I'm not sure what is crazier. That they were able to make millions charging folks $10 a month to view. Or that they did this from the US and not a country with no extradition.
>The group used “sophisticated computer scripts” and software to scour piracy services (including the Pirate Bay and Torrentz) for illegal copies of TV episodes, which they then downloaded and hosted on Jetflicks’ servers, according to federal prosecutors.
I'm guessing these 'sophisticated computer scripts' were the AARs. Radarr, Sonarr and Overseerr.
It never was, it was always copyright infringement.
In german speaking countries they called it '(armed) robbery' copying (Raubkopieren) to make people more afraid - while in Austria, we actually pay for every storage medium for our right of having private copies of stuff (and actually share them with friends - VHS taping and borrowing is legal here :) )
Nah fuck that. Make them pay. Then when they start watching something, get rid of it. When sometime starts getting popular, cancel future seasons. Then increase your prices so you can keep giving Adam Sandler dream vacation spots with all of his friends.
I've been a pirate as long as I've been able to access the internet from a home computer, and I feel absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever over it.
My cousin however started selling pirated DVDs to people at school, friends, and family, and it always bothered me. My aunt has always been the type who is religious and consider herself highly moral, and yet she would help him out by selling his pirated copies to co-workers and such. Meanwhile she stopped talking to my sister because she divorced an abusive partner (even though my aunt has also divorced an abusive partner lol).
Honestly, here in Brazil piracy is only fought if the people using it are making profit off it. Like the case of the article, but if you download books or software for personal use, it is near impossible to be charged. On recent years I recall only one instance that this wasn’t the norm, the last Rambo movie and a few others from the same distributor were flagged and some people reviewed a fine over the illegal download.
In Venezuela, the state TV channel shows pirated movies all the time and you can still find movie and game stores in malls filled with pirated stuff so it is pretty much legal for any use. In Colombia, it's not as upfront and I'm sure on the books it's pretty illegal but I haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted in any way or form for piracy.
mass lawsuits are not legal here in Canada (for piracy). They have to try each case individually, for a max fine of around $5000. This is why when there was all the news about them going after people for downloading The Hurt Locker it went nowhere....the legal fees would have been more than the payout per court case.
Its one thing to host a torrent site and just store the .tor files and torrent descriotions, forums etc. But hosting streaming is a whole other matter. Requiring far more storage and bandwidth.
Yeah, fuck these guys. I have a couple go-tos, and I've sent them crypto as a thank you for the service they provide, but never has it been a pay-to-receive situation. It's a donation!
Imo it highlights that there's not an unwillingness to pay for streaming. There's an unwillingness to pay several separate services in order to access a wide library.
I mean it's cool that you tip whoever but I'm not sure how relevant it is to this. People want and so do different things
If it's stable, reliable and ad free, I wouldn't mind paying for a pirated streaming service. Otherwise, the pop up ads, broken and dead end links that open more ads, the fakeout X buttons when clicked on open more ads, etc. Make streaming pirated content a huge pain in the ass.
I gave up in S4 or 5 of GoT because I had a newborn and got tired of spending 20 min looking for a functioning link.
Some free streaming sites have a paid tier that unlocks better speeds and quality. I assume since they have to pay for the video hosting sites to unlock those “premium” features
“Easy”
Ok I used to actually be really well versed in advanced pc usage once upon a time, and I just couldn’t be arsed to figure these out when I looked into it. Not to mention the fact that I had no idea they existed until I saw a vague reference to it in the plex subreddit. Easy it is *not*.
There's a plethora of guides on how to install and set them up for your operating system of choice. The only part I (hypothetically) struggled with was setting up different quality profiles outside of what comes pre-packaged in them.
Everyone's level of tech savviness is different. IMO, if you are well versed enough to reformat your pc and install an operating system, you should be good to go with the ARR suite. If you live in a closed ecosystem, or are an iPad / iPhone only techie, or use Geek Squad for your computer issues, it's probably not an easy to do setup.
That's all IMO of course. My step-dad took coding classes in college. He calls me to get his printer working now. Lol.
It's not that they're difficult it's that it's just a heck of a lot more work than a VPN and a torrent for those that are used to that style.
That said, if you are one of folks that likes this system, don't just assume they're safe from DMCA style shenanigans, get a proper VPN to protect yourself. Newsgroups and other endpoints can still be honeypots. A few times this discussion has come up a bunch of redditors have said "it's safe" to not use a VPN and it's absolutely not.
Oh. If I was hypothetically using any of these I'd never do it without a VPN.
The entire goal is to use the time spent manually searching torrents and instead set these up, and then never have to deal with manual searching again. Add RSS feeds and you can basically be done touching it, period, besides adding drives and or maybe an obscure item your RSS feeds haven't auto found for you.
The \*arrs themselves are very easy to set up, especially under Windows. It's configuring the download clients and indexers where things get a wee bit more complicated.
> Easy it is not.
Exactly. If it was easy, you wouldn't need guides to set it up.
People on this website are a bit more tech savvy than most and forget that. They also tend to underestimate the difficulty of something once they know how to do it.
That might be the most alarming thing.
The last thing we need is for these companies to notice that, between the Arr suites and Jellyfin/Plex, automated piracy has become extremely easy and more convenient than paying for streaming platforms. They won't take that lying down.
It's funny watching the battle between piracy and licensed content play out the same way over and over. Every time, it's just... which one is more convenient?
Most people are happy to pay a reasonable amount of money to watch things. But if it becomes sufficiently inconvenient, like if your favorite shows and movies are spread across 10 different streaming platforms, then it's no surprise that people are looking for better options.
For me it's ads.
I don't care if I have to jump between four different apps to find a movie or show I like, but throw in ads and I will drop that shit in a second.
The only reason I have Hulu right now is because it comes bundled with Disney+, and even then I don't use any of the content on it.
> They won't take that lying down.
