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'Netflix for piracy' Popcorn Time saved by fans
- k-mcgrady 13y agoI can see very little reason for people to use this other than they don't want to pay money for movies. Netflix is cheap, has a large selection, is available in several countries and its geo-block is easy to bypass with a Chrome plugin meaning you can get full selection from any country. There are also other streaming services in various countries. Not to mention the large number of countries iTunes Movies are available in. Obviously new releases can only be viewed in the cinema but if you really want to see something that's not too big of an ask - or you can wait a couple of months. There are always people trying to justify piracy and although I disagree with it I can see their frustration at times but movies are incredibly convenient and cheap to access. Is there a 'valid' reason to use something like Popcorn Time?
- good_guy 13y agoHow about https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7401949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7401949 Original post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7401055 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7401055
- lacion 13y agoyou sir have no clue of the world outside the US
- k-mcgrady 13y agoI believe I do as I have never lived in the US :) Nice job jumping to conclusions though.
- hadrien01 13y agoI'd like to have Netflix. I'd really like. But the only alternative here costs 30€, doesn't work on every device, and has a very limited selection, even limited in time. I won't try to bypass a geo-block just to watch movies at a normal price. It's not even authorized!
- k-mcgrady 13y agoI understand that bypassing the geo-block isn't allowed but surely it's better that the content producers/creators receive some money form you rather than pirating it?
- egil 13y agoIf you bypass the geo-block, you don't have a license to play the geo-blocked content either, regardless of your Netflix subscription.
- k-mcgrady 13y agoTrue but IMO it's still better than piracy. The content creators at least still get paid.
- noonespecial 13y agoOh its still piracy. You took media you weren't "allowed" by technical force. Its just less, um, pirate-y than simply taking it via torrent. The fact that people are willing to do this (go out of their way to find a way to give the content providers some money even though they intend to break the rules) is a very good sign. People really do balance ethics against easy (or possibility) of use and try to make moral decisions.
- waps 13y agoIt's not just piracy, it's fraud : you agreed to a contract that in no uncertain terms said you can't violate the service areas. They check whether you do this or not through DNS geolocking. Then you use technical means to deceive those checks and violate the contract. This is fraud. You are intentionally deceiving a contracted party in order to violate your obligations under a contract. If netflix asks the police to prosecute, you could go to jail for this. Morally, it's also an abomination. You enter into an agreement with the explicit intent to violate it. Yes, it's good for netflix and it's good for you (which means the studios will react against it as soon as netflix has credible competition, and if takes too long they will create credible competition. One studio might go lone wolf against them though, and get a large conviction). How is this different from using a fake bank card in the store to make the payment terminal say "accepted" while paying only 10% of the listed price ? It's not. (except for the much lower chance of punishment)
- ceronman 13y agoNetflix is not so good. Specially if you're not in the US and you don't speak english. Here in the Netherlands the selection is very limited, you rarely see subtitles in languages other than dutch. You can use a proxy to get US Netflix, but that's illegal and doesn't work with a smart TV. The Popcorn Time or XBMCTorrent experience is so much better. You get a huge selection of movies and series in high definition, with subtitles and audio in any language at a distance of a click. I would pay many times what Netflix charges for a legal service like this. So would many other people.
- spindritf 13y agoYou can use a proxy to get US Netflix, but that's illegal and doesn't work with a smart TV. This is by no means a good solution, and perhaps still illegal, but it does work. I used to do that for Pandora: You can run a VPN client on your router connected to a server in the US and add routes for Netflix to go through that connection. That way all devices on your home network should be able to connect to Netflix. Or some other geo-ip-restricted service. You just need to sniff out their IP blocks. You set it to reconnect automatically and it's not even that inconvenient. Although you do have to pick networking up as a hobby.
- lucian1900 13y agoThere are various services that do the proxying for you and you "only" have to change your DNS server. One I've used in the past is unblock-us.
- AndersSandvik 13y ago"Obviously new releases can only be viewed in the cinema" Wrong
- bertil 13y agoAs far as my experience goes (roughly ten years of trying to access sites like Comedy Central’s Daily Show), no geo-blocking solution works for more than a month — up to a couple of weeks now. Hola worked for 10 days for me. I am happy to pay for Netflix; the selection, partial where I am now, justifies the price. However, if they won’t sell me anything more up to date… well, I won’t buy it.
