Fed up with increasing subscription prices, viewers embrace rogue streaming boxes.
  • orclev@lemmy.worldEnglish
    441·
    2 months ago

    As always piracy is a symptom not the problem. People pirate when a) they don’t have enough money or b) the experience for paying customers is significantly worse than for pirates, or c) the price of services far exceeds their perceived value. Piracy was down for a while because Netflix and Hulu were relatively cheap (or free), ad free, and the economy was doing OK so most people had a little disposable income.

    Now that we’re in a recession that’s starting to look like it might turn into a depression and Netflix and Hulu (and others) have cranked the prices of their services up and stuffed them full of ads, yeah I’m not in the least surprised to see piracy surging. Every time you turn around there’s another email from some service letting you know they’re raising prices another couple bucks a month, and a bunch of people cancel their subscriptions and start sailing the high seas.

    • -RJ-@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      Or c) the money never makes it to the actual artists so why give the record label money they don’t deserve

    • acosmichippo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      71·
      2 months ago

      and D) I’m not going to give money to institutions like cable TV where a percentage of my money ends up with Fox News, or Paramount whose ownership is in bed with Trump, or Amazon and Bezos for obvious reasons. Go on down the line, fuck em all.

    • DancingTable@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      This is it. I was sick of trying to figure out which streaming platform had the content I wanted. Now it’s all on Emby.

  • MattBlackAlien@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    “You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a baby. You wouldn’t shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet. You wouldn’t go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send it to the policeman’s grieving widow. And then steal it again! Downloading films is stealing. If you do it, you will face the consequences.”

    • Tiger666@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      2 months ago

      Little tid bit about that comercial; they pirated the music to it back in the day. Weird how its ok when corporations do it but not when people do it.

  • robocall@lemmy.worldEnglish
    71·
    2 months ago

    I know someone that uses TVpass.org and thinks that it’s not stealing because it’s a .org and “they only give those org websites out to good people” It made me smile.

    • Tiger666@lemmy.caEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      What is stealing, let’s be honest.

      Is charging a crazy amount for forced programming laced with massive amounts of advertising considered stealing? I think so.

      As far as Im concerned copying something is not theft.

      • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        Theft has a very specific definition, critically it requires the taking of something so that someone else is permenantly deprived of the thing. When something is cloned or copied its not theft, its all intellectual law driven so copyright and trademark breaches. No one is deprived of the product, only potentially the payment for a service.

        • Tiger666@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Payment for a service that is way over inflated in terms of cost and overrun with advertising that should be subsidizing said programming.

      • robocall@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        The real thefts are the cable service providers that rip off their customers and force them to buy channels in bundles that they don’t want.

  • Reygle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    I feel like outside of a handful of “TV Programs”, the younger generation wouldn’t even notice if “TV” as we know it disappeared tomorrow. Me personally whenever I visit family, “TV” is on and I’m repulsed by the level of marketing on it. Even if there’s a baseball or football game on, they’ve made damn sure that every single frame of the game includes at least one sponsor logo.
    I know I wouldn’t care. I might even celebrate.

  • robocall@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I found a website called yarrlist.net to watch movies and tv shows, and I thought it was great! but someone told me I was putting myself at risk by using it. Basically they said I shouldn’t use my bank/credit card while having those tabs open. I’m not very tech savvy so I don’t understand the risk.