You mean, like, they'll do their best to create a single authorized platform for all the content that is easier and more convenient for users than a pirate site?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 good one there you almost had me for two seconds! No, no, they'll file lawsuits against any distribution vector they can find, pursue criminal charges against anyone involved, and raise prices on all streaming platforms 50% to "recoup costs of fighting piracy" before taking down half of older archived content to avoid paying $20 residual checks to a few hundred actors and give themselves a bonus for the great idea.
Really. Make it easier on the public in any way that isn't immediately wrecked to extract maximum possible profit? Gotta give you credit, you got the good drugs.
No like, they’ll extend their all reaching tentacles to shut all of those cool and fun things down, then force you into their higher priced, fragmented and really shitty streaming platforms
At least there is still one method that all of you better keep you goddamn mouths shut about. The only thing I’ll say is, it’s one of the oldest parts of the internet, back before WWW existed. Y’all shut up though.
[Maybe this will help you out. They have an android tv app as well.](https://www.stremio.com/)
My Gf has a subscription to most streaming services and she shares them with me but I don't even use them anymore cause Streamio is way more convenient. Everything is in one place. 4k without paying extra. No screen limit bullshit. Zero ads. The UI/UX is better than most paid services, with features like a calendar showing when new episodes will be available, all you need is to add shows to your library and it automatically tracks them.
It's also Open Source so you can read their entire code AND they have an SDK if you want to create your own addons if you'd like to add features that aren't there already.
The only downside is that if you wanna watch really obscure old shows, you'll have a hard time since it relies on people watching & seeding, which means stuff has to be relatively popular or new. But I've had no issues streaming old stuff like Arrest Development, 90's episodes of Monday Night Raw, or stupid reality tv shows my gf unfortunately got me hooked on that have aired within the last 5 years or so. So that should give you a general idea of what to expect.
Adding a debrid service makes stremio 1000x better. Costs about $2/m or so. Super simple to set up as well. You'll never be able to look at the basic Stremio package the same way again.
Edit: for those asking how :
https://www.reddit.com/r/StremioAddons/s/Cb6TPT9Y3I
Dude this setup is genuinely the best kept secret in torrenting. I have a tiny HP desktop connected to my TV running stremio with realdebrid and it’s so fucking smooth. Also love that I don’t have to pay for a VPN
At least we can all rest easy knowing that they weren't sourcing their unsavory and illicit content from the dark corner of the web known as \*gasp\* usenet.
🎵 Leave her, Johnny, leave her 🎵
Oh! leave her, Johnny leave her!
For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow...
🎵 And it's time for us leave her 🎵
Fun fact: all of the sea shanties are on an official "album" on Spotify. [https://open.spotify.com/album/2lMgz2BBwwzkc9ZfNB9zYi?si=B\_ovSJDQTtGltzJWqxw8VA](https://open.spotify.com/album/2lMgz2BBwwzkc9ZfNB9zYi?si=B_ovSJDQTtGltzJWqxw8VA)
Sea shanties don't really have a lot of variety in theme. Would you like a song about going around cape horn? Or one about Spanish ladies? How about a jaunty tune on getting drunk on shore leave and vomiting in an alley? Maybe a vessel that brings supplies to an unending battle with a whale? Mayhaps I can interest you in a tale of whalers on the moon?
We're whalers on the moon we carry a harpoon but there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whaling toon!
I'm also quite partial to signing about Amsterdam prostitutes or heading for old St John's where all the girls are dancing.
🎵O when I was a lad with a Dialup Line
Sat in a spinning chair, waiting for Limewire
Music and videos, viruses too
When I was a Lad and the Internet new 🎵
🎵But gone are those halcyon downloading days
The afternoons spent in a torrenting haze
O come give the copyright masters their due
Subscriptions, packages, streaming fees too
For gone are the days when the Net was still new🎵
It has nothing to do with luck.
These idiots were charging for access to this service, i.e. charging for access to pirated content they were hosting. This is a textbook example of what not to do.
If there's one thing every last single pirate should understand, because it has been well understood for decades now, it's that when you start making money for yourself off of that piracy, it's like making noise in A Quiet Place, only instead of aliens, it's lawyers. It is incredibly stupid, and ultimately very harmful for everyone else when you draw their attention like this.
Between automated torrent management, Jellyfin/Plex, and a wide range of affordable VPNs, piracy is in a pretty great spot right now because these things are mostly not being scrutinized. The scrutiny will increase the more people try to create these massive pirate streaming platforms, and especially if they're making money off of it.
It's the old adage - There's no crime in America viewed by the courts more heinously or prosecuted more swiftly, and with more vehemence, than stealing from the rich.
Edit: Not a direct quote from anyone, just something I've come to realize over the years.
Not a direct quote from anyone, just something I've come to realize over the years.
I mean, look at Maddoff. So many people tried to warn regulating bodies he was running a ponzi scheme, but no one gave a shit until he swindled some wealthy folks out of their money. Looking him up now, I'm glad to see he died in prison back in 2021.
Or just run your own! I host one and it costs me about $15/month because I pay a little bit to ensure my security and high-speed downloads.
It exists only for myself and a few other people. I'm aggressive about account sharing, too--the rule is that the service is for *you*. If I notice access spreading, devices start getting banned.
For the price of most people's streaming bill for six months, you could build yourself a home server that will save you a lot more over the next year.
> Their scheme generated millions of dollars in criminal profits, while causing copyright owners to lose out.
Wait.... Let me try to find my violin
It's not like corporate greed is what is wrong with legal streaming right now
Copyright Holder: stops publishing a book
10,000 People: download PDF of said book
Copyright Holder: "These criminals have cost me millions of dollars!"
There really needs to be a clause in copyright law that a copyrighted work must be made available for sale at reasonable market prices or that it should risk losing its copyright. It's absurd that there are works that are essentially dead because no one wants to publish them, but no one can make copies of them, either.
(And, yes, I'm sure that there are all sorts of legal complications to this idea. Even so.)
Not even that, they charged $10/month, but if you wanted the same thing from all the copyright holders, it’s be like $80/month, which no one was going to do.
