- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmit.online
How Disney and Warner Bros. Are Causing Internet Piracy to Boom | Platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ were supposed to do away with pirated media. Instead, they may make them stronger than ever.::Platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ were supposed to do away with pirated media. Instead, they may make them stronger than ever.
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That’s a big duh. I saw this coming four or five years ago.
My biggest question is despite how expensive Disney+ is and their huge subscriber base, how are they not profitable? Nebula is a fraction of the price without any ads and plenty of originals and is quite profitable despite having under 1 million subs.
They spent $350 million making Secret Invasion, which was a bad show in every way. They have no control over their costs, yet they squeeze everyone as hard as they can.
They are profitable. Just not profitable enough.
No, they actually aren’t profitable.
From https://arstechnica.com/culture/2023/12/its-shakeout-time-as-losses-of-netflix-rivals-top-5-billion/
“Disney, the largest traditional media company, is in the midst of a gutting restructuring that has featured 7,000 job cuts and attacks from activist investors. It lost more than $1.6 billion from its streaming businesses in the first nine months of 2023, during which its Disney+ service gained 8 million subscribers. The company says it will turn a profit in streaming in late 2024.”
NFL this weekend forcing you to have a Peacock subscription for a playoff game. Are you crazy?!?
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American foot-of-the-ball.
Not for life
I never subscribed to streaming services.
I always used free streaming sites like fmovies or downloaded stuff I really liked.
I’m not pirating officer. I’m just collecting information for training my AI model.
Won’t be long until my ai model can produce it’s very own Linux distro complete with 7 fingered keyboard layouts
And the disney movies will give the distro “flavor”
It’s just such a shame the filtering process for good training material is by hand. I’ve yet to find anything of high enough quality.
Maybe you should train an AI on how to filter and clean training sets so the AI can do it on its own.
All this hasn’t forced me into piracy.
It’s worse than that.
It’s forced me to stop caring about shows or movies entirely.
My coworkers talk about various TV shows and movies. I may not be able to keep up with the shows and miss out on the discussions, but fuck FOMO.
There’s been almost no movies that have come out that I’ve really cared about, nor.most of my friends.
I’ve found TV shows to be somewhat more compelling. But it’s been really hard to decide what to try to get into (limited time, partly).
But also the shared element isn’t there like it used to be. There’s just so MUCH stuff to watch, finding people to talk to about the stuff is harder than it used to be. That’s good in the sense of having choice, but worse in having the entertainment provide a connection to people and talk about. Which was always one of my motivators to watch stuff.
Plus games and YouTube and other things competing, and fragmentation of where stuff is, and corporate plbullshit turning me off, I just care less about long form shows being put out.
But people are definitely still watching tons and tons of shit. “Consuming” and “binging” is bigger than ever. I guess it’s just not us so much.
Find a watching buddy.
Will you be my buddy
I would but then I would be doxxing myself on the account that I use for promoting my naked hairy balls and terrorism.
Fair enough.
More stuff is switching to weekly rollouts and I end up not watching at all because of that.
There’s nothing wider than binging a show then getting the last episode 2 weeks later.
Binging shows is one of the reasons why we live in the entertainment hellscape that we have. When everything is instant gratification, it means less and it’s less enjoyable. Wait a week for the next episode creates excitement and ultimately more joy over the several year period it’ll take you to finish watching the show. The same goes for people. You’re more likely to have fond feelings for the person you’ve known all your life rather than the person you sat next to on the bus for a couple hours.
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I honestly haven’t heard a coworker mention a TV show since White Lotus last January. Not a single show.
I’ve talked about a couple with friends: Scott Pilgrim, The Last of Us, House of Usher, but generally I brought it up and really 2023 was not a very memorable year for TV shows.
TLOU was pretty good, although there’s literally nothing to talk about given how directly faithful it is to the game.
I was sort of like this before, not really caring too much about most movies or TV shows, but that was just because I had higher standards to what I would be willing to take the time to watch. When I did find something I thought was worth my time, like for instance Full Metal Alchemist (yes I know it’s an anime, it still counts as a TV show imo. Also it’s great, I definitely recommend watching it). The general decrease in quality and increase in quantity of shows and movies just made me stop caring to watch really anything; why take a chance with a likely shitty show or movie when I can get much more fun out of playing video games? I know there’s likely some “hidden gem” kind of show that nobody really talks about because it’s hidden away in all the crappy shows, so I usually only decide to watch something if I’ve heard good things about it more than once. Even then, I may still not watch it, like for instance One Piece, which I’ve heard is incredibly long.
