4 ms·

> refund ah, it's this kind of pirate streaming

MallocVoidstar 1y ago
The vast majority of pirate stream sites are monetized in some way. If I was going to use one I'd probably prefer to pay some small amount rather than deal with the hellish ads the 'free' ones use.
- Semaphor 1y ago
  Or you could use an adblocker.
  - MallocVoidstar 1y ago
    A lot of the pirate stream sites I've run into break entirely if you have an adblocker enabled. I'd guess it's a combination of filter lists not being tested on them along with much more aggressive ads (from sketchier ad networks).
    - pferde 1y ago
      Use a good adblocker. I'd never do anything illegal, of course, but a friend of my friend has been successfully using all sorts of pirated content sites for years, and swears he barely sees any ads. Or, you know, don't. The less popular these sites are, the longer they stay around.
      - MallocVoidstar 1y ago
        At the time I'm quite certain I was using uBlock Origin pre-MV3. I don't think I also had my DNS-based adblocker yet, though.
    - Semaphor 1y ago
      Maybe I’m not using enough of them, because I’ve never had issues with uBo. Or it’s because I use 3rd party script blocking.
- ngruhn 1y ago
  Idk if I'm paying anyway, why not the legal way?
  - timpera 1y ago
    I'm personally not into piracy, but with paid pirate sports streaming websites, you often get a better user experience and way more choice for cheaper than with the legal options. You only need to pay once and you don't need to jump between apps.
  - MallocVoidstar 1y ago
    Much cheaper and no blackouts. HeheStreams was $100/year for NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB, the NBA's equivalent was $200/year in 2021.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  - aaaaaaron 1y ago
    No DRM issues (like same quality on every device, no extra privileges), one application for everything, runs everywhere, no UX issues (e.g., long scrolling to continue watching series, no autoplay and no spoilers in the thumbnail). It's worth paying for such an experience, which the first parties don't provide. (Speaking in general here, this includes Jellyfin.)
    - freedomben 1y ago
      DRM issues are why I cancelled and won't renew Paramount+. Their damn Google TV app running on a completely stock/factory Chromecast w/ Google TV, plugged in via HDMI to an unmodified TV, frequently (always on the same shows, especially newer Star Trek series) refuses to recognize the validity of my setup and reverts to an incredibly annoying color tint rotation that cycles between extremes. It took me quite a while to figure out what the hell was happening.
  - Telaneo 1y ago
    IPTV in Western Europe is becoming more popular because it's decently priced for what you get. Say you want to watch football, but don't give a shit about anything else sports related. Well, you're probably still paying for everything else in a giant package for 50-100+ USD a month. Especially for someone who only cares about their team, watching two games a month, that's a really bad deal. Even more so if your local offer is burdened with bad commentators or ads you can't get away from. Scale that problem up to someone who watches a few different sports, but none are available as one single package, and the value for money gets worse, while the experience grows worse as well, being you're now divided between several services. Add in DRM and bad app experiences, and you get people who just can't be arsed to do things properly any more, given they are functionally being punished for doing so. Or you could pay a shady guy a few quid a month, but the service is good, and you get everything under the sun, moon, sky, and maybe even the stars. Can't blame them for wanting an experience that isn't trying to wring them dry.
- NooneAtAll3 1y ago
  > deal with the hellish ads psst, kid have you ever heard of adblocker?
  - gorbachev 1y ago
    Many pirate streaming sites don't work with adblockers.
    - AraceliHarker 1y ago
      The Admiral pop-up usually shows up on pirate sites.
matips 1y ago
You always pay for piracy or it is bad experience. You have to pay in your resources (private torrent trackers) or in cash (derbit, usenet). Alternatively you use unstable and low quality stream. Because of philosophy I prefer sharing resources more than cash.
- NooneAtAll3 1y ago
  > You always pay for piracy or it is bad experience definitely not my experience
- lm28469 1y ago
  I never paid a cent and always found what I looked for, just type whatever you're looking for + "torrent" on yandex and you'll hit something relevant very quickly
  - saaaaaam 1y ago
    From what he says in the post I think this guy was selling pirated livestreams of sports - something that people want to watch as it is happening, not as a torrent after the event.
  - whynotmakealt 1y ago
    Stremio + torrentio for me is a very good setup personally. It just works but I know of other mechanisms too. One of these was to actually download a torrent and use torrentfs or something similar and you can stream a video directly from the mirror without downloading it fully and on linux, I really appreciate its simplicity and I love it ngl
- Telaneo 1y ago
  You have to go pretty far out there to find shows and movies that aren't on public trackers. I definitely can find gaps if I go looking for them, especially if we start counting not finding a blu-ray rip while a DVD rip is easily found, or not finding a 4K rip but a 1080p one is out there, but for most anything friends would have asked me to dig up, a high quality rip is easily found. Not to mention that once found, it can just stay on a hard drive and be easily retrieved for next time. The only exception I can think of are local shows, but I don't watch them, specifically because they're only on Actual TV™, which I haven't watched in years, they only recently got onto the local streaming services. They should still be on local private trackers, which I can definitely agree is a hassle, but depending on how bad your local streaming service is, they can definitely a be a tempting prospect.
joshmn 1y ago
It started as a proof of concept and graduated to a free site, and eventually I put a paywall up to see if anyone would be willing to pay. Internally, I hoped nobody would—I wanted to have a social life and not be beholden to old men telling me their ghetto streaming site was broken—and I expected nobody would. The first purchase was for $100 on a "pay what you think it's worth" model, and after watching the value that others were willing to pay, I had a good idea as to what I would ultimately charge.

