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Thanks to these guys and ones prior to them (ShareReactor) we now enjoy free content on Hulu and other sites! I no longer use Bit Torrent, but do thank these g

Thanks to these guys and ones prior to them (ShareReactor) we now enjoy free content on Hulu and other sites! I no longer use Bit Torrent, but do thank these guys for forcing old media's hand!

mingdingo 18y ago
Seriously. The South Park guys caught on, and with every single episode available on their site, why would you even bother to pirate the episodes? Side note: Even when people were pirating their stuff, they were just happy that people liked the show.
- vegai 18y ago
  There's one reason: flash. When we get a good video standard over the web, then yes, there's one less reason to pirate stuff like that.
  - nailer 18y ago
    Why isn't Flash H264 good?
    - halo 18y ago
      One reason is that the Linux version of Flash is terrible last time I used it. Not even from a "open web principles" or "proprietary software is evil!" point of view, but rather in a "it crashes the browser on every 2nd or 3rd video viewing" perspective.
      - staunch 18y ago
        Run it in nspluginwrapper, so that when Flash crashes it doesn't take down the browser. You just have to refresh the page for the Flash object to run again. Flash crashes less than once a day for me, and I use Flash a lot.
      - Scriptor 18y ago
        Also, I think Flash on OSX buffers more slowly than on Windows. It's why whenever I want to see something online I have to reboot into my Windows partition, where the video almost never has to stop to buffer. On OSX however, buffering for several minutes only leads to about 20-30 seconds of the actual video being loaded.
        philwelch 18y ago
        I've never had that problem and have used Flash video on Mac OS X for years.
      - nailer 18y ago
        I don't get that, at least on 32bit Ubuntu at home, although I hear people have a pretty crap experience. Have always found it pretty stable on Fedora / Ubuntu for the last decade actually - I get the feeling they do all their testing on major distros only. However we've just moved to 64bit Linux Flash 10 alpha on RHEL at work - which I suspect might change my impression. It has Z axis issues at least which the current 32bit one doesn't.
  - carterschonwald 18y ago
    actually, the version on the southpark site is higher resolution than the torrents, the only issue i've had is that the content delivery network stutters enough that dowloading yields a better quality of experience
  - omouse 18y ago
    You can stream using whatever media player you like. We already have good video standards, it's just that people don't like dealing with their native video player and websites somehow feel that streaming Flash is easier.
- gamache 18y ago
  The widespread "piracy" of the Spirit Of Christmas short is what made South Park as popular as it was, early on.
- vaksel 18y ago
  Because people want to see the stuff right now. Southpark example, they don't upload the latest episodes right away
  - mingdingo 18y ago
    In my experience it takes a day. I don't think torrents could top that, even if they tried. I really think South Park gets it. 24 hours after a new episode airs, they put it online. That's pretty damn reasonable.
    - vaksel 18y ago
      Not really...shows like that, people want to discuss with others. If you have to wait 24 hours for the show to be upped, you miss out on all the watercooler talk the next day. If torrents can up a show within 20 minutes, surely the show's creators can do it as well. If you are upping the thing anyways...I see no reason why your fans should have to wait an extra day.
      - mingdingo 18y ago
        If they could put it on the internet while they're airing it on TV that would certainly be the best. Still, I give them great credit.
      - whatusername 18y ago
        remember - some of us might be waiting months to see those shows on regular TV.. getting them within 24 hours of first screening is amazing for us. agreed with the main point though
    - philwelch 18y ago
      Hulu used to take a day (or maybe the whole weekend) to post Battlestar Galactica. Pirate Bay would take only a few hours, and would have it in HD, too.
      - GHFigs 18y ago
- Scriptor 18y ago
  The only thing that bothers me about their site is that every advertisement is the same and often just sucks. I'll take one of those annoying Sonic commercials, but seeing them over and over somewhat grates my nerves. It's a small price to pay though, since the ads are very short themselves and the video quality is good.
wesley 18y ago
Correction: The U.S. now enjoys free content on hulu and other sites.
- habibur 18y ago
  Here's how I do it at $10/month: Step 1: Buy an account from a hosting server in USA. Step 2: Install your own proxy server. Step 3: Enjoy hulu and others :-)
  - patio11 18y ago
    I have a Virtual Private American on Slicehost so that I can continue giving Amazon money for my favorite TV episodes. I know that is technically not allowed, but they mostly don't make it possible for me to buy them in yen or I would do it.
  - gnurb 18y ago
    Could you recommend one? Thanks...
    - habibur 18y ago
      I use westhost. http://www.westhost.com/ http://www.westhost.com/
  - EastSmith 18y ago
    And I do it by buying Personal VPN [1], which is cheaper per year. Plus you get some extra security and privacy. [1] http://www.witopia.net/index.php/products/ http://www.witopia.net/index.php/products/
    - dmix 18y ago
      Are your download/upload speeds affected much by using a VPN? I'm not that far from Witopia's servers (Toronto>NY being the closest), but from my experiance the added latency can be killer.

