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It was inevitable...
What's so ironic is that this proved that piracy is not simply something consumers just do. The main driving force is companies trying to extract the maximum amount of profit for less and less product.
Yet, you can bet that causes of piracy will be put on those "evil" consumers once again.
It's the same with ads. I wouldn't mind seeing ads if it was reasonable, and not whatever the fuck the internet without ad-blocker is.
I wouldn't mind all the platforms if they sticked to the initial $5/Mo, but now all of them want +$10/Mo and they include ads
The CEO of Disney recently said that they're actively trying to price people out of the ad-free subscriptions. Once they introduced ads to a paid service, it was game over for the consumers. Kind of reminds me of what happened with cable TV back in the day.
I'm not sure they'll be as successful. Media can be pirates from their platforms, so just by making or posting the content they are supplying the pirate market with good quality copies.
Viewers just aren't the same type of captive audience that they were with cable many years ago. Price it too high, and and a few years subscribers will drop, but people will still have access to the content
We'll see how it goes though. I could be wrong, normies can be pretty weak willed.
I don't understand. What do you want, a global monopoly in streaming? Piracy is merely a symptom of market issues, not a direct participant. Without paying customers and a legitimate market, piracy wouldn't exist.
For companies not to milk every god damn cent out of consumers while providing a worse experience than the free alternatives. Netflix limits steam quality to 720p in browsers (except for Edge) forcing you to use their Windows app or a spyware filled smart TV to access 4k content THAT YOU PAY FOR. Cracking down on password sharing such that it is an inconvenience to try to use your Netflix account outside of your home. Constant price raises to all the streaming services for lesser features over time, and content that could just disappear from the platform entirely. We haven't even gotten to ads on paid tiers and "promotional" suggestions that are thinly veiled ads on non-ad plans.
You know what doesn't do those things? An MP4 file on a Plex server. It's gotten so frustrating to use streaming services that my partner and I torrent movies we have legal access to because it's a better experience, and I'm guaranteed to be able to finish a series without it being ripped from the platform. I can also watch the 4k content I PAY FOR in any browser I please. There is zero reason a bunch of volunteers working together should be able to provide a better user experience than multi-billion dollar companies.
You know what I rarely pirate? Steam games. They've made the user experience 10x better than pirating with non-intrusive DRM and an endless number of features I use regularly (controller support, custom configurations, cloud saves, online "local" co-op, remote game streaming, workshop/mod support, community guides, automatic updates, local network downloads...I could go on for an hour). The times I do pirate are for games I'm not sure I will like or games that might not run well on my Steam Deck. You know what Valve is doing to combat this? Introducing a game trial feature.
The last game I pirated was Minecraft Alpha. Steam just makes it so easy
Streaming platforms should compete on quality of service and pricing. But they don't. They compete in exclusivity instead. And that is the biggest problem. There is a defacto monopoly right now because you can't eg choose between Netflix, Disney Plus and HBO Max to watch Star Wars.
Another problem is their locked down nature. Ie can't get 4k from Netflix by using a PC to watch it even if that PC is specifically built to act as a media device, and can't watch it at all if your device doesn't support HDCP or other hardware DRM schemes. Gotta use a clunky interface on some underpowered, overpriced and privacy-intruding "approved" device.
For an audio enthusiast and tinkerer like I am whos setup is very, very different from typical consumer hifi stuff, the whole "legit" home cinema route is a no go due to stupid restrictions on hardware the MPAA have asserted (specifically no multichannel PCM digital output for receivers/pre-pros).
Piracy is just so much easier, faster and more flexible solution that gives overall better UX, PQ and SQ than trying to conform into the draconian frames of the "legit" route whenever your use case is deviating slightly from the industry-accepted, approved and expected norm.
I'm just shitposting stolen content, please don't take anything I say or post too seriously :D
True, but this is also because there's no Steam Storefront option for people who like to watch TV.
Yeah, maybe something like one company that could aggregate all of the separate services into one subscription. They could use a collective bargaining strategy to keep the price of each subscription down. Maybe they could even bundle together the actual physical hardware and maintain the infrastructure required to get the signals to us as well!
How would they do that, some sort of cable?
I said steam storefront, so I don't mean specifically asking for a subscription service. I mean if I want to watch a TV show now, I have to subscribe to a service. There's no option to buy it digitally in most cases.
You can have something similar to what music streamers are doing. Sure Spotify has a majority, but you still have perfectly fine competitors.
I had not pirated music for more than a decade now.
Pirating music and PC games isn't worth it imo.
Not pirating movies and shows isn't worth it either. I can't subscribe to everything.
The ideal solution is not a Netflix monopoly, it's one where content providers must pick a single price, and any streaming service can pay that price and provide access to the content. That way you can pay for only Netflix, but get access to everything. Netflix wouldn't end up with a monopoly though, because anybody else could offer a better service and people could switch to it and not lose access to anything.
This is unlikely to happen anytime soon due to the intentional clusterfuck of laws like copyright, but it would solve the problem neatly.
🎵 Gather up all of the crew, it's time to ship out Bink's brew 🎵
Sea wind blows to where? Who knows
Some friends and I have a list of movies we want to watch (stuff set in NYC in the 50s-70s). It was a pain in the ass trying to find where they were available to stream. I didn't really want to pay $4 to rent when we were already paying monthly fees.
Also, things should enter the public domain after like 14 years.
I have a lot of shows and movies on my watchlist that I can't stream anywhere (including rental) and there's no physical place to rent them either.
To name a few: Counterpart, Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Lower Decks, Dr Who, Farscape, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and The Abyss.
I'm not going to buy a movie or show to watch it once, but other than that I'm here with the money in my hand ready to give it to the license owners. Apparently they don't want it.
Definitely. Licensors, distributors, broadcasting networks, "the big wigs" are pure business machines. There never really has been a straight route for end-users to fund\support a favorite director, content-creator, actors, etc.
This was my exact journey.
Welcome back.
A pirate's* life
[insert mandatory Thanos Meme here]
I never put the hat away, you chums all fell for it. KissAnime for life!
Why KissAnime of all the sources? Nyaa is much better.
Because it's the most reliable pirating website show I know of