You cause opioid epidemic and death and homelessness of tens of thousands of people and you end up in less trouble than these guys. Something is rotten in the justice system.
Yes. And it's not hidden. Its called lobbying and campaign donations. And supreme court made it easier and more corrupt in 2012.
Only voters have the power to primary out these corrupt corporate money grabbing low lives but it won't happen because the donor class successfully has the low lifes outraged at fake issues
Cell phones are designed for maximum UI and minimum user control. You can't even tell where files are stored, much less look at code or control ports or anything like that. A kid using technology can teach them a lot, but its more likely they'll just learn how to interact with the never ending marketing aspects of it rather than actual technology. Its kind of like going to a casino, where its possible you can learn a shit ton about probability and math if you go in there with guidance and the right intentions, but its far more likely you lose all your savings at the slot machines.
There is a lot more to Las Vegas then gambling. I was there for a week for my wedding and gambled a grand total of 40 dollars and only because my buddy wanted to go to the casino for a bit.
You can easily load up a week in Vegas without once sitting down at a slot machine.
I live in Las Vegas and I love it and I don’t gamble — and I will defend it as a great city with lots to do — but it really is paid for by math illiteracy.
I put basic content blocks on our internet at home. I knew it wouldn't prevent horny teens looking for content, but at least they might have learned something about technology in the process of bypassing blocks :-)
I'm some time away from having kids, but my plan is to give them easier access to desktops and laptops. I'm not even *good* with technology, just decent. The problem-solving skills and ability to work with unfamiliar technology has basically made my career for me and given me a good life.
I fully intend to ensure my kids have those skills too, if I can at all manage it. They don't have to go into tech, but I'm gonna make sure there are perks for being able to do more than their peers.
As someone who currently works teaching adults about Linux: *thank you*, and godspeed. Some of them are doggone helpless when it comes to anything in the terminal window.
A particular manufacturer is particularly guilty of this and continues to coddle and infantilize their user base while simultaneously instilling a sense of superiority somehow.
My stepmom was a cultural anthropology professor (retired), who would do various studies in her area of expertise. She also got to know a lot of people in the academic community at large due to this.
She met another professor whose research was showing that effectively Gen Z/A and Boomers are almost equally tech illiterate, but for different reasons. Boomers because it's so new and some have a hard time understanding how it works conceptually. The kiddies *don't want to know* and don't care. They seem like they have it figured out due to their dependency on it.
No idea what happened with their study, or if it was published or anything. I found it fascinating as I was the "tech kid" and have now grown into a "tech guy."
Anecdotal.... Gen X here early 70s birth day - I was in grade school when TRS-80s where a thing. Needed to write my own code to do virtually anything. I wrote papers on a Apple IIe (or was it a c?) in high school. Freshman year of college is was a DOS machine running WordPefect for DOS. Sr. year it was Win95. I had to write batch files to run Doom. Network scripts to do lan parties. etc. etc. etc. So now I've setup SMB networks, I run multiple servers at home, etc.
All the "hard stuff" is already figured out for kids these days. Most stuff just works. No need to run emulators or write batch files to do stuff on a computer.
Running a multiplayer session of Soldier of Fortune 2 on a private server was essentially black magic crossed with a degree from MIT. We earned our gaming. It was over for me the day Halo let you do that on an Xbox without knowing shit about shit.
The don't care or know because tech is infinitely smoother and/or out of your hand entirely. Unless you're messing around with Linux for kicks I don't know where you'd really run into anything much like manual labour.
It Just Works.
> The kiddies don't want to know and don't care
As someone who has done tech support for *many* boomers, trust me, they don't want to know and don't care either. And honestly, that applies to almost everyone, not just boomers and zoomers.
Growing up in the 90s, the education system had a lot of emphasis on how to use a PC. Stuff like typing, using a command line (before Windows became ubiquitous) and probably most importantly how a file system works.
I think the problems really started when schools moved away from fully fledged PCs to using stuff like Chromebooks or Android tablets for tech. It's just a layer of abstraction overtop of a standard Operating System that simplifies how to interact with files, and when these kids step into the real world they have no idea how to do basic things like attach a file to an email.
Specifically with torrentinf, for us growing up in the 90s/00s, piracy was the only way to consume media without shelling big money for CDs/DVDs, but now they have access to pretty much anything they want to see on streaming services, again removing any incentive to learn how to do these things. I know I will be teaching my children how to use a Windows PC so I don't wind up being their tech support for the rest of my life.
Seriously! I straddle the line between Millennial and Gen Z, but I had to train my fully Gen Z coworker on how to do certain computer operations for our work. The software he grew up with (basically apps) had simplified a lot of things, so he never really developed the skill of troubleshooting or manually doing stuff. Thankfully he's quick to pick up on stuff like this, but it was kind of interesting to see a big gap like this even in just half a generation apart.
Troubleshooting and research is a dead art form. I see it in IT every single day. Something that takes me 30 seconds to find via Google search is a huge issue requiring multiple Teams meetings to discuss among younger Network Engineers.
I'm one of those folks who was a very tech-inclined young teen when the iPhone came out. By the time I had one, I already had the computer skills that mean I'm probably always going to prefer a desktop or laptop over a tablet for any given task.
Troubleshooting, research, problem-solving (in tech or not), and being able to work with unfamiliar technology are rare skills and they've more or less made my career for me even outside of tech. The greatest thing my dad ever did for me was make me figure out my own computer problems when I was little.
I feel fairly confident in saying I can come up with a solution to any problem that I encounter in any area of my life. In my opinion, that ability is more valuable than just about any other skill.
Assuming "we" means Gen X'ers, yes this is definitely the case.
The reason is that for us computers and tech didn't "just work". Heck, even just getting the tv running with an audio system required multiple cables of different types and an understanding of basic data flow.
Getting a PC game running often required learning about computer memory architecture, display capabilities and audio driver configuration.
Writing a document or spreadsheet before GUI interfaces required understanding obscure computer commands and syntax.
