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I think a lot of folks are mistaking this service for the front-end store. If I create a perfectly reputable storefront with a "We use thirdparty paidlink.to f

I think a lot of folks are mistaking this service for the front-end store. If I create a perfectly reputable storefront with a "We use thirdparty paidlink.to for simple one-time purchases", it's quite easy to understand how you get customers to use this. It's no different than "We use stripe, I promise this popup window that asks for credit information is legit".

gowld 4y ago
The difference is that, when I am shopping on InterestingContentForSaleSite.com, now I have TWO sketchy companeis to worry about, InterestingContentForSaleSite.com and paidlinkto.com 2 vendors is infinitely worse than 1, because they can blame each other for whatever goes wrong, creating an unbreakable circle of blame. If I try to chargeback paidlink.to, they can say "the link works, not our fault that the user and InterestingContentForSaleSite.com disagree on the value of the link". At least PayPal has some reputation for consumer protection.
SamBam 4y ago
Agreed. As an example, I buy sheet music PDFs from online stores. The stores often show the first part of a PDF and then you pay and get access to download the PDF. It would be easy to imagine then replacing their system with this. As a customer, I see no real difference. If I paid the store and didn't get the sheet music, of probably be stuck in credit card chargeback hell anyway. As the store, there are probably some downsides. E.g. their own system can probably give me a unique link. That link may expire after I use it. With this system, there's nothing preventing me from tweeting the link if I wanted to.
- Raydovsky 4y ago
  But you can tweet the link to your files uploaded to Google drive
  - thatguy0900 4y ago
    I can see how it would be more mentally upsetting to have to pay the pirates bandwidth charge with your servers even if it's realistically the same thing
    - SamBam 4y ago
      But also it's just another hurdle, and increases the acknowledgement that the person doing this is really pirating. If I've paid for a piece of sheet music and my discord group says "hey, can we get a link to it?" I might not even think twice about just posting the link to the url. But if I actually have to upload it to some file sharing website and then post the link to that url, I've really made it clear to myself that I'm sharing something that shouldn't be shared. Obviously they're the same thing, but I feel like adding barriers to sharing probably does reduce them somewhat.
hanniabu 4y ago
But all this does is create a middleman link, so people can just share the final link and bypass the payment
- alwayslikethis 4y ago
  i assume you can make the final link single access or limited time access (expires 3 hours after first request, which presumably comes from you paying the link)
  - _betty_ 4y ago
    the end link is on another service (eg a file you host yourself, an unlisted youtube video etc)
- josefrichter 4y ago
  Yes. But most people don’t like stealing. You can reshare anything you purchased online already today, this service doesn’t change anything in this respect.
- janalsncm 4y ago
  Isn’t that true with most digital goods? If it’s a pdf someone can upload it elsewhere, same with images or songs. Piracy is only mitigated by convenience.
- BirAdam 4y ago
  Just block the referrers that are not paidlink

gowld 4y ago

The difference is that, when I am shopping on InterestingContentForSaleSite.com, now I have TWO sketchy companeis to worry about, InterestingContentForSaleSite.com and paidlinkto.com 2 vendors is infinitely worse than 1, because they can blame each other for whatever goes wrong, creating an unbreakable circle of blame. If I try to chargeback paidlink.to, they can say "the link works, not our fault that the user and InterestingContentForSaleSite.com disagree on the value of the link". At least PayPal has some reputation for consumer protection.

SamBam 4y ago

Agreed. As an example, I buy sheet music PDFs from online stores. The stores often show the first part of a PDF and then you pay and get access to download the PDF. It would be easy to imagine then replacing their system with this. As a customer, I see no real difference. If I paid the store and didn't get the sheet music, of probably be stuck in credit card chargeback hell anyway. As the store, there are probably some downsides. E.g. their own system can probably give me a unique link. That link may expire after I use it. With this system, there's nothing preventing me from tweeting the link if I wanted to.

Raydovsky 4y ago
But you can tweet the link to your files uploaded to Google drive
- thatguy0900 4y ago
  I can see how it would be more mentally upsetting to have to pay the pirates bandwidth charge with your servers even if it's realistically the same thing
  - SamBam 4y ago
    But also it's just another hurdle, and increases the acknowledgement that the person doing this is really pirating. If I've paid for a piece of sheet music and my discord group says "hey, can we get a link to it?" I might not even think twice about just posting the link to the url. But if I actually have to upload it to some file sharing website and then post the link to that url, I've really made it clear to myself that I'm sharing something that shouldn't be shared. Obviously they're the same thing, but I feel like adding barriers to sharing probably does reduce them somewhat.

hanniabu 4y ago

But all this does is create a middleman link, so people can just share the final link and bypass the payment

alwayslikethis 4y ago
i assume you can make the final link single access or limited time access (expires 3 hours after first request, which presumably comes from you paying the link)
- _betty_ 4y ago
  the end link is on another service (eg a file you host yourself, an unlisted youtube video etc)
josefrichter 4y ago
Yes. But most people don’t like stealing. You can reshare anything you purchased online already today, this service doesn’t change anything in this respect.
janalsncm 4y ago
Isn’t that true with most digital goods? If it’s a pdf someone can upload it elsewhere, same with images or songs. Piracy is only mitigated by convenience.
BirAdam 4y ago
Just block the referrers that are not paidlink