3 ms·

The thing that all these everyman-boosters that have invaded and gentrified tech seem to forget is that people are capable of learning, and with the right motiv

by tomc1985 4y ago

The thing that all these everyman-boosters that have invaded and gentrified tech seem to forget is that people are capable of learning, and with the right motivation, they will. Can piracy be the bridge to tech literacy? Sure.

ohyoutravel 4y ago
The comment was: “It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services.” Which seems false on its face. Every TV has access to all these streaming services built in. Or Roku devices, which take moments to set up. This is unrelated to whether people are capable of learning, but I am even bearish on that when it comes to the average person in the current piracy environment.
- tomc1985 4y ago
  Sucks for them, I guess. Because with the right know-how and some setup it is pretty damn easy.
- mindslight 4y ago
  > Every TV has access to all these streaming services built in. Or Roku devices, which take moments to set up You mean those same TVs and devices that plaster your screen with ads, arbitrarily modify the UI, suddenly make certain shows unavailable, spy on what you're watching, require unwieldy DRM, take minutes to turn on, interrupt your relaxation time to run "updates", randomly brick themselves, become obsolete in a short several years, and generally dictate your experience based on short-sighted corporate whims? Visiting someone else's house and seeing the garbage behavior they put up with from their "smart TV" is as mindblowing as seeing someone using a web browser without adblock! "Piracy is easier" refers to the experience after you've gone through the work of setting up your own entertainment system. Setting it up certainly does require an investment of time and self-actualization, which for sure is more effort than searching "netflix" and following their "conversion" path. But after that, things just generally work without all of the corporate hassles. I don't foresee everyone choosing to make running a libre media setup one of their hobbies, but most people will know someone who has...
  - johnnyanmac 4y ago
    >"Piracy is easier" refers to the experience after you've gone through the work of setting up your own entertainment system. and the thread here as a whole is rebuking the argument that Netflix is losing money because people are pirating. Most people don't or can't go through this work, so that likely isn't the reason why Netflix is seeing drops.
    - mindslight 4y ago
      I agree that piracy likely isn't responsible for the larger immediate trend. But from the perspective of someone with a libre media setup, all these streaming/DRM/lockdown tribulations are like watching a storm from inside a warm house with a hot cup of cocoa. Especially on a technical forum where people should know better than to succumb to corporate ploys, its worth reminding everyone of that. And my comment did imply the end game for "most people" - technical friends/family running seedboxes and sharing them up. Current market wise, I wouldn't be surprised if the Netflix situation is people canceling their membership to spend that money on a different streaming service, and then swapping between friends to get the union of shows for a similar $/month. This would explain both pushes of membership going down, plus them wanting to crack down on sharing.
      - johnnyanmac 4y ago
        >But from the perspective of someone with a libre media setup, all these streaming/DRM/lockdown tribulations are like watching a storm from inside a warm house with a hot cup of cocoa. Especially on a technical forum where people should know better than to succumb to corporate ploys, its worth reminding everyone of that. ehh, It's more like a speedbump than a storm. There's too much money in the game for it to end up being caught in a hurricane. I just see the other side on how piracy can also harm more niche mediums and discourage businesses from even bothering to compete, which is why I can't even say piracy is a 'meh' at worst. The manga indusry outside of Japan has this problem in that it's 5+ years behind the already decade outdated online solution for digital comics. Several JP storefronts for phyical and digital manga, but that is almost non-existent in English. Manga is fantranslated so fast that there's no incentive to bother having official localizers outside of the already huge works. Easier to cash in pennies on anime adaptations and merch sales afterwards.

ohyoutravel 4y ago

The comment was: “It's easier just to pirate than keep up with all these streaming services.” Which seems false on its face. Every TV has access to all these streaming services built in. Or Roku devices, which take moments to set up. This is unrelated to whether people are capable of learning, but I am even bearish on that when it comes to the average person in the current piracy environment.

tomc1985 4y ago
Sucks for them, I guess. Because with the right know-how and some setup it is pretty damn easy.
mindslight 4y ago
> Every TV has access to all these streaming services built in. Or Roku devices, which take moments to set up You mean those same TVs and devices that plaster your screen with ads, arbitrarily modify the UI, suddenly make certain shows unavailable, spy on what you're watching, require unwieldy DRM, take minutes to turn on, interrupt your relaxation time to run "updates", randomly brick themselves, become obsolete in a short several years, and generally dictate your experience based on short-sighted corporate whims? Visiting someone else's house and seeing the garbage behavior they put up with from their "smart TV" is as mindblowing as seeing someone using a web browser without adblock! "Piracy is easier" refers to the experience after you've gone through the work of setting up your own entertainment system. Setting it up certainly does require an investment of time and self-actualization, which for sure is more effort than searching "netflix" and following their "conversion" path. But after that, things just generally work without all of the corporate hassles. I don't foresee everyone choosing to make running a libre media setup one of their hobbies, but most people will know someone who has...
- johnnyanmac 4y ago
  >"Piracy is easier" refers to the experience after you've gone through the work of setting up your own entertainment system. and the thread here as a whole is rebuking the argument that Netflix is losing money because people are pirating. Most people don't or can't go through this work, so that likely isn't the reason why Netflix is seeing drops.
  - mindslight 4y ago
    I agree that piracy likely isn't responsible for the larger immediate trend. But from the perspective of someone with a libre media setup, all these streaming/DRM/lockdown tribulations are like watching a storm from inside a warm house with a hot cup of cocoa. Especially on a technical forum where people should know better than to succumb to corporate ploys, its worth reminding everyone of that. And my comment did imply the end game for "most people" - technical friends/family running seedboxes and sharing them up. Current market wise, I wouldn't be surprised if the Netflix situation is people canceling their membership to spend that money on a different streaming service, and then swapping between friends to get the union of shows for a similar $/month. This would explain both pushes of membership going down, plus them wanting to crack down on sharing.
    - johnnyanmac 4y ago
      >But from the perspective of someone with a libre media setup, all these streaming/DRM/lockdown tribulations are like watching a storm from inside a warm house with a hot cup of cocoa. Especially on a technical forum where people should know better than to succumb to corporate ploys, its worth reminding everyone of that. ehh, It's more like a speedbump than a storm. There's too much money in the game for it to end up being caught in a hurricane. I just see the other side on how piracy can also harm more niche mediums and discourage businesses from even bothering to compete, which is why I can't even say piracy is a 'meh' at worst. The manga indusry outside of Japan has this problem in that it's 5+ years behind the already decade outdated online solution for digital comics. Several JP storefronts for phyical and digital manga, but that is almost non-existent in English. Manga is fantranslated so fast that there's no incentive to bother having official localizers outside of the already huge works. Easier to cash in pennies on anime adaptations and merch sales afterwards.