4 ms·

I think it might be because of the ubiquity of music piracy during the 90's. In it's heyday, you could get anything off of Limewire, Kazaa, and of course Napste

I think it might be because of the ubiquity of music piracy during the 90's. In it's heyday, you could get anything off of Limewire, Kazaa, and of course Napster with extremely little effort. By contrast, pirating video didn't come until later, when it was more technically feasible (downloading music over a modem already took forever, can you imagine downloading full length movies!?) and by that time, the likes of Spotify had already made legally consuming music so convenient as to make piracy obsolete. Even now, the pirating of PC games is being made more common by the introduction of the Epic Store, which, regardless of your feelings on it, has added friction. Games promised to Steam users are being delayed or going full Epic exclusive and many users are saying "fuck that, we're not getting railroaded into using a launcher we didn't like" and turning to piracy instead. The video landscape is even worse, where it used to be only a select few providers had their own bespoke services (like HBO) now every channel is looking to make their own damn subscription happen, which is adding tons of friction, causing the boom in piracy. The music companies learned, and the video companies haven't, that the main way to counter piracy is to make the legal way to get something as easy as possible, so easy that customers don't mind parting with some cash. And streaming right now is anything but easy.

ChrisSD 7y ago
> Even now, the pirating of PC games is being made more common by the introduction of the Epic Store, which, regardless of your feelings on it, has added friction. Games promised to Steam users are being delayed or going full Epic exclusive and many users are saying "fuck that, we're not getting railroaded into using a launcher we didn't like" and turning to piracy instead. A lot of people said that about Steam and yet it became what it is today, with many titles that now require Steam (unless you pirate).
- ta999999171 7y ago
  Which was great, for the same reason Netflix was great - when they were first-mover and had everything.
- voltagex_ 7y ago
  It's funny/sad - if you check the exes for a lot of Epic Store games, there's no DRM - better the DRM you know than the (no) DRM you don't?
  - Lorkki 7y ago
    Steam doesn't require use of its DRM either, and it's well-known that several titles don't have any: https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games
MiroF 7y ago
Pirating movies was feasible years before Spotify.
tracker1 7y ago
Have to agree... I can only handle so many paper cuts from the subscription fees... I have Hulu (+Live + DVR), Amazon, Netflix and now Disney+, and even then pushing it. I'm at a point with the DVR crap on Hulu blocking commercial skips for most prime time shows that I've gone back down downloading half of them... I've also considered dropping Amazon. Netflix pisses me off and Disney+ so far only the Mandelorian makes it anything resembling worth it. If it weren't for the Fiance / Kid factor, I'd have already gotten rid of them all... I don't like having to jump between all the apps/services to watch something... it was easier to once a day, hit the torrent site, download new episodes of whatever and start watching shows from the day before. Trying to remember what service has Show X, or whatever is a PITA. Hulu's model is about as close as I've seen and Amazon has similar for more bundles. I'd much rather if I could just integrate Disney into the Hulu or Amazon Prime UI and search. Netflix will probably never allow such a thing.
- midnightGhost 7y ago
  Then if one service had it all then people would be calling it a monopoly.
  - tracker1 7y ago
    You mean like Barnes & Nobel is a monopoly for books?
Godel_unicode 7y ago
Limewire and kazaa came out in 2000 and 2001 respectively, by which point many people were on some kind of broadband. One of the main benefits of limewire was that it wasn't limited to music but had a wide variety of available video and software as well.
anthk 7y ago
>downloading full length movies! You must be young. We did. Fully. With aMule/eMule. They took days, but we got them.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

ChrisSD 7y ago

> Even now, the pirating of PC games is being made more common by the introduction of the Epic Store, which, regardless of your feelings on it, has added friction. Games promised to Steam users are being delayed or going full Epic exclusive and many users are saying "fuck that, we're not getting railroaded into using a launcher we didn't like" and turning to piracy instead. A lot of people said that about Steam and yet it became what it is today, with many titles that now require Steam (unless you pirate).

ta999999171 7y ago
Which was great, for the same reason Netflix was great - when they were first-mover and had everything.
voltagex_ 7y ago
It's funny/sad - if you check the exes for a lot of Epic Store games, there's no DRM - better the DRM you know than the (no) DRM you don't?
- Lorkki 7y ago
  Steam doesn't require use of its DRM either, and it's well-known that several titles don't have any: https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

MiroF 7y ago

Pirating movies was feasible years before Spotify.

tracker1 7y ago

Have to agree... I can only handle so many paper cuts from the subscription fees... I have Hulu (+Live + DVR), Amazon, Netflix and now Disney+, and even then pushing it. I'm at a point with the DVR crap on Hulu blocking commercial skips for most prime time shows that I've gone back down downloading half of them... I've also considered dropping Amazon. Netflix pisses me off and Disney+ so far only the Mandelorian makes it anything resembling worth it. If it weren't for the Fiance / Kid factor, I'd have already gotten rid of them all... I don't like having to jump between all the apps/services to watch something... it was easier to once a day, hit the torrent site, download new episodes of whatever and start watching shows from the day before. Trying to remember what service has Show X, or whatever is a PITA. Hulu's model is about as close as I've seen and Amazon has similar for more bundles. I'd much rather if I could just integrate Disney into the Hulu or Amazon Prime UI and search. Netflix will probably never allow such a thing.

midnightGhost 7y ago
Then if one service had it all then people would be calling it a monopoly.
- tracker1 7y ago
  You mean like Barnes & Nobel is a monopoly for books?

Godel_unicode 7y ago

Limewire and kazaa came out in 2000 and 2001 respectively, by which point many people were on some kind of broadband. One of the main benefits of limewire was that it wasn't limited to music but had a wide variety of available video and software as well.

anthk 7y ago

>downloading full length movies! You must be young. We did. Fully. With aMule/eMule. They took days, but we got them.

deleted 7y ago
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