Today, most electronics are like a toaster. They just do stuff and generally "just work".
Some of my students (same age as previous posters kids) also struggle to use computers.
My school gives almost every student a Chromebook. So they can use a few web based programs fine but anything like unzipping or converting file types is beyond them.
My experience is that the kids can barely even use those web-based programs. We stopped teaching intro to computers classes at some point because someone decided that the kids were all “digital natives,” and now most of them can’t do anything more complex than downloading stuff from the App Store. I have to teach my seniors basic word processor functions every year.
I mean, I had to help people figure out how to do screenshots on the Chromebook when it is a simple Google search. Other people didn’t even know you could download something as a PDF from Google Docs.
I had a group of 5th graders, I got a bunch of old desk top PCs from a university salvage, took out the hard drives, ram, etc. put the parts in piles and had them put together a pc, talking about what each part was for and what it did, then download and install Ubuntu. I think it helped some of them.
When my daughter was about first grade she wanted a tablet. We got a single board computer, some ram, a touch screen and USB components and 3d printed a.case.and made an android device. I think that first start really helped her. Ten years later she still uses linux on her laptop but shifts to school Chromebooks etc as needed.
No, they absolutely are. They're a HUGE liability that nobody is considering. I recently put out a job listing for a receptionist. One of the daily job duties is to boot the computer and print out a list of that day's patients from Excel. Figured it would be great summer money for a kid off to college this August.
They can't operate a PC. They have no idea how to. Most of them can't even properly type on a keyboard much less grokk the purpose and function of a Yubikey.
And these are supposed to be the kids getting into cybersecurity to keep our country safe. With what? An iPad and a Snapchat account?
It's a cheap convince factor people are missing in this thread. I have friends/family who have and do pay for pirate services that offer everything with a UI they can easily navigate. No having to download stuff or any other torrenting options.
It usually offers nearly everything and costs way cheaper than it would to sub to multiple services or even cable. Because I've seen some of these services offer live cable too.
It's basically the hacked firesticks people have been buying online for years now.
The younger generation seems to be about as adept at understanding the technology they use on a daily basis as my boomer parents. I don't know what the hell happened because I was damn sure most of my life that the next generation behind mine was going to be all computer wizards.
They use iPads not full computers. Technology had a learning curve so we ended up learning the basics.
It’s like cars. Boomers could do a lot of servicing themselves that Millennials didn’t learn because car design makes it harder.
Forget changing spark plugs, I couldn’t even change the headlights on my Volvo.
This is a fantastic analogy. My boomer dad can do all sorts of servicing on his old Toyota himself. Me? I can just about change my engine oil, and I'm the only one in my friend group who can do even that much.
That takes more time. This is just the convenience of a streaming service with the content you'd expect from an actual streaming service. You don't need to plan ahead, you just have everything at your fingertips.
my mother kept getting hit with DMCA's so i set her up to be able to start torrents on my torrent box that sits exclusively on a VPN and its set up to write to the NAS that she also has access to.
I can torrent and do torrent stuff like games, but for movies and shows it is much easier to find a site like this, primarily because of the huge amount of corrupted and infected torrents. piratebay is full of faulty torrents. Finding a good torrent is harder than a needle in a haystack.
Torrents suck, I don't want to download a movie or episode before I watch it, I want to stream. Streaming torrents is possible but I always get buffering despite having enough speed to stream 4K remuxes from my paid service of choice.
> caused “substantial harm to television program copyright owners,”
Oh no! Think of the copyright owners! Those poor poor people :(
Edit: I'm not celebrating Actors and others getting fucked. I'm celebrating a pushback against streaming services who keep rising the costs while making their catalogs smaller and worse in quality.
I do not support the illegal streaming platform, but I am happy to see a serious financial threat to the various streaming platforms, which hopefully will make them think twice about the "copyright holders" before continuing to raise prices & drop in quality.
Edit 2: If hollywood & corporations had a dick, some of you would be queuing to suck it. Holy shit.
Most of these actors are already getting fucked by streaming services. A whole lot of contracts were made before streaming was a thing, and thus the networks and copyright owners are able to avoid paying any royalties on streamed content to the actors and crew since it was never mentioned in the contract. Case in point, most of the actors for Breaking Bad, one of the most popular shows of the modern era, make absolutely nothing in residuals, since they signed their royalty contracts just before streaming took off, and they make nothing off of the show being a hit on netflix. Piracy is a non-factor in their income because they frequently get nothing even if you watch it legitimately.
I told my kids straight up "you do not pirate anything in my house, PERIOD. You get me caught after all these years behind a VPN and imma be real pissed".
I do the same thing with my kid. She has a Plex collection literally with her name on it with all the movies I add for her.
When she sees an ad for a movie now, unless she REALLY wants to go to the theater, she'll say "I can't wait to watch that when it comes out on Plex!"
I've got the girl trained lol
Have you seen Overseerr? I’m still trying to work it out myself but it lets people on your Plex account make requests without having to interact with the arr’s themselves.
If Sony can remove content that people bought and their access is removed, then Piracy is not crime when buying products no longer means permanent ownership
>The jury convicted the five men of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. In addition, the jury convicted Dallmann of two counts of money laundering by concealment and three counts of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement. Dallmann faces a maximum penalty of 48 years in prison, while Courson, Garcia, Jaurequi and Huber each face a maximum of five years in prison, according to the Justice Department. A sentencing date has not yet been
So you can get 48 years in prison for piracy but how much for attempting to overthrow a government which caused the deaths of police officers?
