5 ms·

Is Hulu Driving People Back to Piracy?

22 points by edgefield 18y ago

nazgulnarsil 18y ago
bad move from the online community. Hulu represents a tenuous olive branch between online content watchers and the big media interests. If this gets screwed up it will be another 5 years before tv gets into the 21st century.
- chris11 18y ago
  I wouldn't take it that seriously. Most pirates want access to high quality material, when they want it. Sure, if Hulu screws up, it will probably take a while for big media to try something like it again. But I think pirates would accept something new pretty quickly. It's incredibly easy to get something off bittorrent, so there's no risk in trying a new website. Hulu seems to value their user's trust a lot. It's really nice, and shows intent. But I don't need to have a lot of trust to use Hulu. If I don't like how they let me access a tv show, I can just use some frictionless means to get it a couple hours later.
asciilifeform 18y ago
What do you mean, "back to"?
mikeyur 18y ago
One thing people have to realize is that this wasn't so much a Hulu decision as it was a Network decision. The networks want to control where you view the hulu content (at your computer). If you're watching it on TV you may as well be paying for cable (in their minds).
- mattmaroon 18y ago
  You're making an arbitrary distinction there since the networks own Hulu. They're just doing some good cop bad cop PR, and you're falling for it.
chris11 18y ago
South Park is a really great example of how to do online television from a user's perspective. 1. They are really good about getting episodes up quickly. 2. It's high quality. 3. Episodes are never taken down. 4. It's ad free. http://www.southparkstudios.com/ http://www.southparkstudios.com/ Now granted it doesn't deal with big media's concerns. It's not set up to make money. There are no ads, and the show archive is great, so it could be argued that it removes incentive to by season dvds. think Matt Stone and Troy Parker might be making a little money because of it, but it's from product sales, not from ads.
- endtime 18y ago
  That model won't work for most shows though. Are you really going to buy a Jack Bauer action figure?
- dangrover 18y ago
  Hmm, last time I watched it, they had ads. I do agree that it's excellent that they don't take episodes down. If the episode isn't available online, I'm not going to go watch it on TV. Hulu could learn a lesson.
- Devilboy 18y ago
  The only problem I have with southparkstudios.com is that it's not 'available' in my country (Australia)! Back to allsp.deltavid.com for me I guess.
endtime 18y ago
First of all, it's important to differentiate between Hulu and its content partners. I'm willing to bet Jason Kilar didn't make this call. Second, yes, it is a stupid move that shows a lack of foresight. In five or ten years, everyone will have their TV connected to a free web-based source of content. If the content owners wise up, then it will be their source (something like Hulu) and they'll get some ad revenue. If not, then it will be a pirate source instead. As we saw with Napster.....(four years)....iTMS, the sooner the content owners accept the inevitable the sooner they stop losing money.
pavelludiq 18y ago
Hulu is a U.S. service only. Should i find a way to trick hulu that i am from the US, or should i just do a google search with "torrent" at the end of the query?
- dhughes 18y ago
  The Greasemonkey extension for Firefox with the 'IMDB Pirated Version' script is great, you go to IMDB read about a movie and the script puts a link at the top of the page to any website with a torrent of the movie.
  - someperson 18y ago
    'Pirates of the Amazon' does the same thing to Amazon.com. IIRC the site was shut down recently, but i think the extension still works
vaksel 18y ago
No, it never did anything for piracy, because it didn't have as much content. I'd venture a guess that most piracy is for brand new movies, not single episodes of shows(for most shoes, some exceptions like Entourage exist obviously)
- rationalbeaver 18y ago
  Actually, I think you'd be surprised how often this happens: 1. New episode of favorite show airs 2. Forget to record. 3. Look on network site, not up yet. 4. Look on Hulu, not there either. 5. Pirate Bay and done.
kubrick 18y ago
In a word: yes.

22 points by edgefield 18y ago

bad move from the online community. Hulu represents a tenuous olive branch between online content watchers and the big media interests. If this gets screwed up it will be another 5 years before tv gets into the 21st century.

chris11 18y ago
I wouldn't take it that seriously. Most pirates want access to high quality material, when they want it. Sure, if Hulu screws up, it will probably take a while for big media to try something like it again. But I think pirates would accept something new pretty quickly. It's incredibly easy to get something off bittorrent, so there's no risk in trying a new website. Hulu seems to value their user's trust a lot. It's really nice, and shows intent. But I don't need to have a lot of trust to use Hulu. If I don't like how they let me access a tv show, I can just use some frictionless means to get it a couple hours later.

asciilifeform 18y ago

What do you mean, "back to"?

mikeyur 18y ago

One thing people have to realize is that this wasn't so much a Hulu decision as it was a Network decision. The networks want to control where you view the hulu content (at your computer). If you're watching it on TV you may as well be paying for cable (in their minds).

mattmaroon 18y ago
You're making an arbitrary distinction there since the networks own Hulu. They're just doing some good cop bad cop PR, and you're falling for it.

chris11 18y ago

South Park is a really great example of how to do online television from a user's perspective. 1. They are really good about getting episodes up quickly. 2. It's high quality. 3. Episodes are never taken down. 4. It's ad free. http://www.southparkstudios.com/ http://www.southparkstudios.com/ Now granted it doesn't deal with big media's concerns. It's not set up to make money. There are no ads, and the show archive is great, so it could be argued that it removes incentive to by season dvds. think Matt Stone and Troy Parker might be making a little money because of it, but it's from product sales, not from ads.

endtime 18y ago
That model won't work for most shows though. Are you really going to buy a Jack Bauer action figure?
dangrover 18y ago
Hmm, last time I watched it, they had ads. I do agree that it's excellent that they don't take episodes down. If the episode isn't available online, I'm not going to go watch it on TV. Hulu could learn a lesson.
Devilboy 18y ago
The only problem I have with southparkstudios.com is that it's not 'available' in my country (Australia)! Back to allsp.deltavid.com for me I guess.

endtime 18y ago

First of all, it's important to differentiate between Hulu and its content partners. I'm willing to bet Jason Kilar didn't make this call. Second, yes, it is a stupid move that shows a lack of foresight. In five or ten years, everyone will have their TV connected to a free web-based source of content. If the content owners wise up, then it will be their source (something like Hulu) and they'll get some ad revenue. If not, then it will be a pirate source instead. As we saw with Napster.....(four years)....iTMS, the sooner the content owners accept the inevitable the sooner they stop losing money.

pavelludiq 18y ago

Hulu is a U.S. service only. Should i find a way to trick hulu that i am from the US, or should i just do a google search with "torrent" at the end of the query?

dhughes 18y ago
The Greasemonkey extension for Firefox with the 'IMDB Pirated Version' script is great, you go to IMDB read about a movie and the script puts a link at the top of the page to any website with a torrent of the movie.
- someperson 18y ago
  'Pirates of the Amazon' does the same thing to Amazon.com. IIRC the site was shut down recently, but i think the extension still works

vaksel 18y ago

No, it never did anything for piracy, because it didn't have as much content. I'd venture a guess that most piracy is for brand new movies, not single episodes of shows(for most shoes, some exceptions like Entourage exist obviously)

rationalbeaver 18y ago
Actually, I think you'd be surprised how often this happens: 1. New episode of favorite show airs 2. Forget to record. 3. Look on network site, not up yet. 4. Look on Hulu, not there either. 5. Pirate Bay and done.

kubrick 18y ago

In a word: yes.