5 ms·

Morally, would it not be better to just rotate subscriptions? One month with Netflix, one month with Prime, one with Paramount etc? Or maybe rotate every quarte

by rcarr 4y ago

Morally, would it not be better to just rotate subscriptions? One month with Netflix, one month with Prime, one with Paramount etc? Or maybe rotate every quarter? You could claim that by pirating you’re instead protesting about the fragmentation of the streaming landscape and are holding out for an everything-in-one-place service like Spotify/Apple Music but I’m not sure you’ll get far with it due to the nature of the movie industry. Personally I think you’re probably better off with the rotation approach - after a few economic cycles, the streaming services that aren’t pulling in enough subscribers will end up getting bought by bigger competitors and we’ll probably end up with just a few big ones standing. I don’t think Apple or Prime are going anywhere because they‘re supported by other aspects of the company. Marvel, Star Wars and just general franchise fatigue is kicking in for Disney but they’re always going to have the kid stuff to fall back on so I think they’re safe as well. Which leaves Netflix, Paramount, HBO, Hulu etc scrapping each other for anyone without kids or who don’t mind the extra subscription.

TurkishPoptart 4y ago
There's no question of morals here. These streaming companies murdered Blockbuster, whose death must be avenged.
esalman 4y ago
Good idea, except a lot of people including me do not have time to do this every month. Personally I pay annualy for peacock (at a promotional discount price of $20, to watch premier league), prime (also annually because shopping) and Disney (because kids). I also have access to Netflix, Paramount and HBO etc. subscriptions for free- via fnf or promotions. If I badly want to watch something, I either check on Justwatch if it is available on a service I subscribe to, or I just pirate it.
- nitrixion 4y ago
  This is what we do also. I have many streaming subscriptions. If a show is not available or is only available with ads (Prime Video does this a lot), then I feel zero remorse torrenting the show. Additionally, if a show was ever on a streaming service while I had a subscription, I feel zero remorse for downloading that show once it is removed from that streaming service. These license holders are getting more greedy by the year. If they don't want to provide the content for a reasonable fee through a streaming service, then they don't get my money. Simple as that.
- scarface74 4y ago
  It’s also not convenient for me to go to work everyday. But yet I do because I have an insatiable addiction to food and shelter. It would be much more convenient if people gave me food and shelter for free. But for some reason they expect me to pay for it.
  - esalman 4y ago
    Classic American mentality of conflating basic human rights with luxury.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      So being able to watch streaming content is a “basic human right”?
- throw10920 4y ago
  > a lot of people including me do not have time to do this every month This is ridiculous. If you don't have ten minutes of time every month, you certainly don't have time to be watching any television.
  - esalman 4y ago
    I will go out on a limb and assume you do not have kids.
    - sixstringtheory 4y ago
      … do you think this somehow strengthens your position? On top of being unfair and condescending, you just gave everyone another reason you should not have the time to watch enough streaming services to warrant spending the time to administer all the subscriptions in the manner suggested. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume other parents reading your comment don’t sympathize with your position. At least this one doesn’t.
      - esalman 4y ago
        Well I find it unfair and condescending of you to suggest I, as a busy parent, should not watch TV :) I did not ask anyone not to pay subscription fees. It is just a matter of priority. Even before becoming a parent, I would find it hard to justify spending time on optimizing my subscription expenses, especially being forced by large media corps, and completely unnecessarily.
  - mojzu 4y ago
    The number of other 10 minute jobs I passively ignore a month could probably take up a significant portion of my free time, and many of those would probably provide more reward then trying to send a signal to a billion dollar corporation this way (shopping around for slightly better contracts, accounts, finding the cheapest variant of a product, etc.). There's enough to do in life that everyone makes trade offs on what they're willing to spend their limited time on, personally I'm not willing to spend my time solving a problem that can absolutely be solved technologically but is prevented from being so by intransigence
kmacdough 4y ago
Morality gets grey with growing anti-consumer practices and shrinking regulation. Legally protected doesn't equate to moral. Sure it's good for the content creators to get paid, but by and large, they aren't the ones getting paid.
- scarface74 4y ago
  How dare they spend money to create content and expect people to pay for it!
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Oh, ho hum. Music piracy was rampant until iTunes and the iPod changed the game to the extent of forcing (alongside court orders) Napster to go legit. Two decades later, music streaming is ubiquitous, consumers are satisfied, and music piracy is a retro anachronism. This is just applying market pressure to bring about necessary product innovation through other means.
    - scarface74 4y ago
      So do you expect all movies to be available for 99 cents or to be available a la carte like Spotify? Movies cost a lot more to produce than music. Besides, Spotify is losing money and even iTunes was never hugely profitable. It was primarily meant to sell iPods. The music distribution business is a horrible stand alone business
      - Apocryphon 4y ago
        I'm sure that even as technology continues to innovate, and tech companies find all sorts of way to find innovative business models (though rising interest rates might end that renaissance of creative unit economics), they'll find a way to curb piracy by fixing the problem of too many streaming services, that they and the studios invented.
        4y ago
tshaddox 4y ago
Would you consider it morally dubious to subscribe to a streaming service for a month, record content during that month, then watch it after cancelling your subscription?
throw10920 4y ago
This is the only correct approach. It takes barely any time to rotate services (ten minutes per month max, and you could probably even automate it - I'd pay for that automation, ironically), and it provides an extremely strong feedback signal to studios/services that you're not putting up with the fragmentation. Piracy is a tragedy of the commons situation that provides the wrong feedback signal (industry will just assume it's because people don't want to pay for things), so it actively makes the situation worse.
fasthands9 4y ago
This is what I used to do and is definitely the best part about cable to streaming. People now complain that the services resemble what cable used to be - but there were entire movies and countless sitcom plots about people tryng to cancel service. It was terrible for customers. Free trials of streamers have mostly dried up but rotating can still provide value - and probably better for your own time.