Hi, One Piece fan here. Yes, it’s really long and really intimidating to start. I haven’t watch most of the anime too, and never recomment others to watch it. I’m solely reading the manga (and live action).
I suggest waiting for the netflix anime readaptation that’s in production now. Logically, it should have better pace and much less filler than the first anime. It’s gonna be way easier to pick up than the first anime with its thousand episodes.
I suggest waiting for the netflix anime readaptation that’s in production now. Logically, it should have better pace and much less filler than the first anime.
I mean, it IS Netflix, so it shouldn’t be presumed to be better in any way. Still, I will try pirating it first, rather than giving Netflix any money beforehand only to find out it’s crap.
im glad i still care because i never let them josh me
Same. I gave up on star wars after glub shitto was given to fake Luke at the end of that series. Just haven’t been able to care about the flood of B tier content after. Same with marvel after end game. There’s like 6 half assed shows and 8 movies or something now. It’s just too much filler and there’s no way I’m paying 3 or 4 services for mediocre content. I pirated everything in my early 20s and this feels like going back to the old times when the Internet was better. The nostalgia alone is making me happy to pirate again.
I’ve been reading a lot more.
Yes me too, I find myself watching movies less and less.
I find myself buying real books, ebooks online and buying vinyls.
I still stream music though, but the thing is, most music that could be found on Spotify, could be found on Apple Music or Deezer.
That’s odd. I find myself unable to keep up with all the movies I want to see. You should check out the Criterion collection.
most music that could be found on Spotify, could be found on Apple Music or Deezer.
As it should be. Compete witg additional features not with exclusivity.
Epic tries to do the same with Steam trying to strongarm the gaming community with free games.
And yet the users will still pay on Steam.
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This may come as a shock, but some people happen to enjoy content.
Crazy concept, I know.
The same thing happened to me. It’s really sad.
Same, I’ll watch one every once in a while but in general I much prefer educational content and documentaries.
YouTube is my is DoC :)
I am most definitely far more passive in my consumption than before. YouTube is actually where most of my media comes from now. Then my colleagues are always on about the Masked Singer or whatever is going on. I managed to make it through maybe 2 episodes before it made me sick.
Other than A24, aint nothing really worth watching these days. Which is great, because I have a backlog of great movies and TV backed up that I’m going to spend the next couple decades crushing.
I also recently started pirating again. The cost is too damn high for all these streaming platforms, not to mention a lot of the base packages have ads/commercials (gross). I use Stremio+Torrentio+Real Debrid (which is insanely cheap compared to purchasing 6 different streaming platforms). Until there is a massive change to how media is circulated this is gonna be my setup.
I pay 16€ for my torrenting and another 7 per month for usemet and can have almost every movie, show and media I want.
Exactly
When it was just Netflix and Hulu, it was great for consumers because having a couple streaming services could easily replace the need for cable TV for most people (unless you wanted to watch live sports) and the entertainment companies could still profit from licensing their content to the streaming services. But that wasn’t enough for the entertainment companies, and they all thought they could get in on the streaming game with their own platforms, only to discover that keeping a streaming service running and keeping subscribers is expensive for both the company and the consumer, and consumers only have so much time and disposable income they can spend on those services. So the market has become oversaturated with a million streaming services all carrying limited libraries of content that make it tough for any consumer to feel it’s worth it to pay for any of them except when one or two certain shows on each have a new season. This leaves most services running at a loss after expenses of keeping servers up and trying to make content to bring in and keep those subscribers, which many fail to do. The current state of it is unsustainable and I think in the end it’s eventually going to return to a model where only a few will survive, probably the larger ones owned by the entertainment companies themselves who have deep enough pockets from their other ventures to keep their services alfoat during off-peak times. A LOT of content is going to become lost media as that purge of services happens.
People with MBAs can’t fucking help themselves. They got a goose that lays golden eggs, but it doesn’t lay those golden eggs fast enough, so without even taking off their wristwatch they reach right up the poor bird’s cloaca, grab the first thing that feels vaguely round and pull as hard as they can. So then they have a half inside out goose and no more golden eggs ever again.
People pay for a Master’s degree to learn how to do this.