Our society is sycophants to corporations.
lmao i work in animation and i have no problem with piracy. piracy doesn't hurt us. if anything, if our shows get more famous through piracy we have an easier time getting the next contract. by the time the show is done we are all paid, and it will never be anywhere near the millions execs and ceos are getting out of the show. to even watch the final version of our own work, that we freaking made, we have to pirate it or pay for it lmao.
we get invited to the awards and sometimes the avant premieres to smile and look pretty, but they don't even pay my train ticket if it's another town, don't give us free copies of the show, and we get let go after every project so like...??
if they want me to start feeling like piracy is immoral, they should pay all the artists residuals instead of everything going to the exec suite. and then maybe we can say that piracy is hurting the actual workers. residuals would bring immediate relief to the vast majority of artists and we would not be struggling the way we are. right now, even if we work on a mindblowingly successful show, we get paid the same, still get let go, and just helped some rich assholes buy their third yacht. why the f not pirate lmao
There's a concept called '1000 true fans' which means that if you can reach those particular fans, and serve them what they want, you'll have enough income for life, to do the work you want to do.
If it takes 10,000 pirateers to spread your content to reach those true fans, then so be it.
The danger in the end, isn't piracy, it's obscurity. If your product is so bad that no one wants to pirate it, you have a serious problem.
And to your specific issue about royalties. Good food for thought.
You're not going to get paid more either way. The only problem piracy creates is that paying for content just contributes to the wealth gap between us and CEOs.
They're not going to stop making content. That's their job that gets them the money they want. They're still going to pay you as little as possible.
That doesn't mean that no one is going to pay for content. If no one did, no one would get paid. So they've already found their 1000 true fans. They're doing fine.
Wait, wait, wait....
You were *charging* people *monthly* to hook into your *pirated* content streaming service, and you were doing from *within the United States of America??*
How fucking stupid can you be?? Did you do *zero* research into US prosecution of piracy in the last thirty years???? Did you ask *anyone* who's ever pirated anything before if this was a good idea?
It's about convenience. I paid for Netflix back when Netflix was Netflix and would happily do so again. I have paid for zero streaming services in the last 4 or 5 years though instead.
The convenience is the whole point. Piracy all but disappeared for a decade during the 2010s because Netflix had everything you wanted, in high quality and a great interface, for cheap.
Now, Netflix hardly has anything, and they increase their price regularly. Honestly, it feels like multiple times per year.
Add in the actual availability of the material - you need multiple streaming sites just to watch a couple of shows - and the fact that companies are removing purchased items from libraries, and they've managed to breathe new life into piracy.
Also, if you had told me that Disney and HBO Max would win the streaming wars even 3 years ago, I would've laughed at you. Netflix was that dominant, and look at them now.
Yeah most people just make their own. The steps are simple: buy a hard-drive, get every DVD you own and rip all of the video files and put them on the hard-drive and as a pro tip you can go to charity shops and buy new dvds for pennies. This is the legal route as you own those films/TV shows you're just making copies for your own use(check local laws). Should you happen to have another way of getting video files without buying the dvds first well that's not something I need to know about.
On a completely unrelated note I enjoy sailing while singing yohoho and a bottle of rum.
I’ve long suspected all these subscription IPTV streams & plexshares all coordinate to copy & resell just a handful of massive libraries.
Not that it’s hard to scrape your own & automate all reasonably popular shoes/tv while having a request server for less popular options, but why bother?
This is comically easy to do. You just don't charge money for it or you're going to get screwed.
I'm hosting my own "Netflix" as well with better stuff than all of that combined too but it's for my personal use only.
I'm not sure what is crazier. That they were able to make millions charging folks $10 a month to view. Or that they did this from the US and not a country with no extradition. >The group used “sophisticated computer scripts” and software to scour piracy services (including the Pirate Bay and Torrentz) for illegal copies of TV episodes, which they then downloaded and hosted on Jetflicks’ servers, according to federal prosecutors. I'm guessing these 'sophisticated computer scripts' were the AARs. Radarr, Sonarr and Overseerr.
That's terrible! Pirating streaming sites should be free! Nobody has principles anymore...
Sharing is caring after all. Any time I give people media, I only make them buy the storage and I'll load it up for them.
If buying isn't owning pirating isn't theft.
It never was, it was always copyright infringement. In german speaking countries they called it '(armed) robbery' copying (Raubkopieren) to make people more afraid - while in Austria, we actually pay for every storage medium for our right of having private copies of stuff (and actually share them with friends - VHS taping and borrowing is legal here :) )
Nah fuck that. Make them pay. Then when they start watching something, get rid of it. When sometime starts getting popular, cancel future seasons. Then increase your prices so you can keep giving Adam Sandler dream vacation spots with all of his friends.
I've been a pirate as long as I've been able to access the internet from a home computer, and I feel absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever over it. My cousin however started selling pirated DVDs to people at school, friends, and family, and it always bothered me. My aunt has always been the type who is religious and consider herself highly moral, and yet she would help him out by selling his pirated copies to co-workers and such. Meanwhile she stopped talking to my sister because she divorced an abusive partner (even though my aunt has also divorced an abusive partner lol).
This Is The Way.
Charging money for pirated content definitely increases the motivation and capability of law enforcement to catch someone.
Case in point: Absolutely anything with Nintendo (Yuzu, Xecuter, ...)
Well Japan's copyright law is more harsh than Americans. But I get ya.
True, but as you said, making money with it, even indirectly, can go south real quick. "Never break more than one law at a time" and all that
My dad always told me, "never break the law while breaking the law."
Honestly, here in Brazil piracy is only fought if the people using it are making profit off it. Like the case of the article, but if you download books or software for personal use, it is near impossible to be charged. On recent years I recall only one instance that this wasn’t the norm, the last Rambo movie and a few others from the same distributor were flagged and some people reviewed a fine over the illegal download.
In Venezuela, the state TV channel shows pirated movies all the time and you can still find movie and game stores in malls filled with pirated stuff so it is pretty much legal for any use. In Colombia, it's not as upfront and I'm sure on the books it's pretty illegal but I haven't heard of anyone being prosecuted in any way or form for piracy.
Same in Sweden, if it ever would go further than a threatening letter, you really just need to do the Shaggy defense and you're OK.
'Picture this we were both butt naked' Idk how thatll help me
No no no. You throw some Scooby Snacks in one direction and run the opposite direction.
Judge: I’d rather not, case dismissed
Run away?