Thanks to these guys and ones prior to them (ShareReactor) we now enjoy free content on Hulu and other sites! I no longer use Bit Torrent, but do thank these guys for forcing old media's hand!

mingdingo 18y ago

Seriously. The South Park guys caught on, and with every single episode available on their site, why would you even bother to pirate the episodes? Side note: Even when people were pirating their stuff, they were just happy that people liked the show.

vegai 18y ago
There's one reason: flash. When we get a good video standard over the web, then yes, there's one less reason to pirate stuff like that.
- nailer 18y ago
  Why isn't Flash H264 good?
  - halo 18y ago
    One reason is that the Linux version of Flash is terrible last time I used it. Not even from a "open web principles" or "proprietary software is evil!" point of view, but rather in a "it crashes the browser on every 2nd or 3rd video viewing" perspective.
    - staunch 18y ago
      Run it in nspluginwrapper, so that when Flash crashes it doesn't take down the browser. You just have to refresh the page for the Flash object to run again. Flash crashes less than once a day for me, and I use Flash a lot.
    - Scriptor 18y ago
      Also, I think Flash on OSX buffers more slowly than on Windows. It's why whenever I want to see something online I have to reboot into my Windows partition, where the video almost never has to stop to buffer. On OSX however, buffering for several minutes only leads to about 20-30 seconds of the actual video being loaded.
      - philwelch 18y ago
        I've never had that problem and have used Flash video on Mac OS X for years.
    - nailer 18y ago
      I don't get that, at least on 32bit Ubuntu at home, although I hear people have a pretty crap experience. Have always found it pretty stable on Fedora / Ubuntu for the last decade actually - I get the feeling they do all their testing on major distros only. However we've just moved to 64bit Linux Flash 10 alpha on RHEL at work - which I suspect might change my impression. It has Z axis issues at least which the current 32bit one doesn't.
- carterschonwald 18y ago
  actually, the version on the southpark site is higher resolution than the torrents, the only issue i've had is that the content delivery network stutters enough that dowloading yields a better quality of experience
- omouse 18y ago
  You can stream using whatever media player you like. We already have good video standards, it's just that people don't like dealing with their native video player and websites somehow feel that streaming Flash is easier.
gamache 18y ago
The widespread "piracy" of the Spirit Of Christmas short is what made South Park as popular as it was, early on.
vaksel 18y ago
Because people want to see the stuff right now. Southpark example, they don't upload the latest episodes right away
- mingdingo 18y ago
  In my experience it takes a day. I don't think torrents could top that, even if they tried. I really think South Park gets it. 24 hours after a new episode airs, they put it online. That's pretty damn reasonable.
  - vaksel 18y ago
    Not really...shows like that, people want to discuss with others. If you have to wait 24 hours for the show to be upped, you miss out on all the watercooler talk the next day. If torrents can up a show within 20 minutes, surely the show's creators can do it as well. If you are upping the thing anyways...I see no reason why your fans should have to wait an extra day.
    - mingdingo 18y ago
      If they could put it on the internet while they're airing it on TV that would certainly be the best. Still, I give them great credit.
    - whatusername 18y ago
      remember - some of us might be waiting months to see those shows on regular TV.. getting them within 24 hours of first screening is amazing for us. agreed with the main point though
  - philwelch 18y ago
    Hulu used to take a day (or maybe the whole weekend) to post Battlestar Galactica. Pirate Bay would take only a few hours, and would have it in HD, too.
    - GHFigs 18y ago
Scriptor 18y ago
The only thing that bothers me about their site is that every advertisement is the same and often just sucks. I'll take one of those annoying Sonic commercials, but seeing them over and over somewhat grates my nerves. It's a small price to pay though, since the ads are very short themselves and the video quality is good.

wesley 18y ago

Correction: The U.S. now enjoys free content on hulu and other sites.

habibur 18y ago
Here's how I do it at $10/month: Step 1: Buy an account from a hosting server in USA. Step 2: Install your own proxy server. Step 3: Enjoy hulu and others :-)
- patio11 18y ago
  I have a Virtual Private American on Slicehost so that I can continue giving Amazon money for my favorite TV episodes. I know that is technically not allowed, but they mostly don't make it possible for me to buy them in yen or I would do it.
- gnurb 18y ago
  Could you recommend one? Thanks...
  - habibur 18y ago
    I use westhost. http://www.westhost.com/ http://www.westhost.com/
- EastSmith 18y ago
  And I do it by buying Personal VPN [1], which is cheaper per year. Plus you get some extra security and privacy. [1] http://www.witopia.net/index.php/products/ http://www.witopia.net/index.php/products/
  - dmix 18y ago
    Are your download/upload speeds affected much by using a VPN? I'm not that far from Witopia's servers (Toronto>NY being the closest), but from my experiance the added latency can be killer.