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Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

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Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#891

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think copyright is ethical? I certainly wouldn’t steal food from a store as that deprives the store of food. That seems cut and dry. If I could photograph food and turn it into food to feed myself, I would certainly do that, even if it was illegal. It doesn’t deprive the owner of anything. There’s lots of injustice in the world. And I think IP leans more towards unjust than just. Do I think creators should…

> Why do you think copyright is ethical? I think following the law is ethical, and copyright is not only the law, it follows directly from the Constitution. > If I could photograph food and turn it into food to feed myself, I would certainly do that, even if it was illegal. Context and perspective. We're talking about a media landscape that is flush with content, to the point where people complain that it's all just…

> I think following the law is ethical, and copyright is not only the law, it follows directly from the Constitution.

Copyright was 14 years at the time of the Constitution. If it was still that, I’d have no problem waiting it out and only watching material 14 years old.

Following laws isn’t always ethical. The constitution also allowed slavery. Do you think owning slaves was ethical? There’s lots of instances where laws are out of sync with ethics and morality, and, hopefully change over time.

In the past 20 years gay marriage became legal and I would argue it’s always ethical. Same for recreational drug use. And therapeutic mdma and ketamine. The list goes on and on.

Especially when the copyright laws aren’t the result of some specific debate and determination but by very targeted lobbying by Disney and others to extend copyright from 14 years to its current length of life+70 years or 95 years for corporate works.

Upending copyright would have nothing to do with trademarks (perpetual as long as in use) or patents (usually 20 years) and can be reformed completely independently. Although those other IP topics could also be improved.

I’m not making a judgement on your beliefs or how you formed them. I don’t know you. But there are PR campaigns to promote copyright targeted toward school kids (remember “don’t copy that floppy” [0] and “you wouldn’t steal a car” [1]) and I think they are in alignment with “copying a friend’s video is like stealing bread” so you just seem to be using simile analogies. It’s quite possible that you reached the analogy independently. It’s also possible that you aren’t aware of how you reached this analogy and are influenced by advertising and PR, just like everyone else.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Copy_That_Floppy [1] https://youtu.be/ALZZx1xmAzg

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#892
post #852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verizon, who are well known for being affordable, honest, and "with the times", has announced they're going to bring back "cable" subscriptions - you give verizon a flat rate, and they get you all of the streaming services, presumably for less than you'd pay for them individually. Yes, the first part is obvious facetiousness.

I wish consumer protection laws applied to cell phone providers. I shopped around a while back, and walked into an AT&T, TMobile, and Verizon store. They all had big ass signs in the front window saying $25/month per line (with a bunch of fine print that can't be read from outside the store). Of course, none of them will honor that pricing. Also, none of them actually publish their prices. The best I got was some han…

This sounds insane and I'm incredibly happy for the situation we have in the EU.

You see "9,99€ / month" for a mobile plan? That's the full price they will take from you each month, no more. Only exception being the home fiber lines, which start at 24,99€/month but progressively increase every couple months to reach upwards of 30€/month.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#893

It's important to consider Spain is a wage-constrained country, so our disposable income is not comparable to that of the average American, German, Britton or French. These moves have a greater impact on us vs. the rest of the developed world.

10% of the population in spain was using netflix before this, as a reference 12% in germany, not that much difference. We'll see, but I think it has more to do with the decline in quality of the content and people sending a message than anything else.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#894
post #682

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure that's true, but then we've found the actual problem! And it's not viewers sharing their accounts with their families.

If more users have accounts then licensing costs are less of a burden to Netflix.

Yes, but the real problem are rising licensing costs, not account sharing.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#895
post #840

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> pretend a household is multiple houses To me this reads as a category error. Households are made up of people, and houses are made of wood. But if you want to pay more to Netflix when you visit a friend's cabin, or your own, I won't get in your way!

And to me this reads as petulant redefining of terms in the hopes of pulling a gotcha. To be clear, the portability afforded with streaming services is nice. And I'm all for taking advantage of it. But household has always been the combination of a physical house and a social group in it. To claim otherwise is silly. Can you find other uses of the term that does this? Even "family" is typically constrained to immedia…

> And to me this reads as petulant redefining of terms in the hopes of pulling a gotcha

You are the one doing the petulant redefining.