I'm assuming he means "It wasn't me"
Yup!
Zoinks!
Ya it’s the same up here in Canada. As long as it’s for personal use good luck getting fined/charged.
There are occasionally mass lawsuits against people who have been found torrenting.
They go nowhere. It is established in Canadian courts that an IP Address is not a person. Period.
mass lawsuits are not legal here in Canada (for piracy). They have to try each case individually, for a max fine of around $5000. This is why when there was all the news about them going after people for downloading The Hurt Locker it went nowhere....the legal fees would have been more than the payout per court case.
RIP RARBG
Its one thing to host a torrent site and just store the .tor files and torrent descriotions, forums etc. But hosting streaming is a whole other matter. Requiring far more storage and bandwidth.
Yeah, fuck these guys. I have a couple go-tos, and I've sent them crypto as a thank you for the service they provide, but never has it been a pay-to-receive situation. It's a donation!
Imo it highlights that there's not an unwillingness to pay for streaming. There's an unwillingness to pay several separate services in order to access a wide library. I mean it's cool that you tip whoever but I'm not sure how relevant it is to this. People want and so do different things
If it's stable, reliable and ad free, I wouldn't mind paying for a pirated streaming service. Otherwise, the pop up ads, broken and dead end links that open more ads, the fakeout X buttons when clicked on open more ads, etc. Make streaming pirated content a huge pain in the ass. I gave up in S4 or 5 of GoT because I had a newborn and got tired of spending 20 min looking for a functioning link.
Some free streaming sites have a paid tier that unlocks better speeds and quality. I assume since they have to pay for the video hosting sites to unlock those “premium” features
As soon as I read that line, I immediately said to myself "oh, you mean the easy to find, use, and setup ARR suite?" Lol.
“Easy” Ok I used to actually be really well versed in advanced pc usage once upon a time, and I just couldn’t be arsed to figure these out when I looked into it. Not to mention the fact that I had no idea they existed until I saw a vague reference to it in the plex subreddit. Easy it is *not*.
There's a plethora of guides on how to install and set them up for your operating system of choice. The only part I (hypothetically) struggled with was setting up different quality profiles outside of what comes pre-packaged in them. Everyone's level of tech savviness is different. IMO, if you are well versed enough to reformat your pc and install an operating system, you should be good to go with the ARR suite. If you live in a closed ecosystem, or are an iPad / iPhone only techie, or use Geek Squad for your computer issues, it's probably not an easy to do setup. That's all IMO of course. My step-dad took coding classes in college. He calls me to get his printer working now. Lol.
It's not that they're difficult it's that it's just a heck of a lot more work than a VPN and a torrent for those that are used to that style. That said, if you are one of folks that likes this system, don't just assume they're safe from DMCA style shenanigans, get a proper VPN to protect yourself. Newsgroups and other endpoints can still be honeypots. A few times this discussion has come up a bunch of redditors have said "it's safe" to not use a VPN and it's absolutely not.
Oh. If I was hypothetically using any of these I'd never do it without a VPN. The entire goal is to use the time spent manually searching torrents and instead set these up, and then never have to deal with manual searching again. Add RSS feeds and you can basically be done touching it, period, besides adding drives and or maybe an obscure item your RSS feeds haven't auto found for you.
The \*arrs themselves are very easy to set up, especially under Windows. It's configuring the download clients and indexers where things get a wee bit more complicated.
> Easy it is not. Exactly. If it was easy, you wouldn't need guides to set it up. People on this website are a bit more tech savvy than most and forget that. They also tend to underestimate the difficulty of something once they know how to do it.
That might be the most alarming thing. The last thing we need is for these companies to notice that, between the Arr suites and Jellyfin/Plex, automated piracy has become extremely easy and more convenient than paying for streaming platforms. They won't take that lying down.
It's funny watching the battle between piracy and licensed content play out the same way over and over. Every time, it's just... which one is more convenient? Most people are happy to pay a reasonable amount of money to watch things. But if it becomes sufficiently inconvenient, like if your favorite shows and movies are spread across 10 different streaming platforms, then it's no surprise that people are looking for better options.
For me it's ads. I don't care if I have to jump between four different apps to find a movie or show I like, but throw in ads and I will drop that shit in a second. The only reason I have Hulu right now is because it comes bundled with Disney+, and even then I don't use any of the content on it.
> They won't take that lying down. You mean, like, they'll do their best to create a single authorized platform for all the content that is easier and more convenient for users than a pirate site?
Definitely not that
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 good one there you almost had me for two seconds! No, no, they'll file lawsuits against any distribution vector they can find, pursue criminal charges against anyone involved, and raise prices on all streaming platforms 50% to "recoup costs of fighting piracy" before taking down half of older archived content to avoid paying $20 residual checks to a few hundred actors and give themselves a bonus for the great idea. Really. Make it easier on the public in any way that isn't immediately wrecked to extract maximum possible profit? Gotta give you credit, you got the good drugs.
No like, they’ll extend their all reaching tentacles to shut all of those cool and fun things down, then force you into their higher priced, fragmented and really shitty streaming platforms
At least there is still one method that all of you better keep you goddamn mouths shut about. The only thing I’ll say is, it’s one of the oldest parts of the internet, back before WWW existed. Y’all shut up though.
I hope no groups share the news
>country with no extradition That didn't help that pirate bay guy who was hiding in Laos. They still got him.
Searched him up. Seems they caught him crossing into Thailand. He only served 10 months in prison at least.
My dad uses this service. He'll be sad when he hears this news
What did he think of it?
[Maybe this will help you out. They have an android tv app as well.](https://www.stremio.com/) My Gf has a subscription to most streaming services and she shares them with me but I don't even use them anymore cause Streamio is way more convenient. Everything is in one place. 4k without paying extra. No screen limit bullshit. Zero ads. The UI/UX is better than most paid services, with features like a calendar showing when new episodes will be available, all you need is to add shows to your library and it automatically tracks them. It's also Open Source so you can read their entire code AND they have an SDK if you want to create your own addons if you'd like to add features that aren't there already. The only downside is that if you wanna watch really obscure old shows, you'll have a hard time since it relies on people watching & seeding, which means stuff has to be relatively popular or new. But I've had no issues streaming old stuff like Arrest Development, 90's episodes of Monday Night Raw, or stupid reality tv shows my gf unfortunately got me hooked on that have aired within the last 5 years or so. So that should give you a general idea of what to expect.
