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WaterBear – A free library of documentaries and shorts
- madmulita 5y ago"Sorry, WaterBear is not available in your country yet but we hope to be there soon!" I guess I'll keep pirating.
- smhg 5y ago> Watch hundreds of award-winning documentaries, anywhere, for free It would be nice if they removed 'anywhere' in that case.
- dmitriid 5y agoI mean, isn't the US "anywhere"? The world doesn't exist outside the US
- unixhero 5y agoGet a wireguard vpn from mulvad.
- kleiba 5y agoInteresting thought: isn't using a vpn a form of pirating? Can you even "pirate" something that is offered free (just not to you)?
- throwawayswede 5y ago> isn't using a vpn a form of pirating? sorry, what?
- kleiba 5y agoSorry, of course I did not mean in general but only in this specific context where the purpose is to spoof your location in order to circumvent location-based restrictions.
- peakaboo 5y agoNo a vpn gives you an ip number in the country where the vpn provider has servers. Makes it appear as if you are accessing the internet from that country. I don't have moral issues with it whatsoever.
- yissp 5y agoMorally of course I agree, I think the parent was wondering if this technically violates copyright law, though. It seems like it might if WaterBear doesn't have the right to distribute their content in your country for whatever reason.
- thanksforfish 5y agoRight. Content creator: Can you distribute my content? Only in $list-of-countries though. Distributor: Sure. If the distributor permits VPNs, how are they sure they are authorized to distribute?
- 3np 5y agoMore likely: Content creator: Can you distribute my content everywhere? Distributor: Sure. But because of $reasons, it will only be $list-of-countries
- thanksforfish 5y agoLegal and moral definition of piracy vary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_piracy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_piracy Unfortunately, if you don't have permission to download then you may be committing piracy. In this case, entire countries apparently don't have permission. If the system is guessing location based on IP address, then granting permission based on that guess, then I expect their permission grant should be valid. How would a user know that they have bugs in their permission system? If you connect directly first, are told "no", then bypass the system with a VPN: You probably understand that you aren't supposed to have access. What will happen if you commit this type of piracy? I don't think there's a loss of revenue, or damages so pursuing pirates likely isn't worth it. Obligatory, I am not a lawyer.
- 3np 5y agoPretty much. Intent matters. If you connect over a VPN with the purpose of circumventing geoblocking, it could be judged equivalent to copyright infringement in many jurisdictions. If you just default to connect over VPN and weren’t aware that by doing so you now have access to content you otherwise would not be allowed to access in your area, you’re in the clear.
- mrzool 5y agoWhich country are you connecting from?
- EB-Barrington 5y agoSame for me. Message appears right on the front page.
- scoopertrooper 5y ago> Where is WaterBear available? > WaterBear is available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Bonaire, Bulgaria, Canada, Cook Islands, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mozambique, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the USA. This will hopefully save some people a click.
- anarchogeek 5y agoYet they don't even SAY that if you're not in one of those countries.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- cyberpsybin 5y agoSorry, WaterBear is not available in your country yet but we hope to be there soon!
- superasn 5y agoI used to love watching documentaries but the more you watch them the more you see how most often they are biased and edited to show the authors / producers point of view. How a documentary is edited can mean the same facts and interview being used to show something being positive or totally negative. I guess it's true for all media but I've found this especially true for a lot of recent ones I've seen (last was Bikram yoga predator). Btw here is an awesome video that shows how editing can do wonders for how we perceive things(1). Though this one is about reality tv, I've seen the same done in a lot of recent documentaries too. (1) https://youtu.be/BBwepkVurCI https://youtu.be/BBwepkVurCI
- greypowerOz 5y agowell, to be fair to these guys they wear their agenda pretty proudly on the home page:) "Our mission is to drive impact around the world through great storytelling. Our platform is free, funded by carefully chosen brands dedicated to committed sustainability agendas over the next decade. These companies are vetted extensively by WaterBear to avoid greenwashing, and join the network to develop integrated partnerships over the long-term"
- peakaboo 5y agoSpecially today, all Netflix "documentaries" seems more like propaganda. I can't see any value in watching them.
- publicola1990 5y agoEven most BBC documentaries are seriously flawed. Nature documentaries especially seems to use lot of fake "natural" footage.
