8 ms·

I no longer pirate anything - haven't in 10 years. It was fun while I had no assets, prefer not to risk getting sued these days. That said, there are many times

I no longer pirate anything - haven't in 10 years. It was fun while I had no assets, prefer not to risk getting sued these days. That said, there are many times that I can't see a movie I want to see or watch a TV show that I want to see even if I have my wallet out. Sometimes it is locked into HBO GO, sometimes it is not available on Netflix/iTunes/Redbox. In all of those cases I am sure it is available via bittorrent, but literally no one wants to just take my money and let me watch the damn thing. In those cases I simply don't watch it. It's not that important to me. But I'm sure others at that point just say screw it I'm going to pirate it. Either way - the industry makes no money off the viewer when they easily could have.

ultimoo 13y ago
I'm mostly in the same boat. The last time this happened to me was when I wanted to (re)watch Star Wars but didn't have the DVDs at hand. It's impossible to pay for and watch the damn thing online/on-demand/pay-per-view/you-name-it.
- existencebox 13y ago
  This hit my fiancee recently, she wanted to grab grim fandango, and your options were a secondhand very used copy from ebay/amazon, or pirating. (the latter even had more baked in support for running on modern platforms, too...) GoG is doing good work in making a lot of these things available, it solved the big System Shock 2 hole in game retail.
  - 72deluxe 13y ago
    How did she get on running it on modern systems? It runs horribly for me on XP as I recall, so I attempted it under Wine on Linux with mixed results. What do you recommend? Grim Fandango is a brilliant game. I bought mine on ebay :-)
    - henriks 13y ago
      http://residualvm.org/ http://residualvm.org/ is a re-implementation of the engine used in Grim Fandango (and Monkey Island 4) that enables you to play the game on modern systems. It requires the original game files, and is similar in idea to ScummVM.
      - 72deluxe 13y ago
        That's phenomenal, thanks a million!
- rz2k 13y ago
  I think that's also an example of a movie that has changed over time. Probably the worst example being Cinema Paradiso. The original cut had nostalgia with a mixture of regret and acceptance of what is past. Then, the new cut concludes with the disappointment of trying to confront past missed opportunities. Whether it's meant to be hyperrealistic, I also liked the original movie, which was a different movie, but can't be found anymore. I think the same goes for the earlier releases of Star Wars. I know that the special effects of the era weren't "better", but the modern CGI makes them different movies, and I'd like to have the original version available, too.
  - jbert 13y ago
    You can buy a DVD set which has the original versions (no CGI, Han shoots first etc) on the bonus disks. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Original_unaltered_trilogy_%28DVD%29 http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Original_unaltered_trilogy_%2... IIUC, only the 2008 release set has them. But you can still buy those. Just check the reviews etc carefully to be sure it's the correct release.
    - eric_the_read 13y ago
      I have that set; since the original cut is from the laserdisc transfer, you can actually see the matte backgrounds when the TIE fighters attack the Falcon as they escape the Death Star. I'm hoping Disney will restore the original cut and fix those little issues.
    - eric_the_read 13y ago
      I have that set; since the original cut is from the laserdisc transfer, you can actually see the matte backgrounds when the TIE fighters attack the Falcon as they escape the Death Star. I'm hoping Disney will restore the original cut and fix those little issues.
    - gcb0 13y ago
      .. Soit's easier to find what you want in the sea of fake/wrong uploads that is the piratebay than to get the cut you want paying for it? Seems to agree with everything in this thread, unfortunately.
zacinbusiness 13y ago
Same here. I don't see the value in physical media that get scratched up or lost. And I had a 500gb MyBook back in the day that failed and lost all of my data with it. It was a huge PITA. Lots of people will talk about how cloud provided media can disappear at the whim of rights holders. And that's true. But physical media can disappear at the whim of a thief or of nature or of my poor memory and carelessness. So all of our television and film watching happens through iTunes and Netflix (refuse to pay for HBO Go as an add on but would love to be able to, and refuse to pay for Hulu+ with commercials). As a result, we do miss out on a lot of stuff on release day, and we only just saw Frozen on Saturday (it's great if you like musicals or amazing animation) but it's a price worth paying for the convenience and the ability to time-shift our viewing.
davidw 13y ago
Even though I have a US credit card and address, I live in Italy and thus my IP address gets flagged for a lot of things like Netflix or Amazon prime, so I have to pay to use a proxy service, to pretend I'm in the US, in order to actually pay to see stuff streamed. It's fairly absurd.
- TheHydroImpulse 13y ago
  Use MediaHint, a chrome extension that's free. I'm not affiliated with 'em, I just use it.
  - culturestate 13y ago
    Unfortunately, that doesn't help if you want to watch on (for instance) an Apple TV or iPad. In that situation, a DNS-based proxy or VPN-connected router are your only options.
    - rahimnathwani 13y ago
      or iPad. In that situation, a DNS-based proxy or VPN-connected router are your only options. There's a third option if you're using an iPad: the built-in PPTP/L2TP/IPSec client or the official OpenVPN client. Your point still stands for the Apple TV.
  - henrik_w 13y ago
    ZenMate is another free Chrome extension that works well if you want to show your country IP as e.g. US or UK (no affiliation either).
- balladeer 13y ago
  Here's someone: I am not from USA but I also tried to use those services using a VPN, but when I use a VPN I do not get an effective speed that is stream-worthy so I say, "screw it, I am not paying twice - once to VPN and once for the service which I can't really stream anyway".
- waps 13y ago
Kesty 13y ago
That may be true in the USA, in many other countries there are no such things. The PC industry is in a way better shape. Steam, GOG, ps3 and xbox store. There are way less restrictions based on countries and delays, and almost all games have multilanguage pre-installed so you can play in any language you like. Downloading/Streaming movies in other countries other than the USA have huge delays, very limited choice, high prices, and most of the time you can't even choose in what language you can see them.

