intrinsic value" that everyone would recognize.

Now if I could buy a Van Gogh for $5000 and sell it for $10000, I'd be happy to buy one. But if I could only sell it for $5500 it wouldn't be worth the trouble for me.

That's subjective value at work again. In the latter case, I'd value the time needed to buy and sell the painting higher than the $500 I could get from the exchange.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#62

Post by belorn »

bsaul wrote: post #40
ThomPete wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that is only a problem that the movie industry itself keeps alive because it refuses to move past the idea of creating false scarcity.

Oh no, not that price scarcity theory again.... A van gogh isn't more expensive than my drawing because they're rarer or built with rarer materials. Intrinsic value is much more complicated and subtle than that... Giving money for something is also a mean to encourage people to produce more content, for example. It's also a way to say "thank you, keep going on please". edit : or maybe that's what you meant too, in wh…

The "thank you, keep going on please" argument is a consistent one through out history, but there is a big exception in the last 10 years ago.

Imagine if you want a pay to have a band playing in your bar. If they went in there, broke every table, played music so loud that customers got injured, and then assaulted a few others, would you still feel obligated to pay for their performance? Would you still pay others upfront? A game developer can put malware on your computer, break your hardware, not have a work product, and you are still expected to pay up front for the next game.

Video (as in popcorn time) can do less damage, but then we had the sony root kit and the payment system is also upfront with not guarantee of quality or enjoyment.

One suggested model is a payment system which is "thank you, keep going on please" if you were happy with the service, and a "disputing the credit card charge" if you are not. This has however the problem of being illegal, so it just easier to jump directly to piracy and do donation purchases when/if you like something.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#64

Post by k-mcgrady »

FeepingCreature wrote: post #28
k-mcgrady wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much easier to streamline something when you don't have to follow any of the rules. The movie industry has to think of distribution agreements, localising content and maximising profit - just like any other business. When you have nothing to lose you can do what you want. I guess they've gotten close to this with Netflix. There are still geo-restrictions there and not all content is available but for most people…

Note that it's easy to get a false dichotomy here, to think it's just between "paying" and "not paying" - if forced, people also have the simple option to "not watch". I think what's needed is something like Steam or GOG, but for Movies. Preferably with un-DRM downloads because fuck if I'm watching movies in Flash. (Same goes for Silverlight - mplayer or fuck you. Torrents let me watch with mplayer. On finicky graphi…

>> "Why is it that in 2015, I can't go to a site, give them money, and get a high-quality mkv download"

Because it's costly and unnecessary for a business to cater to every specific need. How many people even know what an MKV file is? And if they did how many people have the bandwidth to download one?

There are so many options available to people now (theatres, DVD, Bluray, iTunes, Amazon, Netflix) that people are resorting to insanely specific demands (MKV files, availability while in theatres, all I can watch for $5 per month, the technology used to stream the content must be one I like) in order to justify their piracy.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#65

Post by 1stop »

eli wrote: post #56
rkangel wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the technical restrictions on sharing illegal content, due to copyright laws shutdown of websites etc., sharing illegal content isn't that easy to do. That someone has managed to do it in as user friendly a manner as they have, putting everything in the industry to shame (apart from Netflix) is in an indication of the failings of the industry. Netflix is a great product that falls down only in terms of content.…

Hollywood isn't in the moving bits around industry. That was never the hard part. It's like saying you improved Photoshop by making a cracked version that's easy to download.... Users might be happy, but imagine you work at Adobe.

That's not really true. The big studios are distributors of the content. They traditionally sold to Cinemas, and had DVDs made, etc. The fact they missed the boat on digital distribution is completely their fault...

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#66

Post by viraptor »

eli wrote: post #50
viraptor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinado will require payment after beta period. We'll see how it goes...

The question isn't whether it's possible to charge anything . They're not compensating the content creators. If I steal cars and resell them for a fraction of their typical price, does that prove the car industry is broken?

I think you want to argue with an answer to a different question. Gp asked about monetising - that's getting people to pay the service provider. What happens to the money later is a completely different issue of artist compensation, contracts, etc

I'm not claiming it's legal or a valid business, only saying that the service will not be free soon. If they get paid afterwards, than it's probably something distributors should look at in the future.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#67

Post by rorykoehler »

bsaul wrote: post #37
smhg wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean monetization and making a business are the main goals? I thought they were means? Means to accomplish progress in human society.

Is that what your boss tells you whenever you ask for a raise ? edit : that's not just a snarky comment. i always find it amusing whenever people advocate giving other's people's work away for free.

Do you say the same about Spotify?

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#68

Post by kriro »

qubex wrote: post #43
sz4kerto wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Availability and content. I'd be very happy to use Netflix if a) it were available around here* b) if it provided the same selection as in the US *: random country in the EU

As somebody in the same predicament and locale, I often find myself wondering whether it is any less objectionable to rent a VPN connection through the States.

I'm pretty sure the problem wouldn't be the VPN but rather the payment. Iirc they only accept US based credit cards/paypal for Netflix US. I researched it briefly a while back before Netflix was available here.

It's not impossible to get around but getting a CC from another country and the like quickly leads to pretty shady websites.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#69

Post by diyorgasms »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #64
FeepingCreature wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Note that it's easy to get a false dichotomy here, to think it's just between "paying" and "not paying" - if forced, people also have the simple option to "not watch". I think what's needed is something like Steam or GOG, but for Movies. Preferably with un-DRM downloads because fuck if I'm watching movies in Flash. (Same goes for Silverlight - mplayer or fuck you. Torrents let me watch with mplayer. On finicky graphi…

>> "Why is it that in 2015, I can't go to a site, give them money, and get a high-quality mkv download" Because it's costly and unnecessary for a business to cater to every specific need. How many people even know what an MKV file is? And if they did how many people have the bandwidth to download one? There are so many options available to people now (theatres, DVD, Bluray, iTunes, Amazon, Netflix) that people are re…

I don't see anything unreasonable about asking the studios to provide their product in a particular format. What if you wanted to purchase a movie, and the studios only offered it on Betamax?

Relying on Flash or Silverlight is similar. I use Linux, and Flash is officially unsupported on Linux. Silverlight has never been officially supported on Linux. If these are the options, then I cannot watch the movie out of the box, I have to find a flash installer (I had better hope one's in my package repositories), or I have to install wine and build Silverlight into my browser or some such.

I think it is totally reasonable that you would ask the studios to provide content in a manner that you can actually watch. Let's not even get in to the Blu-Ray encryption snafu and how that affected those of us who use non-commercial operating systems.

Re: Popcorn Time in Your Browser

#70

Post by xnzakg »

eli wrote: post #50
viraptor wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinado will require payment after beta period. We'll see how it goes...

The question isn't whether it's possible to charge anything . They're not compensating the content creators. If I steal cars and resell them for a fraction of their typical price, does that prove the car industry is broken?

Except when you steal a car, the owner doesn't have it anymore. If you would manage to clone a car and then resell it for a fraction of its price, it would mean the car industry is broken.
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