- tyjaksn 5y agoI recently watched a documentary that showed how they create these nature scenes. Especially for insects and small animals, it is not nature rather a professionally created set in a controlled environment.
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- boba7 5y ago>Pigs can't steal my data so easily because i'm in Slavlands >They block access to the service
- jl6 5y ago> impact films Is an “impact film” one which is optimized for conversion of non-believers to a cause, as opposed to being optimized for education? I am a “believer” in the green agenda. I get it. I support it. But I would like to learn more about the scientific reality of climate and nature, and a lot of these films turn me away because they just feel like emotional propaganda.
- throwawayswede 5y agoYou can't expect more when the discussion behind-closed-door is to whether "global-warming" or "climate-change" is a better term to get people to lean one way or the other. It's the idea that story telling is more important than actual and plain scientific evidence that will be the downfall of these important issues (that are being manipulated for short-term profits by green-agenda-profiteers).
- jl6 5y agoDon’t get me wrong, storytelling is important, and these kinds of films are important for the sector of the population that still doesn’t get it, and still needs to hear the call to action, but I’m not sure I would call them documentaries.
- throwawayswede 5y agoOur brains have evolved to be attracted to stories and story telling. I'm not exactly knocking it down when it comes to social situation (or even business/advertising), but when it's being used in the context of presenting factual evidence it's being used as a brain-hack to propagate an agenda.
- nkrisc 5y agoStorytelling is important because when you just tell people about a 1 degree (C) rise in average global temperatures they don’t understand because they know they can’t even tell the difference between 21C and 20C, so what’s the big deal? Most people simply don’t have enough relevant education to even know what to make of the raw data.
- tommica 5y agoWould be nice to see what there is available, instead of having to sign up just to see that
- Hfdlmsh 5y agoFree + sign-up ... so I'm the product, or so it seems.
- throwawayswede 5y agoPropaganda is still propaganda, regardless of whether it's used for "good" or for evil. From watching hundreds of similar documentaries over the years, these here look exactly the kind that I'd avoid watching because they manipulate the truth and tell half-truths (unnecessarily) just to propagate their agenda, which is usually not exactly enviromental, but seeming like they are care.
- mrzool 5y agoCould you elaborate on what their agenda would be, if "not exactly" environmental?
- throwawayswede 5y agoSeeming like they care, either for population karma points or for a more sinister reason like control. Like how the oil industry has spent billions to control the climate change conversation. edit: regarding downvotes I really don't understand the HN crowd anymore. It's like finger on the button ready to disregard anything that slightly differs from their world view. Here's a guardian link for those who are in doubt https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/08/oil-companies-climate-crisis-pr-spending https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/08/oil-compani...
- tssva 5y agoThe down votes likely aren't because people don't believe the oil industry spends money to control the climate change conversation. It is more likely your assumption that the documentaries at this site are somehow connected to this or a similar non-environmental effort given the organizations involved with the site.
- specialist 5y agoYou're challenging received wisdom, status quo. Wear the downvotes proudly. I treat arguing on HN as batting practice. I write to understand, refine my messaging. It helps to treat arguing as performance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_You_for_Smoking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thank_You_for_Smoking
- als0 5y agoI noticed there's a way to add a payment method, but I don't see any paid content on the site...
- areille 5y agoI think that people "dedicated to the future of the planet" and "avoiding greenwashing" should mention that online video generates 60% of world data flow (~300MT CO2/year) [1], and that carbon dioxide emissions are also paradoxically one of the reasons why these documentaries are created. This video is bad for climate change. Thanks for watching ! [2] [1] https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-online-video/ https://theshiftproject.org/en/article/unsustainable-use-onl... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJn6pja_l8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJn6pja_l8s
- eloff 5y agoWe have literally 100 bigger problems to solve before we worry about the climate impact of digital transmission. This will just be solved as a happy side effect of getting our electrical grid off hydrocarbons.
- mukundesh 5y agoSadly not available in India yet !
- anarchogeek 5y ago"We’re so sorry! Sorry, WaterBear is not available in your country yet but we hope to be there soon!" I hate region blocking.
- werber 5y agoI love that they just have A decline button for cookies. I’m so sick of the manage button, such terrible ux
- soliton4 5y agoits not free!
- kgarten 5y agoNot available in my country ... Region filters for IP addresses are just iditoic.