by rcarr 4y ago

TurkishPoptart 4y ago

There's no question of morals here. These streaming companies murdered Blockbuster, whose death must be avenged.

esalman 4y ago

Good idea, except a lot of people including me do not have time to do this every month. Personally I pay annualy for peacock (at a promotional discount price of $20, to watch premier league), prime (also annually because shopping) and Disney (because kids). I also have access to Netflix, Paramount and HBO etc. subscriptions for free- via fnf or promotions. If I badly want to watch something, I either check on Justwatch if it is available on a service I subscribe to, or I just pirate it.

nitrixion 4y ago
This is what we do also. I have many streaming subscriptions. If a show is not available or is only available with ads (Prime Video does this a lot), then I feel zero remorse torrenting the show. Additionally, if a show was ever on a streaming service while I had a subscription, I feel zero remorse for downloading that show once it is removed from that streaming service. These license holders are getting more greedy by the year. If they don't want to provide the content for a reasonable fee through a streaming service, then they don't get my money. Simple as that.
scarface74 4y ago
It’s also not convenient for me to go to work everyday. But yet I do because I have an insatiable addiction to food and shelter. It would be much more convenient if people gave me food and shelter for free. But for some reason they expect me to pay for it.
- esalman 4y ago
  Classic American mentality of conflating basic human rights with luxury.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    So being able to watch streaming content is a “basic human right”?
throw10920 4y ago
> a lot of people including me do not have time to do this every month This is ridiculous. If you don't have ten minutes of time every month, you certainly don't have time to be watching any television.
- esalman 4y ago
  I will go out on a limb and assume you do not have kids.
  - sixstringtheory 4y ago
    … do you think this somehow strengthens your position? On top of being unfair and condescending, you just gave everyone another reason you should not have the time to watch enough streaming services to warrant spending the time to administer all the subscriptions in the manner suggested. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume other parents reading your comment don’t sympathize with your position. At least this one doesn’t.
    - esalman 4y ago
      Well I find it unfair and condescending of you to suggest I, as a busy parent, should not watch TV :) I did not ask anyone not to pay subscription fees. It is just a matter of priority. Even before becoming a parent, I would find it hard to justify spending time on optimizing my subscription expenses, especially being forced by large media corps, and completely unnecessarily.
- mojzu 4y ago
  The number of other 10 minute jobs I passively ignore a month could probably take up a significant portion of my free time, and many of those would probably provide more reward then trying to send a signal to a billion dollar corporation this way (shopping around for slightly better contracts, accounts, finding the cheapest variant of a product, etc.). There's enough to do in life that everyone makes trade offs on what they're willing to spend their limited time on, personally I'm not willing to spend my time solving a problem that can absolutely be solved technologically but is prevented from being so by intransigence

kmacdough 4y ago

Morality gets grey with growing anti-consumer practices and shrinking regulation. Legally protected doesn't equate to moral. Sure it's good for the content creators to get paid, but by and large, they aren't the ones getting paid.

scarface74 4y ago
How dare they spend money to create content and expect people to pay for it!
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Oh, ho hum. Music piracy was rampant until iTunes and the iPod changed the game to the extent of forcing (alongside court orders) Napster to go legit. Two decades later, music streaming is ubiquitous, consumers are satisfied, and music piracy is a retro anachronism. This is just applying market pressure to bring about necessary product innovation through other means.
  - scarface74 4y ago
    So do you expect all movies to be available for 99 cents or to be available a la carte like Spotify? Movies cost a lot more to produce than music. Besides, Spotify is losing money and even iTunes was never hugely profitable. It was primarily meant to sell iPods. The music distribution business is a horrible stand alone business
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      I'm sure that even as technology continues to innovate, and tech companies find all sorts of way to find innovative business models (though rising interest rates might end that renaissance of creative unit economics), they'll find a way to curb piracy by fixing the problem of too many streaming services, that they and the studios invented.
      - 4y ago

tshaddox 4y ago

Would you consider it morally dubious to subscribe to a streaming service for a month, record content during that month, then watch it after cancelling your subscription?

throw10920 4y ago

This is the only correct approach. It takes barely any time to rotate services (ten minutes per month max, and you could probably even automate it - I'd pay for that automation, ironically), and it provides an extremely strong feedback signal to studios/services that you're not putting up with the fragmentation. Piracy is a tragedy of the commons situation that provides the wrong feedback signal (industry will just assume it's because people don't want to pay for things), so it actively makes the situation worse.

fasthands9 4y ago

This is what I used to do and is definitely the best part about cable to streaming. People now complain that the services resemble what cable used to be - but there were entire movies and countless sitcom plots about people tryng to cancel service. It was terrible for customers. Free trials of streamers have mostly dried up but rotating can still provide value - and probably better for your own time.