ultimoo 13y ago

I'm mostly in the same boat. The last time this happened to me was when I wanted to (re)watch Star Wars but didn't have the DVDs at hand. It's impossible to pay for and watch the damn thing online/on-demand/pay-per-view/you-name-it.

existencebox 13y ago
This hit my fiancee recently, she wanted to grab grim fandango, and your options were a secondhand very used copy from ebay/amazon, or pirating. (the latter even had more baked in support for running on modern platforms, too...) GoG is doing good work in making a lot of these things available, it solved the big System Shock 2 hole in game retail.
- 72deluxe 13y ago
  How did she get on running it on modern systems? It runs horribly for me on XP as I recall, so I attempted it under Wine on Linux with mixed results. What do you recommend? Grim Fandango is a brilliant game. I bought mine on ebay :-)
  - henriks 13y ago
    http://residualvm.org/ http://residualvm.org/ is a re-implementation of the engine used in Grim Fandango (and Monkey Island 4) that enables you to play the game on modern systems. It requires the original game files, and is similar in idea to ScummVM.
    - 72deluxe 13y ago
      That's phenomenal, thanks a million!
rz2k 13y ago
I think that's also an example of a movie that has changed over time. Probably the worst example being Cinema Paradiso. The original cut had nostalgia with a mixture of regret and acceptance of what is past. Then, the new cut concludes with the disappointment of trying to confront past missed opportunities. Whether it's meant to be hyperrealistic, I also liked the original movie, which was a different movie, but can't be found anymore. I think the same goes for the earlier releases of Star Wars. I know that the special effects of the era weren't "better", but the modern CGI makes them different movies, and I'd like to have the original version available, too.
- jbert 13y ago
  You can buy a DVD set which has the original versions (no CGI, Han shoots first etc) on the bonus disks. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Original_unaltered_trilogy_%28DVD%29 http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Original_unaltered_trilogy_%2... IIUC, only the 2008 release set has them. But you can still buy those. Just check the reviews etc carefully to be sure it's the correct release.
  - eric_the_read 13y ago
    I have that set; since the original cut is from the laserdisc transfer, you can actually see the matte backgrounds when the TIE fighters attack the Falcon as they escape the Death Star. I'm hoping Disney will restore the original cut and fix those little issues.
  - eric_the_read 13y ago
    I have that set; since the original cut is from the laserdisc transfer, you can actually see the matte backgrounds when the TIE fighters attack the Falcon as they escape the Death Star. I'm hoping Disney will restore the original cut and fix those little issues.
  - gcb0 13y ago
    .. Soit's easier to find what you want in the sea of fake/wrong uploads that is the piratebay than to get the cut you want paying for it? Seems to agree with everything in this thread, unfortunately.

zacinbusiness 13y ago

Same here. I don't see the value in physical media that get scratched up or lost. And I had a 500gb MyBook back in the day that failed and lost all of my data with it. It was a huge PITA. Lots of people will talk about how cloud provided media can disappear at the whim of rights holders. And that's true. But physical media can disappear at the whim of a thief or of nature or of my poor memory and carelessness. So all of our television and film watching happens through iTunes and Netflix (refuse to pay for HBO Go as an add on but would love to be able to, and refuse to pay for Hulu+ with commercials). As a result, we do miss out on a lot of stuff on release day, and we only just saw Frozen on Saturday (it's great if you like musicals or amazing animation) but it's a price worth paying for the convenience and the ability to time-shift our viewing.

davidw 13y ago

Even though I have a US credit card and address, I live in Italy and thus my IP address gets flagged for a lot of things like Netflix or Amazon prime, so I have to pay to use a proxy service, to pretend I'm in the US, in order to actually pay to see stuff streamed. It's fairly absurd.

TheHydroImpulse 13y ago
Use MediaHint, a chrome extension that's free. I'm not affiliated with 'em, I just use it.
- culturestate 13y ago
  Unfortunately, that doesn't help if you want to watch on (for instance) an Apple TV or iPad. In that situation, a DNS-based proxy or VPN-connected router are your only options.
  - rahimnathwani 13y ago
    or iPad. In that situation, a DNS-based proxy or VPN-connected router are your only options. There's a third option if you're using an iPad: the built-in PPTP/L2TP/IPSec client or the official OpenVPN client. Your point still stands for the Apple TV.
- henrik_w 13y ago
  ZenMate is another free Chrome extension that works well if you want to show your country IP as e.g. US or UK (no affiliation either).
balladeer 13y ago
Here's someone: I am not from USA but I also tried to use those services using a VPN, but when I use a VPN I do not get an effective speed that is stream-worthy so I say, "screw it, I am not paying twice - once to VPN and once for the service which I can't really stream anyway".
waps 13y ago

Kesty 13y ago

That may be true in the USA, in many other countries there are no such things. The PC industry is in a way better shape. Steam, GOG, ps3 and xbox store. There are way less restrictions based on countries and delays, and almost all games have multilanguage pre-installed so you can play in any language you like. Downloading/Streaming movies in other countries other than the USA have huge delays, very limited choice, high prices, and most of the time you can't even choose in what language you can see them.