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The Rise of Netflix Competitors Has Pushed Consumers Back Toward Piracy
- Thread starter Fuz
- Start date
Grinchy
Banned
It is a lame problem, there we agree. A lot of things can be pointed at as "first world problems" so I just see it as a silly point to make sometimes.
As far as juggling apps for piracy, I know a guy who knows a guy who has a dog that goes to school with someone's bird whose owner has used the same torrent program and torrent sites for over a decade. That person even tried Kodi out and determined it was a piece of shit even in its peak of popularity. For that person, using torrents must be almost as easy as using Netflix, so it would be infinitely more convenient and clearly way more affordable than paying monthly subscriptions on 5+ apps.
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cryptoadam
Banned
cryptoadam
Banned
Really?
As far as piracy goes last I heard (and saw but not with my own eyes someone elses eyes) that all the movie/tv programs went down.
My buddies all abandoned Kodi like a year ago. Even Soloman doesn't push Kodi anymore.
lock2k
Banned
cryptoadam
Banned
Is Geneisis (or I guess it became exodus) still kicking around?
lock2k
Banned
I don't know, never used it. I have some other add-ons.
I am not going to risk discussing any addons
I will put it this way. Never been better especially if you subscribe to Real Debrid.
petran79
Banned
Alas, you can still go to the pub or the stadium to watch football but there are no arcades to play video games anymore.....
Manstructiclops
Banned
Still using my Ex's netflix UK account... God damn what a pile of shit.
Never has what I want, the only thing that genuinely surprised me was Star Trek TOS-TNG.
[
Never has what I want, the only thing that genuinely surprised me was Star Trek TOS-TNG.
[
Javthusiast
Banned
Cause that is not how humans work. xD
Chairman Tickles
Banned
I live in Australia so despite having netflix and amazon, there is no legal way for me to view 80% of series and shows. There is an awful company called Foxtel here that has destroyed our access to foreign content by monopolizing it. They run ads...actual ads during programming....despite being much more expensive than stuff like netflix and amazon.
At their behest our government even put in a torrent site internet filter at the ISP end. It's so pathetically ineffective, as there are so many proxy mirrors of every site they blocked plus we all have VPN's. Torrent mirror sites and NordVPN are my best friends. NordVPN can even unblock Netflix and amazon allowing access to global library of content on those platforms, but it's spotty. I prefer to just you know, do the thing with the torrenty things. It's more convenient as vpn streaming can be slow and I like to view shit at 1080p or above.
To top things off...there are FREE streaming sites that allow access to old classic series not found on other platforms. They're almost as convenient as netflix if you have the right firefox plugins and can stream content at 720p no issues.
At their behest our government even put in a torrent site internet filter at the ISP end. It's so pathetically ineffective, as there are so many proxy mirrors of every site they blocked plus we all have VPN's. Torrent mirror sites and NordVPN are my best friends. NordVPN can even unblock Netflix and amazon allowing access to global library of content on those platforms, but it's spotty. I prefer to just you know, do the thing with the torrenty things. It's more convenient as vpn streaming can be slow and I like to view shit at 1080p or above.
To top things off...there are FREE streaming sites that allow access to old classic series not found on other platforms. They're almost as convenient as netflix if you have the right firefox plugins and can stream content at 720p no issues.
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NiiloPielinen
Member
I don't think that cracking down on VPN users helped either. Not having same selection available everywhere really sucks
bitbydeath
Gold Member
Not seeing much interesting content on there. I use both Netflix and Stan though.
Netflix gets some good movies, next month we get Fate of the furious and Get Out and Stan is great at getting good TV shows. Watching both iZombie and Parks and Rec right now.
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
I agree with those who have pointed to the piss-poor regional licensing as part of the problem. As such, the product offered by these companies:
- Has incomplete content
- Is split over multiple platforms requiring ridiculous outlay
- You don't own it - if they decide to delete it you can't do shit.
My view is that these are the drivers behind torrenting (outside of the basic "I want free shit" which will always be there). I used to pirate games, but Steam offered games at a good price with a convenient download client and I stopped (I also grew up and got less poor which helped).
On whether pirating helps the 'victim' - it depends on the product. If you need to create some buzz, piracy helps, because it gets your product in more hands, so more people talk about it. This helps with an ongoing product more than a one-off (so TV series but not films). Some series are simply unavailable in country x but people there pirate it and talk about it, creating a buzz that increases the brand value of that series and creating a buzz in the countries where it is available.
Second, the case of MS Office. For years every man and his dog pirated it. This was how they defeated the competition. As every fucker had it at home, IT departments had to put it into their corporate setups. The corporates have to pay as the cost of being caught is expensive. The end result is a ubiquitous product, the competition destroyed (until OpenOffice and Google Docs came along) and shitloads of profit.
- Has incomplete content
- Is split over multiple platforms requiring ridiculous outlay
- You don't own it - if they decide to delete it you can't do shit.
My view is that these are the drivers behind torrenting (outside of the basic "I want free shit" which will always be there). I used to pirate games, but Steam offered games at a good price with a convenient download client and I stopped (I also grew up and got less poor which helped).
On whether pirating helps the 'victim' - it depends on the product. If you need to create some buzz, piracy helps, because it gets your product in more hands, so more people talk about it. This helps with an ongoing product more than a one-off (so TV series but not films). Some series are simply unavailable in country x but people there pirate it and talk about it, creating a buzz that increases the brand value of that series and creating a buzz in the countries where it is available.
Second, the case of MS Office. For years every man and his dog pirated it. This was how they defeated the competition. As every fucker had it at home, IT departments had to put it into their corporate setups. The corporates have to pay as the cost of being caught is expensive. The end result is a ubiquitous product, the competition destroyed (until OpenOffice and Google Docs came along) and shitloads of profit.
Sqorin Hammerfarf
Banned
It’s the World of Warcraft problem. People have room in their lives for maybe one or two subscription services, and there’s really only room for the biggest. People aren’t going to get a subscription to Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft. Two different games, but they serve the same leisure purpose and one is better at it. Why bother with subscriptions you won’t really use except once or twice a month?
And like MMOs, the answer will be that most of them fail and the ones that don’t will go free to play - which means commercials will be coming back for the most part, with the premium shows being driven by micro transactions.
Unlike MMOs, piracy is an easy alternative.
And like MMOs, the answer will be that most of them fail and the ones that don’t will go free to play - which means commercials will be coming back for the most part, with the premium shows being driven by micro transactions.
Unlike MMOs, piracy is an easy alternative.
yeahokaywhatever
Member
I have Amazon Prime and Netflix, I still download stuff and have a lot of physical media. I'm into b-movies/cult/exploitation/horror etc. films so those are difficult unless you get a Shudder subscription and even then they have limited titles. I also collect anime but don't stream unless it's available on other platforms. Despite my pirating, I do like my physical media and streaming.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
If it's well-implemented, I don't really mind personally. For example, VUDU has an okay selection of TV shows (nothing great, but certainly a lot of watchable stuff) available for free with ads. In my experience, you typically get a single ad before the show starts then get to watch it uninterrupted. I feel like that's about as good as it can get really.
If you're in the US, you can watch stuff like 3rd Rock From the Sun, Kitchen Nightmares, Naruto, Pokemon, My Little Pony, Unsolved Mysteries, Dead Zone, etc all for free by watching an ad per episode. And like you said, the "premium" stuff will cost you - like there might be Season 1 of a show available like this but if you want to keep watching the later episodes, you gotta pay up.
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