- darklajid 13y agoI - don't use Chrome (and won't change that) - don't own an iOS device (and won't get one) Netflix doesn't exist here for all I can tell and all alternatives are utterly broken. I haven't even looked at Popcorn Time for now (to avoid 'Ah, you just want to defend your decision' arguments), but there is no way to watch movies or tv series here¹. None. The best potential option: Buy DVDs or similar media. They usually tend to come with just a bit of sillyness (really? unskippable parts?) and include the original audio most of the time. That means that you wait aeons to get your hand on the content though and you generate garbage. Because .. usually I watch a movie/series once. 1: With my requirements being: Original version (not dubbed), more or less recent (i.e. not gazillion years behind the US, just because) and accessible on my devices (can be streamed to my xmbc setup for example).
- probably_wrong 13y ago> Netflix is cheap, has a large selection, is available in several countries and its geo-block is easy to bypass with a Chrome plugin As I said in a different comment, bypassing the geo-block is against Netflix' TOS, so is not legal either. Ideally you could say "but my money goes to the rights holder eventually, so it's better than nothing", which I think it's ok. However, given that you are still liable for watching the movie illegally, you are literally giving money to the studios and getting nothing in return: you already have the movie for free but you lack the license to watch it, and bypassing the geo-block means you are not getting that.
- aw3c2 13y ago'Netflix for piracy' Popcorn Time saved by being free software.
- corin_ 13y ago> Mark Mulligan, an analyst and co-founder of Midia Consulting, said this should give content creators great cause of concern. > "The next stage of piracy, and one rights holders need to be really worried about, is when the pirates start behaving like the rest of the internet and start making great user experiences." Couldn't really disagree more, for a long time the user experience has been one of piracy's biggest selling points, second to (or possibly even above) affordability.
- caractacus 13y agoA few years ago, the piracy user experience was far and away better than the legitimate user experience. Things then started to change: Netflix, Spotify, BBC iPlayer, etc etc. The legit services are - with three exceptions - now in most cases better and easier and smoother than the piracy alternative. But the three exceptions can be fairly major: 1. Price (well, duh). Netflix is cheap imo, Spotify is cheap, but piracy is still free. 2. Spread of content. Less an issue with Spotify which has just about EVERYTHING but more so with video services. Piracy has any movie, any TV show. Netflix (and other services) only have those they've signed up. 3. Availability. Netflix is great in the US, okay in the UK, tolerable in other places. HBO Go is only available in a few countries. BBC iPlayer only in the UK. It's patchy. But: the signs are there than when content owners and distributions services can get their act together, legitimate distribution is a better user experience than piracy. That's only been the case for the last year, eighteen months. Mulligan appears to be casting aside many years of history when piracy was the only game in town. Popcorn Time has a great UI and is simple to use, but it's now playing catch-up with paid services when for a decade or more, piracy was streets ahead in ability and usability.
- D9u 13y agoScrew Netflix! $7.99 per month and they don't even have the last half of season 5 - Breaking Bad. Many movies are unavailable to US viewers, as services such as https://hola.org/ https://hola.org/ have shown us. Large selection? It seems like every movie I want to watch is "Unavailable for streaming..." or is viewable for an additional $10 fee through their DVD service. I like Popcorn!
- robinduckett 13y agoIn the UK we've got the last half of Season 5, sorry :(
- andyhmltn 13y agoJust VPN to the UK and you'll have the last half. Although I'm sure I read about it coming to the US at some point this spring
- RVijay007 13y agoAlready in the US - came beginning of March.
- andyhmltn 13y agoCool, great to hear. I accidentally had my VPN on US at the end of February when I was trying to watch BB again
- probably_wrong 13y agoOr just pirate it - using a VPN is against Netflix' TOS, so since you'll be in the wrong either way, there's no reason for doing it the expensive way. I like what Netflix does, but as long as region locks exist (not Netflix' fault, of course) there won't be a service that's both good and legal.