Reminds me of a passage in Ben Rich’s autobiography. Ben Rich spent his career at the Lockeed Skunkworks, started off designing a heater for the relief tube of jet fighters so the pilot’s penis wouldn’t freeze to the side of the tube while taking a piss, ended up running the team that designed the F-117. While he was second in command, his boss sent him to Harvard’s Business School, who ran a time crunched program for adults who are already in careers and “need” additional business schooling. Upon his return, his boss asked him what he learned. And he wrote on the chalkboard “2/3 HBS = BS”
It has less to to with people having MBAs and much more to do with companies having shareholders. Once you’re a publicly traded company there are overwhelmingly strong external forces that compell companies to increase revenue. Even if the business model is perfectly solid and it doesn’t make sense to expect rising profits the shareholders only care about growth rates. On the stock market a companies value is only dependent on its growth.
Take Netflix for example. They’ve had so many users some years ago when they were basically the only streaming service that one might have said they reached market saturation. That would’ve been a money making machine that people could be content with. But since the market always needs growth it isn’t enough and netflix is always trying to “innovate” or squeezie more monthly payments from the existing customer base.
cory doctorow has coined the great word “enshittification” to describe this process. And its driven by the need to grow further even though its to the detriment of the service or the customers. In the end it’s the people with the MBAs doing it. But if they’re not doing it the shareholders replace them with those that do.
top secret ball bearings rolling across pentagon desks, goddamn that’s a good freakin’ book :D
They can’t even admit this mindset is stupid because after they ruin every worthwhile company they just jump to the next thing while the industry they left sinks.
I mean, thats the way the capitalist, stock-return-driven economy works. The market expects a company to constantly grow to pump their stock price, so they have to find new revenue or cut costs somewhere. But they can’t do that forever…
The founders build a great product to pull in users, then they go public, then the MBAs turn to enshittification to drive more revenue and get rich while they can. The rest of us then move on to the next platform, if it even exists…
“2/3 HBS = BS”
So HBS is Harvard Business School, BS is bullshit. What does “2/3” refer to?
Two-thirds. As in two of the three letters of HBS
Oh, gotcha.
Two thirds of HBS is BS, I guess it’s saying it literally and playing that HBS has 3 letters and BS 2
Ah, thanks!
When the day will come, and once I pay for something I have the ability to just hit download and it will fetch an .mkv/.mp4 from a CDN, that’s when I’ll pay for it. Sadly that day isn’t even remotely close, so torrenting it is. Oh and fuck you WideVine.
That’s how Louis CK distributes his shows since he was cancelled.
One day… We hope.
You don’t need to hope as you can do this now without even having to pay first. If anyone should be hopeful, it’s these studios/distribution platforms.
I had almost gotten to the point where I could reasonably pay for most stuff and didn’t have to steal shit that wasn’t even available “in my market”, which, as a concept, can go fuck itself entirely to death as far as I’m concerned; but now everybody’s being dicks to each other and core content is leaving platforms I’m paying for and moving onto platforms i’m not allowed to use, so, no, it’s not the fault of the big guys per se but the collective and progressive brain death of the entertainment industry, whose obscene copyright regime is finally biting it in the ass but they’re still reeling from their latest cocaine decision and haven’t figured out why they can’t sit down yet. … I think that’s the longest sentence I’ve ever written.
But it doesn’t even matter. As soon as the competition dies down and things settle into a pattern, they’ll start putting the screws to us anyway, because that’s just what capitalism is. Enshittification ftw!
Yup.
I basically don’t pirate music because streaming is convenient.
I generally don’t pirate games because steam and GOG is convenient. (Sometimes if I’m not sure ill enjoy it I’ll pirate as a no limit trail then buy or drop).
I generally have to with movies and shows. Even though I have access to several streaming platforms though stuff like T-Mobile, AT&T, etc. it’s too annoying to jump around a bunch of apps and the quality is bad compared to the UHD rips of stuff
the quality is bad compared to the UHD rips of stuff
This is why I pirate Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I have a subscription to pretty much every streaming service in my country (Netflix, prime video, HBO max, apple TV, Sky showtime, etc. ) but Sky only has SNW in 1080p SDR. I can download it in 4k HDR. I don’t feel one bit guilty about it, I pay for the damn service that offers it. Just not in an acceptable picture quality.
What do you mean with SDR?
Standard Dynamic Range. It’s a term adopted to differentiate non-HDR video from HDR video.
Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
Standard-dynamic-range video (SDR video) is a video technology which represents light intensity based on the brightness, contrast and color characteristics and limitations of a cathode ray tube (CRT) display. SDR video is able to represent a video or picture's colors with a maximum luminance around 100 cd/m2, a black level around 0.1 cd/m2 and Rec.709 / sRGB color gamut. It uses the gamma curve as its electro-optical transfer function.The first CRT television sets were manufactured in 1934 and the first color CRT television sets were manufactured in 1954. The term "standard-dynamic-range video" was adopted to distinguish SDR video from high-dynamic-range video (HDR video), a new technology that was developed in the 2010s to overcome SDR's limits.Oh, cool. Another gimmick that we are going to be fighting about which standard to use for the next few decades, making terabytes of libraries seem obsolete, and another convenient excuse for the manufacturers to discontinue old models and keep the TV prices up despite offering no real improvements and manufacturing costs and quality dropping to the floor. Nice.
It’s not just quality compared with UHD rips, it’s things like prime video refusing to play anything except 480p on a web browser… WTF are they thinking?
I don’t use if on a browser, but even on my Shield Pro it’s not great. Prime Video seems to use a very low bitrate, there’s lots of compression artifacts, even on the 4k streams.
It’s just more enshittification. If they can get away with smaller files, they absolutely will.
So true!
I used netflix until the majority of my searches didnt show a result. and then went back to pirating.
using jellyfin+jellyseer and radarr/sonarr make it almost as convenient
If I want to buy a game it’s super easy to search for it on my choice of digital store front, pay for it and download it.
If I want to watch a show I could do a search for which streaming service it’s available on and hope it’s one I have an account with, or for the same amount of effort I could do a search for the torrent and be able to watch it if the internet goes down.
Why not just rent each movie for 48 hours from Amazon for the bargain price of “pretty much the same as a Blu-ray disc, and often higher”?
This was especially frustrating with kids. All too often, with the shorter attention span of little ones, and general lack of time, where we couldn’t finish a movie that quickly. Maybe I understand that for physical media but for digital where the only scarcity is artificial?
Someone missed out on so much of my money for streaming movies when my kids were little, simply because I couldn’t guarantee finishing them in 48 hours so I didn’t rent
Put out more good shows/movies, that way I don’t feel like I’m being taken for a $15 ride every month for 1 decent show and maybe 1 movie.
“Stronger than ever”… I still feel like the golden age of piracy is long lost
Care to elaborate?
Ship based piracy absolutely.
Digital piracy:
I remember Kazaa and LimeWire where you hoped the thing you were downloading for hours/days wasn’t a virus or a joke meme making fun of you for trusting someone. Getting an entire album of mp3s that were actually the band you hoped for and not missing any songs was a minor miracle.
Now there are dozens of automated tools that talk to each other. I type the name of the movie into a search bar, look through a list of posters and click the ‘request’ button. It get’s torrented in the background and then shows up on my Plex server. If I paid for a usenet group all that could happen an order of magnitude faster.
Search in one place, watch in one place.
It’s not quite as instant as streaming, but at this point I have such a back catalogue to work through that that isn’t really an issue.
I downloaded Matilda the other day. Yes the movie about a child that’s brilliant and might have super powers and the premise of the entire movie is basically Ha ha child abuse. It’s a movie I had not thought about in decades and on a whim wanted to watch for nostalgia. I checked all the streaming services I have. None of them had it. I checked TPB. I had it in 1080p in five minutes.
This is not an unusual story. I mean the Matilda part but I feel like this is the exact same story for nearly everyone pirating things more frequently.
You ain’t kidding! I recently got Sonarr/Radar/Prowlarr/Overseer setup and oh my gosh is it glorious! Look through trending movies/shows, couple clicks and it’s in Jellyfin in minutes. The industry is going to have to produce something VERY consumer-focused/friendly to even begin to tempt me away from this. They done fucked up. 😂
Forget streaming, physical media is ripe for hoarding right now. Thrift stores, antique malls, junk stores, etc can’t give this stuff away. Even 4k blurays on amazon are deeply discounted right now.
Also, rip and share your physical media if you can.
Services like these combatted convenience not price. It just happened that prices were able to be low whilst these companies could afford it.
Unfortunately due to greed and rising energy costs (but let’s face it, it’s greed) prices are rising which makes convenience matter less.
And to add to that, having multiple streaming services isn’t convenient. Again, this is caused by greed.