Adding a debrid service makes stremio 1000x better. Costs about $2/m or so. Super simple to set up as well. You'll never be able to look at the basic Stremio package the same way again. Edit: for those asking how : https://www.reddit.com/r/StremioAddons/s/Cb6TPT9Y3I
Dude this setup is genuinely the best kept secret in torrenting. I have a tiny HP desktop connected to my TV running stremio with realdebrid and it’s so fucking smooth. Also love that I don’t have to pay for a VPN
At least we can all rest easy knowing that they weren't sourcing their unsavory and illicit content from the dark corner of the web known as \*gasp\* usenet.
"Do not quote the ancient magics to me witch, I was there when it was written." 😁
o7 For the fallen heroes, may the ones who will rise in their stead have more luck and tenacity!
🏴☠️
🎵 Leave her, Johnny, leave her 🎵 Oh! leave her, Johnny leave her! For the voyage is long and the winds don't blow... 🎵 And it's time for us leave her 🎵
Well that just unlocked a 10 year old memory of cruising around in AC: Black flag listening to Sea Shanties
Fun fact: all of the sea shanties are on an official "album" on Spotify. [https://open.spotify.com/album/2lMgz2BBwwzkc9ZfNB9zYi?si=B\_ovSJDQTtGltzJWqxw8VA](https://open.spotify.com/album/2lMgz2BBwwzkc9ZfNB9zYi?si=B_ovSJDQTtGltzJWqxw8VA)
Little bit of an odd choice, since that song is basically "well this shit was awful"
Sea shanties don't really have a lot of variety in theme. Would you like a song about going around cape horn? Or one about Spanish ladies? How about a jaunty tune on getting drunk on shore leave and vomiting in an alley? Maybe a vessel that brings supplies to an unending battle with a whale? Mayhaps I can interest you in a tale of whalers on the moon?
We're whalers on the moon we carry a harpoon but there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing our whaling toon! I'm also quite partial to signing about Amsterdam prostitutes or heading for old St John's where all the girls are dancing.
We're whalers on the moon.. we carry a harpoon.. but there ain't no whales so we tell tall tales and sing this whalin' tune
🎵O when I was a lad with a Dialup Line Sat in a spinning chair, waiting for Limewire Music and videos, viruses too When I was a Lad and the Internet new 🎵 🎵But gone are those halcyon downloading days The afternoons spent in a torrenting haze O come give the copyright masters their due Subscriptions, packages, streaming fees too For gone are the days when the Net was still new🎵
It has nothing to do with luck. These idiots were charging for access to this service, i.e. charging for access to pirated content they were hosting. This is a textbook example of what not to do. If there's one thing every last single pirate should understand, because it has been well understood for decades now, it's that when you start making money for yourself off of that piracy, it's like making noise in A Quiet Place, only instead of aliens, it's lawyers. It is incredibly stupid, and ultimately very harmful for everyone else when you draw their attention like this. Between automated torrent management, Jellyfin/Plex, and a wide range of affordable VPNs, piracy is in a pretty great spot right now because these things are mostly not being scrutinized. The scrutiny will increase the more people try to create these massive pirate streaming platforms, and especially if they're making money off of it.
It's the old adage - There's no crime in America viewed by the courts more heinously or prosecuted more swiftly, and with more vehemence, than stealing from the rich. Edit: Not a direct quote from anyone, just something I've come to realize over the years.
Curious what the source of that quote is, sounds like something I should read.
Not a direct quote from anyone, just something I've come to realize over the years. I mean, look at Maddoff. So many people tried to warn regulating bodies he was running a ponzi scheme, but no one gave a shit until he swindled some wealthy folks out of their money. Looking him up now, I'm glad to see he died in prison back in 2021.
And if you find one, use it. Quietly share it with friends. But keep your thoughts about it offline.
Or just run your own! I host one and it costs me about $15/month because I pay a little bit to ensure my security and high-speed downloads. It exists only for myself and a few other people. I'm aggressive about account sharing, too--the rule is that the service is for *you*. If I notice access spreading, devices start getting banned. For the price of most people's streaming bill for six months, you could build yourself a home server that will save you a lot more over the next year.
Some people don't have time, desire, or know how. I'm happy to support those that do. Good on you for doing it. I hope your friends appreciate it.
They weren't heroes, they charged money for it. This is what the bad piracy looks like.
Oh my god, That’s disgusting! Where? What’s the name of the website?
Horrible indeed! I hope its not as horrible as ororo.tv which is ofc only for learning english and nothing else
Huh, I only see YouTube channels there?
They apparently think paying a random site for content that is free on Youtube will cut into Netflix's earnings somehow.
Sharing these sites on the front page of reddit gets them shut down btw
The piracy subreddit has a whole ass mega thread *full* of streaming sites if you're curious.
A few are out of date thought but yea
Make sure you're looking at the good mega thread, there seem to be a couple of them out there for whatever reason.
I think you might be too late
Ugh, those streaming content websites! Theres so many of them thou, which one?... which one did they put it on?
I'll refrain from mentioning them because of... you know... ...the implication.
Wait... are these torrent sites in danger?!?!
I feel like you’re not getting this..
Pfft - don't worry about it. It's not like you'd be in any danger.
I feel like you're not getting this at all!
I would recommend also staying away from bflicks lest you accidentally violate copyright with that.
Idk, one of those disgusting streaming websites.
There’s so many of them though, which one?
I'm disappointed that not that many people replying are getting the reference.