- lttlrck 13y agoOr just buy it on DVD
- nnnnni 13y agoIf Popcorn Time "went legitimate", how much per month do you think would be a reasonable price? I'd happily pay $30/month if it worked on my TV -- I'd just buy a digital antenna for local OTA broadcasts. Even $50/month wouldn't be too horrible. I believe that $30 is the "sweet spot", though.
- mintone 13y agoI would suggest that this is by far the biggest possible advert that popcorn time could want.
- Gonzih 13y agoSo when we will see new page for the project build by community?
- kenanc 13y agoNetflix in Denmark: Price "79 kr" (14.72 $) 1.700 movies Netflix in America: Price (7.99 $) over 14.000 movies Makes no sense
- vvvVVVvvv 13y agoNetflix in Ireland (and Uk roughly the same price) : 6.99 € (or 7.99)
- Unosolo 13y agoThe reasons why existing video services do not work for me and I've tried Google Play and Amazon Instant so far: - Lack of on-demand high quality (true 1080) option: Google Play is 480 and Amazon Instant is blurry on a big screen. Besides Amazon states in their TOC that they can change quality as they see fit at the time of a video being played. - Insistence on specific playback tech. Amazon Instant mandates Silverlight and the playback is choppy on my media centre PC due to Silverlight's graphic acceleration issues. - Lack of audio track (and often subtitle) options: in UK that's English only. I want to be able to watch films dubbed and have a selection of translations that are already available. More generally I am opposed to the prepackaged nature of the paid service offered and lack of control over how and what I can watch. Some alternative ways of viewing the content offer me great choice and full control over: 1. Title I choose to watch. 2. Video quality. 3. Audio quality. 4. Audio track. 5. Subtitles. 6. Streaming vs. download, so I can make the best use of my connection. 7. Hardware and software I am using for viewing. In other words these matters are decided based on demand, instead of someone's opinion of what the demand should be.
- josefresco 13y agoIf you're concerned with quality, why not "purchase" the movies in a marketplace like iTunes or Google Play?
- Unosolo 13y ago"Purchase" doesn't quite reflect modern TOC, I believe the more exact term would be "pay a premium for a longer term license to view video content that is revokable at vendor's will; neither continued availability nor immutability of the initially licensed content is guaranteed". I would really prefer to pay per view instead and retain a high degree of control over my hardware and software configuration as well as having a reasonable choice of options in terms of video quality, various subtitles and audio tracks. Ideally I'd be able to buy audio track or subtitles separately to combine with the video content for viewing (plug-in), then there would be a robust market of competing translations.
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- contingencies 13y agoWe've had streaming torrent players for a decade here in mainland China.
- maccard 13y agoMy stance, as a Netflix and Spotify subscriber is: I'd be happy to pay double what I'm paying right now if you would give me the content. If I had the ability to get the US Netflix library selection(Ireland here) for 16 euro a month I'd be delighted. Remember also, that we pay much more than you guys in the states do. You pay 60 euro a year, whereas we pay 100, and you get more content than we do. I don't get why they don't want my money.If I can't find it on netflix/spotify I'll check iTunes, which is usually a dead end, and then finally I'll pirate it. Why not let me pay 8 bucks a month for HBO access aswell, I'd happily do it!
- gibbitz 13y agofeel the need to chime in here... The reason this is taking off is because the content providers are signing sweetheart deals with the services. If I could pay one source a manageable amount to stream whatever I wanted (even if I had to pay per view), I would take it in a heartbeat (sorry Amazon Prime, you don't have everything). But alas, capitalism fails us here and we're left as consumers to break the law in order to get what we would pay for otherwise. Seriously, People are not all going to get Cable TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Red Box, Warner Brothers, and Hulu Plus in order to have access to 80% of movies released before 1995. In the past we had video rental shops VCRs and DVD players, they're all going or gone now. If the industry wants to stay profitable, they need to either become more cost efficient (sorry Brad Pitt, but you need to take a paycut with the rest of us) or provide us with an easier means of accessing the content online. What's happening here is not too different from the disruption caused by the original iPhone to the carrier market. They're still reeling from it even though they should have expected it. Let's see how long it takes content providers to figure out how to stay relevant without additional government regulation.