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

781–790 of 960 posts

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#781

Post by jimbokun »

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…

No one is offering that service because it would be completely illegal.

You can't just offer all the content ever created without the rights holders to that content agreeing.

(I expect many will say those rights holders deserve zero compensation because they are large greedy corporations. Conveniently ignoring that piracy also means the creators of the content also get zero compensation for their work.)

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#783

Post by jimbokun »

psadauskas wrote: post #766
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a case study in why competitive markets are important in general. Copyright is a government-granted monopoly but the monopoly is hard to enforce. It works because most people actually want to support the creators, not because DRM is effective or anything like that. So you have the uncommon situation in which a monopoly (the copyright holder) is operating in parallel to a competitive black market for content d…

I really want to support the creators! But by paying for movie tickets or streaming services, very little of the money I pay goes to the creators. It mostly goes to the executives and financiers, or the megastar actors that I don't really care about.

Piracy gives zero money to the creators.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#784

Post by foobarian »

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…

1.3 Ability to make your own subtitles so your Klingon grandma can watch the movie

1.4 Ability to edit the video so your 10 year old can watch Top Secret! without gross anal sex jokes

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#785

Post by jimbokun »

therealpygon wrote: post #750
JambalayaJimbo wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The black market is only more competitive because it doesn’t bear the costs of actually creating the content.

None of them are paying the cost to create the content for movies and TV, except for their own original shows. I also have no problem paying a company to watch their original content…that’s completely fair. I also have no problem paying toward the “cost of creating content” as you say. I have a problem with how media is carved up to make sure you have to use multiple services and maximize profit. I have a problem wit…

What do you do instead to make sure the creators are fairly compensated?

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#786

Post by [deleted] »

presentation wrote: post #539
Dylan16807 wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subtitles are often a very dumb failure point, especially when English subtitles aren't available in half the world for basically no reason.

I have another problem, which is that my wife is Japanese and I’m American, and if we watch a French movie then I want the English subs and she wants the Japanese subs. Making that work with streaming services is very painful.

[deleted]

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#787

Post by varelse »

jimbokun wrote: post #783
psadauskas wrote: post #766

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really want to support the creators! But by paying for movie tickets or streaming services, very little of the money I pay goes to the creators. It mostly goes to the executives and financiers, or the megastar actors that I don't really care about.

Piracy gives zero money to the creators.

[dead]

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#788

Post by thiht »

simianparrot wrote: post #594
frollogaston wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Streaming was cheaper than what existed before, and still is. Inflation-adjusted, movies and TV were insanely expensive back then, yet people willingly paid. And the movies were better. Who's greedy, companies wanting to offer nonessential entertainment for a price, or people who want it for free?

Nobody I ever talk to cancel Netflix because it’s too expensive. They cancel it because it runs out of content they care about. Including me. I’m not keeping a sub for that one week a year I find something I enjoy. It’s absolutely a service problem.

It's both. I canceled when they increased their pricing again (a few months ago), because there's no way I'll pay more when neither the service nor the catalog gets better. I would have kept my subscription if they hadn't increased the price, regardless of any changes to the catalog.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#789

Post by Cyph0n »

SSLy wrote: post #755
PetitPrince wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In cases of TV shows Can you give me some examples of those guerilla remaster ? I know of the various Star Wars projects (Harmy and the likes) and the remaster from "La Classe Américaine" , but I don't know any others. A French movie that bungle together several excerpt from classic Warner movie to tell its own humorous story. A cult classic for French millennials. The director later on went on to make The Artist t…

Right now it's usually CINEPHiLES remuxes, that pick absolute best sources available, and sometimes splice the video to get each shot the best possible treatment from the available bitstreams

Many other groups do this; look for the HYBRID tag.

Re: Streaming services are driving viewers back to piracy

#790

Post by appease7727 »

jimbokun wrote: post #783
psadauskas wrote: post #766

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really want to support the creators! But by paying for movie tickets or streaming services, very little of the money I pay goes to the creators. It mostly goes to the executives and financiers, or the megastar actors that I don't really care about.

Piracy gives zero money to the creators.

It also gives zero money to scum-sucking studios and labels and worthless bureaucrats that only give the author a 2% cut.
Post reply on HN