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>That or this will just send everyone back to piracy. I understand you're using "everyone" in a rhetorical sense but just to level-set about the real difficult

by jasode 4y ago

>That or this will just send everyone back to piracy. I understand you're using "everyone" in a rhetorical sense but just to level-set about the real difficulties of piracy for non-techie viewers: - downloading videos via bittorrent or visiting dubious warez websites of illegal videos with the risks of javascript popup malware - downloaded videos (e.g. .mkv files) not easily playable on smartphones, tablets, or TVs that have the built-in "smart os" such as Android TV and Amazon Fire Stick. A lot of viewers don't have media computers or laptops hooked up to TVs to take advantage of downloaded pirated videos. Even fewer will set up a DLNA media server so that their tablets can stream self-hosted videos. This leaves only the computer-literate geeks as the group that can substitute paid streaming with piracy. This small subset is irrelevant to streaming companies. For everyone else, they just pick 1 or 2 streaming subscriptions (e.g. Disney+ for the kids and HBO MAX for the adults) -- and just live with the fact that their choices of shows are more limited and the existing ones may even disappear. So "everyone" switching to piracy is a really small group of people.

danaris 4y ago
I dunno. During the earlier age of piracy (before the described "golden age"), I was seeing talk from a lot of less-computer-literate people who were doing just fine with pirating shows. More recently, there's even a new kind of piracy that has arisen: pirate streaming websites, where you just go and watch whatever shows in the browser, and as long as you have a decent adblock, you proooobably won't get a nasty virus. Where there's a will, there's a way, and there's a lot of will among younger people who aren't already indoctrinated into the idea that we must accept what shows our corporate overlords give us.
- maccard 4y ago
  >pirate streaming websites, where you just go and watch whatever shows in the browser, and as long as you have a decent adblock, you proooobably won't get a nasty virus. These existed a decade ago too, yo be fair. In reference to the computer literate part of your comment, my parents aren't tech savvy at all, and probably never pirated a movie in their lives until some guy came along with a £200 android TV box that just worked last year. > there's a lot of will among younger people who aren't already indoctrinated into the idea that we must accept what shows our corporate overlords give us. This sort of dismissal of "it's the young people" and talking about "corporate overlords" having some kind of magical control is getting tiring here. It's not a meaningful discussion, it's just navel gazing.
NikolaNovak 4y ago
I would normally agree or even be the one making that point. But interestingly, and this hasn't of course always been the case, it's currently the non techies in my circle that are downloading pirated content and buying cheap android ip tv boxes. The techies don't want hassle and risk and just pay for streaming, they're busy enough with myriad geeky hobbies. The non techies are blissfully unaware of any risk and just want free tv. And then there's the young ones :)
- AmVess 4y ago
  The person who showed me the home media server is a SAHM (stay at home mom) with 0 tech background. She streams the her library to all her devices. Set up was trivial.
hasbot 4y ago
It's easy enough to run an HDMI cable from the laptop to the TV. Over Thanksgiving, I mentioned something about piracy and all of my twenty-something non-computer-literate nieces quickly mentioned their favorite pirate sites. I don't pirate often, but now I know who to ask if I ever need to.
AmVess 4y ago
These media streaming programs are trivial to set up. Just as trivial to stream to mobile devices in the home. No "warez" no "malware". The media server itself downloads new content automatically. Making toast is more difficult.
TeMPOraL 4y ago
> just to level-set about the real difficulties of piracy for non-techie viewers You missed one item on your list: - Any of the free video streaming sites. There's almost always one up at any moment, and all you need to use it is a web browser, and perhaps an adblock to remove the noise (and avoid an occasional crypto miner). These sites tend to disappear after a year or two, but are always replaced by new ones. (As I understand it, they don't even host the content themselves - they're just a frontend with a search engine, aggregating links to multiple third-party players and video files.) You might not get 4K quality there, but you'll usually get 1080p, which is more than most people get from Netflix anyway. Such sites are stupidly easy to use, have been popular with non-tech-savvy users for over a decade, and (AFAIK) in plenty of jurisdictions, they're 100% legal to use. You probably can't get them working on a smart TV (I don't own one, so I can't say), but I guess that's just another reason to buy a dumb TV and a Chromecast instead.
sbarre 4y ago
You're not wrong in saying it's a harder path, but I guess for me anecdotally I know more non-techie people who are still pirating all their TV and movies than techie people. Anyways, appreciate the different perspective, and the alternate use of "everyone". ;-)