> But household has always been the combination of a physical house and a social group in it. To claim otherwise is silly.

Not true.

Household has a well established meaning that you are trying to redefine. The referent of "household" is a social group and does not include the house itself. The house is merely part of how that social group can be defined.

If your house is destroyed in a fire, you don't stop being a household while it is rebuilt. If you own a vacation home, the household doesn't change based on who might be visiting the vacation home at any given time.

> Even "family" is typically constrained to immediate family. Such that nobody expects family benefits at a job to extend to their cousins. Heck, we don't even expect it to extend to siblings or parents.

You seem to have trouble with meanings. Just because some employment benefits described with the term "family" are contractually limited, doesn't change the meaning of the word "family". In fact, even the term "immediate family" explicitly includes siblings, spouse's siblings, parents, spouse's parents, grandparents, etcetera.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#896
post #852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verizon, who are well known for being affordable, honest, and "with the times", has announced they're going to bring back "cable" subscriptions - you give verizon a flat rate, and they get you all of the streaming services, presumably for less than you'd pay for them individually. Yes, the first part is obvious facetiousness.

I wish consumer protection laws applied to cell phone providers. I shopped around a while back, and walked into an AT&T, TMobile, and Verizon store. They all had big ass signs in the front window saying $25/month per line (with a bunch of fine print that can't be read from outside the store). Of course, none of them will honor that pricing. Also, none of them actually publish their prices. The best I got was some han…

I pay 5 euros for 5G plan with unlimited calls and almost unlimited Internet. You can even take 4 plans for 2 euros each at promotion. :)

And 10Gbit FTTH from the same provider is just 12 euros. :)

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#897

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting you say that the content doesn't appeal to you anymore. I feel the same way. My observation is that, for the most part, most of Netflix's original content is reality TV and comedy specials. They don't even seem to be bothering to create great content like Stranger Things anymore. We are at the enshittification of Netflix stage.

People are really sleeping on how amazing HBO Max is. Their catalog is so damn good.

If I could get HBO in Germany I would but alas I can't.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#898

> The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thirds of whom were using someone else’s password > Subscription cancellations in the first quarter tripled compared to the previous period, according to Kantar’s research. Of all remaining Netflix subscribers in Spain, one-tenth said they planned to unsubscribe in the second quarter. So they lost 300,000 paying users whom they think will come back,…

> When the family are cut off, they cancel. The mistake Netflix makes is to assume that the families and friends, who have been using a shared login, will signup for a subscription on their own. They won't, the value proposition isn't there anymore and these are people who didn't want to pay for the subscription to begin with. I have serious doubts about Netflix calculations on this decision, but I also don't see wha…

> Sometimes they get lucky and do a good season of a show, only to screw up subsequent seasons.

Or cancel really good shows like The OA or Mindhunter...

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#899

> The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thirds of whom were using someone else’s password > Subscription cancellations in the first quarter tripled compared to the previous period, according to Kantar’s research. Of all remaining Netflix subscribers in Spain, one-tenth said they planned to unsubscribe in the second quarter. So they lost 300,000 paying users whom they think will come back,…

> I think the issue is that people who are paying for an account they are sharing are likely to keep the account active so their family members can continue watching, even if they are also using a competitor. When the family are cut off, they cancel. Definitely the case for me. I am able to help out 10-20 family members across 4 countries, and all I have to do is pay a measly $17.99/mo. If that goes away, I will be c…

I was on the fence about it since I share it with 2 people who wouldn't get a subscription otherwise due to technical reasons... but this is really shameless.

Re: Netflix loses 1M users in Spain over password policing

#900
post #859

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system we set up includes fair use. Backing up media is fair use. Again, no one has been deprived of their rights and the copyright holder’s rights are not unlimited.

Granted fair use is a thing, and rights aren’t unlimited. I’m not arguing against fair use, but many here advocating piracy are not arguing from a fair use perspective. Or are you trying to argue that all piracy is fair use? That would be a more interesting argument than pointing at the existence of fair use, not that I would agree with it.

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