The vast majority of pirate stream sites are monetized in some way. If I was going to use one I'd probably prefer to pay some small amount rather than deal with the hellish ads the 'free' ones use.

Semaphor 1y ago
Or you could use an adblocker.
- MallocVoidstar 1y ago
  A lot of the pirate stream sites I've run into break entirely if you have an adblocker enabled. I'd guess it's a combination of filter lists not being tested on them along with much more aggressive ads (from sketchier ad networks).
  - pferde 1y ago
    Use a good adblocker. I'd never do anything illegal, of course, but a friend of my friend has been successfully using all sorts of pirated content sites for years, and swears he barely sees any ads. Or, you know, don't. The less popular these sites are, the longer they stay around.
    - MallocVoidstar 1y ago
      At the time I'm quite certain I was using uBlock Origin pre-MV3. I don't think I also had my DNS-based adblocker yet, though.
  - Semaphor 1y ago
    Maybe I’m not using enough of them, because I’ve never had issues with uBo. Or it’s because I use 3rd party script blocking.
ngruhn 1y ago
Idk if I'm paying anyway, why not the legal way?
- timpera 1y ago
  I'm personally not into piracy, but with paid pirate sports streaming websites, you often get a better user experience and way more choice for cheaper than with the legal options. You only need to pay once and you don't need to jump between apps.
- MallocVoidstar 1y ago
  Much cheaper and no blackouts. HeheStreams was $100/year for NBA/NHL/NFL/MLB, the NBA's equivalent was $200/year in 2021.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- aaaaaaron 1y ago
  No DRM issues (like same quality on every device, no extra privileges), one application for everything, runs everywhere, no UX issues (e.g., long scrolling to continue watching series, no autoplay and no spoilers in the thumbnail). It's worth paying for such an experience, which the first parties don't provide. (Speaking in general here, this includes Jellyfin.)
  - freedomben 1y ago
    DRM issues are why I cancelled and won't renew Paramount+. Their damn Google TV app running on a completely stock/factory Chromecast w/ Google TV, plugged in via HDMI to an unmodified TV, frequently (always on the same shows, especially newer Star Trek series) refuses to recognize the validity of my setup and reverts to an incredibly annoying color tint rotation that cycles between extremes. It took me quite a while to figure out what the hell was happening.
- Telaneo 1y ago
  IPTV in Western Europe is becoming more popular because it's decently priced for what you get. Say you want to watch football, but don't give a shit about anything else sports related. Well, you're probably still paying for everything else in a giant package for 50-100+ USD a month. Especially for someone who only cares about their team, watching two games a month, that's a really bad deal. Even more so if your local offer is burdened with bad commentators or ads you can't get away from. Scale that problem up to someone who watches a few different sports, but none are available as one single package, and the value for money gets worse, while the experience grows worse as well, being you're now divided between several services. Add in DRM and bad app experiences, and you get people who just can't be arsed to do things properly any more, given they are functionally being punished for doing so. Or you could pay a shady guy a few quid a month, but the service is good, and you get everything under the sun, moon, sky, and maybe even the stars. Can't blame them for wanting an experience that isn't trying to wring them dry.
NooneAtAll3 1y ago
> deal with the hellish ads psst, kid have you ever heard of adblocker?
- gorbachev 1y ago
  Many pirate streaming sites don't work with adblockers.
  - AraceliHarker 1y ago
    The Admiral pop-up usually shows up on pirate sites.

matips 1y ago

You always pay for piracy or it is bad experience. You have to pay in your resources (private torrent trackers) or in cash (derbit, usenet). Alternatively you use unstable and low quality stream. Because of philosophy I prefer sharing resources more than cash.

NooneAtAll3 1y ago
> You always pay for piracy or it is bad experience definitely not my experience
lm28469 1y ago
I never paid a cent and always found what I looked for, just type whatever you're looking for + "torrent" on yandex and you'll hit something relevant very quickly
- saaaaaam 1y ago
  From what he says in the post I think this guy was selling pirated livestreams of sports - something that people want to watch as it is happening, not as a torrent after the event.
- whynotmakealt 1y ago
  Stremio + torrentio for me is a very good setup personally. It just works but I know of other mechanisms too. One of these was to actually download a torrent and use torrentfs or something similar and you can stream a video directly from the mirror without downloading it fully and on linux, I really appreciate its simplicity and I love it ngl
Telaneo 1y ago
You have to go pretty far out there to find shows and movies that aren't on public trackers. I definitely can find gaps if I go looking for them, especially if we start counting not finding a blu-ray rip while a DVD rip is easily found, or not finding a 4K rip but a 1080p one is out there, but for most anything friends would have asked me to dig up, a high quality rip is easily found. Not to mention that once found, it can just stay on a hard drive and be easily retrieved for next time. The only exception I can think of are local shows, but I don't watch them, specifically because they're only on Actual TV™, which I haven't watched in years, they only recently got onto the local streaming services. They should still be on local private trackers, which I can definitely agree is a hassle, but depending on how bad your local streaming service is, they can definitely a be a tempting prospect.

joshmn 1y ago

It started as a proof of concept and graduated to a free site, and eventually I put a paywall up to see if anyone would be willing to pay. Internally, I hoped nobody would—I wanted to have a social life and not be beholden to old men telling me their ghetto streaming site was broken—and I expected nobody would. The first purchase was for $100 on a "pay what you think it's worth" model, and after watching the value that others were willing to pay, I had a good idea as to what I would ultimately charge.