by jasode 4y ago

danaris 4y ago

I dunno. During the earlier age of piracy (before the described "golden age"), I was seeing talk from a lot of less-computer-literate people who were doing just fine with pirating shows. More recently, there's even a new kind of piracy that has arisen: pirate streaming websites, where you just go and watch whatever shows in the browser, and as long as you have a decent adblock, you proooobably won't get a nasty virus. Where there's a will, there's a way, and there's a lot of will among younger people who aren't already indoctrinated into the idea that we must accept what shows our corporate overlords give us.

maccard 4y ago
>pirate streaming websites, where you just go and watch whatever shows in the browser, and as long as you have a decent adblock, you proooobably won't get a nasty virus. These existed a decade ago too, yo be fair. In reference to the computer literate part of your comment, my parents aren't tech savvy at all, and probably never pirated a movie in their lives until some guy came along with a £200 android TV box that just worked last year. > there's a lot of will among younger people who aren't already indoctrinated into the idea that we must accept what shows our corporate overlords give us. This sort of dismissal of "it's the young people" and talking about "corporate overlords" having some kind of magical control is getting tiring here. It's not a meaningful discussion, it's just navel gazing.

NikolaNovak 4y ago

I would normally agree or even be the one making that point. But interestingly, and this hasn't of course always been the case, it's currently the non techies in my circle that are downloading pirated content and buying cheap android ip tv boxes. The techies don't want hassle and risk and just pay for streaming, they're busy enough with myriad geeky hobbies. The non techies are blissfully unaware of any risk and just want free tv. And then there's the young ones :)

AmVess 4y ago
The person who showed me the home media server is a SAHM (stay at home mom) with 0 tech background. She streams the her library to all her devices. Set up was trivial.

hasbot 4y ago

It's easy enough to run an HDMI cable from the laptop to the TV. Over Thanksgiving, I mentioned something about piracy and all of my twenty-something non-computer-literate nieces quickly mentioned their favorite pirate sites. I don't pirate often, but now I know who to ask if I ever need to.

AmVess 4y ago

These media streaming programs are trivial to set up. Just as trivial to stream to mobile devices in the home. No "warez" no "malware". The media server itself downloads new content automatically. Making toast is more difficult.

TeMPOraL 4y ago

> just to level-set about the real difficulties of piracy for non-techie viewers You missed one item on your list: - Any of the free video streaming sites. There's almost always one up at any moment, and all you need to use it is a web browser, and perhaps an adblock to remove the noise (and avoid an occasional crypto miner). These sites tend to disappear after a year or two, but are always replaced by new ones. (As I understand it, they don't even host the content themselves - they're just a frontend with a search engine, aggregating links to multiple third-party players and video files.) You might not get 4K quality there, but you'll usually get 1080p, which is more than most people get from Netflix anyway. Such sites are stupidly easy to use, have been popular with non-tech-savvy users for over a decade, and (AFAIK) in plenty of jurisdictions, they're 100% legal to use. You probably can't get them working on a smart TV (I don't own one, so I can't say), but I guess that's just another reason to buy a dumb TV and a Chromecast instead.

sbarre 4y ago

You're not wrong in saying it's a harder path, but I guess for me anecdotally I know more non-techie people who are still pirating all their TV and movies than techie people. Anyways, appreciate the different perspective, and the alternate use of "everyone". ;-)