Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 960 posts

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#621

Post by [deleted] »

bradbeattie wrote: post #349
pluc wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What gets to me is exclusivity deals. Wanna watch this? Subscribe to that. Wanna watch that? Well itnisnt available on this so you'd have to subscibe to that. New streaming service launches with promotional exclusivity of something you like? Gotta get on that too. And don't get me started on sports! Streaming was OK when it was fighting cable, because it was cheaper and on-demand. With the constant greed, we're back…

It's a shame https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_P... . was never applied to streaming services.

[deleted]

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#622

Post by CrouchEndTiger »

ryandrake wrote: post #153

Piracy offers: 1. Unrestricted access to an absolutely huge library of movies, music and TV shows, nearly unlimited. Certainly not limited by opaque "licensing deals" between various companies. 2. Highest resolution/bitrate/quality that was available at the time of the work's original release. 3. No arbitrary device/OS limitations. 4. Can watch/listen/download from any location on earth with sufficient bandwidth. I d…

I’d add an additional point to this list: Piracy offers control over the particular edit of the film you’re after.

I find it so infuriating when streaming services only offer the extended edit of the Lord of the Rings films - these scenes were edited out for a reason! I pretty much only want to watch the the cinematic edits.

Same for Bladerunner. There’s so many different edits and the streaming services rarely declare which edit they offer, let alone offering options to choose your preferred edit.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#623

Post by szastamasta »

I think that we cannot separate it from amount of free cash people have. Inflation, layoffs, etc. People simply want to limit their spending on less important things.

It just has to be cheap enough and you have to have enough free time to pay for media. Not something you can do when your utilities and taxes are 100% up from 3 years ago and you’re constantly boarded with layoff news.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#624

Post by dencher »

godelski wrote: post #366
ryandrake wrote: post #153

Piracy offers: 1. Unrestricted access to an absolutely huge library of movies, music and TV shows, nearly unlimited. Certainly not limited by opaque "licensing deals" between various companies. 2. Highest resolution/bitrate/quality that was available at the time of the work's original release. 3. No arbitrary device/OS limitations. 4. Can watch/listen/download from any location on earth with sufficient bandwidth. I d…

Piracy also offers: 0. Ability to watch offline! 1. Ability to fix subtitle issues with minimal tweeks like change size or moving location. 1.2 Ability to get subtitles if they aren't offered (or offered in your language) 2. Ability to normalize audio. 3. Ability to buffer videos when on a poor connection. 4. Ability to create collections, organize, and track your movie as you wish 5. Arbitrary number of user account…

[dead]

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#625

Post by tzs »

const_cast wrote: post #404
probotect0r wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it's theft. The owner of that content didn't intend to give it to you for free, they expected to get paid for their work.

I could copy A New Hope once for every atom in the universe, and no money is lost and the original continues to exist. Theft is moving stuff. You can't move software or digital assets, you can only copy them. If I committed a burglary and instead of taking your TV I go to Walmart and buy a copy, then that's not burglary. You certainly wouldn't report me to the police.

Then how come a month ago you were talking about preventing zero-days from stealing files: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44578850 ?

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#626

Post by mystifyingpoi »

SllX wrote: post #135
crooked-v wrote: post #9

To really sum it all up in one place, check out the absurdity of the official guide on where to watch the Pokemon cartoon: https://www.pokemon.com/us/animation/where-to-watch-pokemon-... And that doesn't even actually list the movies, which are even more fragmented.

The problem with Pokémon isn’t that it’s fragmented across streaming services, it’s the anime itself where by Advanced you’re getting enough of the same formulaic bullshit it can drive even a kid crazy. I was that kid. Except for some slight deviations, such as the beginning of Best Wishes (Black & White), you can put on a sequence of any 10 episodes from any season and it doesn’t matter what streaming service it’s o…

> of the same formulaic bullshit

Sounds like every single mainline game until SV/PLA which tried the open world a bit. People still like it.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#627

Post by NalNezumi »

Maybe not something to ask here, but how does pirating work now in 2025? Last time I did it regularly wash during my teens (18 years ago). Is it still torrent? Pirate bay? I've probably lost my "sense" to distinguish fishing/virus/garbage from real torrent, so if things have changed and moved to new places it feels like a hassle (why I still use streaming, really)

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#628

Post by mystifyingpoi »

mxfh wrote: post #288
thaumasiotes wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think pirating videos will raise your electric bill by $25 / month?

Storage isn't free. running a 50 Watt anything 24/7 costs like 10 Dollars a month in Europe already if you don't want to be an anti-social leacher or want the convenience of an netflix-like media server.

I never understood (even in homelab circles) why people insist on running these toys 24/7. Just turn it off for the night, or use one of these timer sockets.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#629

Post by bjackman »

Personally I could trivially afford to pay triple for all the media I consume but I still mostly pirate it.

In Switzerland the media companies just make it so hard, and piracy is so easy. And I'm just not willing to jump through hoops for this shit.

If it's a small independent filmmaker I will make _some_ effort to try and pay for it but usually it's just not worth my time.

Gimme a website where I can hand over $10-$20 and easily watch a film on my TV and I'll happily pay. This was easy with 2000s tech. But the industry is too up it's own arse to deliver something this simple.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#630

Post by TrackerFF »

bee_rider wrote: post #133

I know this is pedantic but it is so annoying: downloading shows is not piracy. It is totally nuts to conflate unauthorized copying and sharing with the violent act of going on somebody’s boat and killing/threatening them until you loot their stuff. Calling it piracy was funny during the early Internet when it was all pirate and ninja memes. But really letting them conflate this very minor crime with violence was a b…

Fair enough, but if you torrent a show - which I assume most people pirating something do - you also share something, unless you explicitly turn off seeding.
Post reply on HN