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> 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

by 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 ago
A 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.
- kolinko 13y ago
  Well, no Netflix is not tolerable in other places. In Poland there is no reasonsble way to watch legal 1st world movies. Perhaps aside from iTunes which has a limited catalogue, and it's usability is far behind torrents imho. Not to mention the crazy prices.
- RyanZAG 13y ago
  The fact that I have to use the truly terrible Netflix player to watch Netflix content is why I'd always choose a pirated .mkv version any day of the week. In fact, I've sometimes bought games and movies and then later used the pirated version because of how much better it is.
ojii 13y ago
I'd like to disagree. I used to pirate quite heavily back in Switzerland, due to the legal situation, now after having moved to Japan, I do not pirate anymore because I don't want to risk my visa over it (plus we have hulu here which is okayish). I never found the user experience nice at all, and much rather than price, a good legal experience would've made me switch in an instant. The only reason I ever pirated was/is availability. There was either not watching the content or piracy. One could argue that not watching is a reasonable alternative, but I wanted to see what this whole craze was about for example Doctor Who. Even with a much worse paying job than what I have, I would pay much more than I currently do for hulu to have access to new movies, TV shows, music... I am fully aware that this might only be true for me.
bertil 13y ago
As a commenter on Hacker News, I have to expect you don’t have the same criteria for ‘user experience’ as most. You probably consider a rich command-line interface as good UX (and you should). People around me tend to be baffled by that idea. More to the point: What ‘most of the Internet’ is in this instance is Click-on-vignettes; what you probably refer to as user experience is working codecs. Both are, with things lack of obtrusive ads -- let me guess: you use AdBlockPlus, so you never noticed how common web torrent sites are laced with them?
- corin_ 13y ago
  I do agree that there's a technical level needed for pirating content, but its not a high level, I know people who can barely send emails but have learned to torrent TV shows. Personally, I wasn't talking about thinks like command-line interfaces, and in fact I don't use any adblocker (I make my money buying adverts, don't want to be too hypocritical). For me the key "user experience" pirated content offers is a.) availability - there's no georestrictions, no waiting for content to arrive, etc. and b.) Getting "ownership" of the files - no worries about DRM screwing up, no being locked into specific software, etc. Sure there are areas in which pirating sucks, such as terrible adverts, misleading torrents, etc. It all comes down to balance. For me, I'll pay for content, but if I've paid for it I'll usually grab it illegally just to make its use easier. That may not make it legal, but at least ethical. For my parents, well my mother is reasonably tech-savvy (for a 60 year old, at least) and she prefers using stuff like Netflix, whereas my dad is completely un-tech savvy, yet has learned to torrent his favourite American TV shows so as not to have to wait for them to arrive in the UK.

by corin_ 13y ago

caractacus 13y ago

A 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.

kolinko 13y ago
Well, no Netflix is not tolerable in other places. In Poland there is no reasonsble way to watch legal 1st world movies. Perhaps aside from iTunes which has a limited catalogue, and it's usability is far behind torrents imho. Not to mention the crazy prices.
RyanZAG 13y ago
The fact that I have to use the truly terrible Netflix player to watch Netflix content is why I'd always choose a pirated .mkv version any day of the week. In fact, I've sometimes bought games and movies and then later used the pirated version because of how much better it is.

ojii 13y ago

I'd like to disagree. I used to pirate quite heavily back in Switzerland, due to the legal situation, now after having moved to Japan, I do not pirate anymore because I don't want to risk my visa over it (plus we have hulu here which is okayish). I never found the user experience nice at all, and much rather than price, a good legal experience would've made me switch in an instant. The only reason I ever pirated was/is availability. There was either not watching the content or piracy. One could argue that not watching is a reasonable alternative, but I wanted to see what this whole craze was about for example Doctor Who. Even with a much worse paying job than what I have, I would pay much more than I currently do for hulu to have access to new movies, TV shows, music... I am fully aware that this might only be true for me.

bertil 13y ago

As a commenter on Hacker News, I have to expect you don’t have the same criteria for ‘user experience’ as most. You probably consider a rich command-line interface as good UX (and you should). People around me tend to be baffled by that idea. More to the point: What ‘most of the Internet’ is in this instance is Click-on-vignettes; what you probably refer to as user experience is working codecs. Both are, with things lack of obtrusive ads -- let me guess: you use AdBlockPlus, so you never noticed how common web torrent sites are laced with them?

corin_ 13y ago
I do agree that there's a technical level needed for pirating content, but its not a high level, I know people who can barely send emails but have learned to torrent TV shows. Personally, I wasn't talking about thinks like command-line interfaces, and in fact I don't use any adblocker (I make my money buying adverts, don't want to be too hypocritical). For me the key "user experience" pirated content offers is a.) availability - there's no georestrictions, no waiting for content to arrive, etc. and b.) Getting "ownership" of the files - no worries about DRM screwing up, no being locked into specific software, etc. Sure there are areas in which pirating sucks, such as terrible adverts, misleading torrents, etc. It all comes down to balance. For me, I'll pay for content, but if I've paid for it I'll usually grab it illegally just to make its use easier. That may not make it legal, but at least ethical. For my parents, well my mother is reasonably tech-savvy (for a 60 year old, at least) and she prefers using stuff like Netflix, whereas my dad is completely un-tech savvy, yet has learned to torrent his favourite American TV shows so as not to have to wait for them to arrive in the UK.