> Their scheme generated millions of dollars in criminal profits, while causing copyright owners to lose out. Wait.... Let me try to find my violin It's not like corporate greed is what is wrong with legal streaming right now
Copyright Holder: stops publishing a book 10,000 People: download PDF of said book Copyright Holder: "These criminals have cost me millions of dollars!"
Oh hey Nintendo
It's worse: > 10,000 People: Use digital library PDF of said book Libraries like archive.org and libgen.rs must be protected.
There really needs to be a clause in copyright law that a copyrighted work must be made available for sale at reasonable market prices or that it should risk losing its copyright. It's absurd that there are works that are essentially dead because no one wants to publish them, but no one can make copies of them, either. (And, yes, I'm sure that there are all sorts of legal complications to this idea. Even so.)
Several countries actually had similar laws in place, but upon joining the WTO everyone had to adopt the US-style draconian copyright scheme.
The rights holder are no poorer, they only lost *potential* profits, so screw 'em.
Not even that, they charged $10/month, but if you wanted the same thing from all the copyright holders, it’s be like $80/month, which no one was going to do.
Yeah, but also charging money for pirated media is stupid. That’s the only reason anyone cared enough to arrest them
You cause opioid epidemic and death and homelessness of tens of thousands of people and you end up in less trouble than these guys. Something is rotten in the justice system.
Yes. And it's not hidden. Its called lobbying and campaign donations. And supreme court made it easier and more corrupt in 2012. Only voters have the power to primary out these corrupt corporate money grabbing low lives but it won't happen because the donor class successfully has the low lifes outraged at fake issues
because the corporations write the laws basically. it's not bribery it's "lobbying"
110k dead a year, and crickets. There just drug users they don't matter. Its a silent war, and were loosing.
Never have I heard of jet flicks. Kids these days can’t just torrent stuff like adults?
The 14 year old in my house doesnt know anything about computers beyond entering credit card data. Torrents might as well be goddamned Force magic.
They're growing up worse with technology than we were. It's weird; they're like mini-boomers.
Cell phones are designed for maximum UI and minimum user control. You can't even tell where files are stored, much less look at code or control ports or anything like that. A kid using technology can teach them a lot, but its more likely they'll just learn how to interact with the never ending marketing aspects of it rather than actual technology. Its kind of like going to a casino, where its possible you can learn a shit ton about probability and math if you go in there with guidance and the right intentions, but its far more likely you lose all your savings at the slot machines.
Las Vegas is a monument to math illiteracy.
> math illiteracy Innumeracy is once of them thar things in wot the papers with words readin’.
There is a lot more to Las Vegas then gambling. I was there for a week for my wedding and gambled a grand total of 40 dollars and only because my buddy wanted to go to the casino for a bit. You can easily load up a week in Vegas without once sitting down at a slot machine.
I live in Las Vegas and I love it and I don’t gamble — and I will defend it as a great city with lots to do — but it really is paid for by math illiteracy.
The Gambler's Fallacy is a lie! /s
It's part to blame for enshitification of software and online services. Young people can't imagine software being better than the slop they're sold.
It's not weird, it's the natural consequence of their primary devices being mobile and mobile being locked down Fischer Price toys.
I put basic content blocks on our internet at home. I knew it wouldn't prevent horny teens looking for content, but at least they might have learned something about technology in the process of bypassing blocks :-)
I'm some time away from having kids, but my plan is to give them easier access to desktops and laptops. I'm not even *good* with technology, just decent. The problem-solving skills and ability to work with unfamiliar technology has basically made my career for me and given me a good life. I fully intend to ensure my kids have those skills too, if I can at all manage it. They don't have to go into tech, but I'm gonna make sure there are perks for being able to do more than their peers.
My current plan is to give them a locked down Linux laptop, I'm not raising someone afraid of the command line.
As someone who currently works teaching adults about Linux: *thank you*, and godspeed. Some of them are doggone helpless when it comes to anything in the terminal window.
A lot of very IT professionals out there cut their teeth on porn and PC games.
IT pro that grew up breaking and fixing dad's PCs reporting in
A particular manufacturer is particularly guilty of this and continues to coddle and infantilize their user base while simultaneously instilling a sense of superiority somehow.
My stepmom was a cultural anthropology professor (retired), who would do various studies in her area of expertise. She also got to know a lot of people in the academic community at large due to this. She met another professor whose research was showing that effectively Gen Z/A and Boomers are almost equally tech illiterate, but for different reasons. Boomers because it's so new and some have a hard time understanding how it works conceptually. The kiddies *don't want to know* and don't care. They seem like they have it figured out due to their dependency on it. No idea what happened with their study, or if it was published or anything. I found it fascinating as I was the "tech kid" and have now grown into a "tech guy."
Anecdotal.... Gen X here early 70s birth day - I was in grade school when TRS-80s where a thing. Needed to write my own code to do virtually anything. I wrote papers on a Apple IIe (or was it a c?) in high school. Freshman year of college is was a DOS machine running WordPefect for DOS. Sr. year it was Win95. I had to write batch files to run Doom. Network scripts to do lan parties. etc. etc. etc. So now I've setup SMB networks, I run multiple servers at home, etc. All the "hard stuff" is already figured out for kids these days. Most stuff just works. No need to run emulators or write batch files to do stuff on a computer.
Running a multiplayer session of Soldier of Fortune 2 on a private server was essentially black magic crossed with a degree from MIT. We earned our gaming. It was over for me the day Halo let you do that on an Xbox without knowing shit about shit.
The don't care or know because tech is infinitely smoother and/or out of your hand entirely. Unless you're messing around with Linux for kicks I don't know where you'd really run into anything much like manual labour. It Just Works.
> The kiddies don't want to know and don't care As someone who has done tech support for *many* boomers, trust me, they don't want to know and don't care either. And honestly, that applies to almost everyone, not just boomers and zoomers.
Growing up in the 90s, the education system had a lot of emphasis on how to use a PC. Stuff like typing, using a command line (before Windows became ubiquitous) and probably most importantly how a file system works. I think the problems really started when schools moved away from fully fledged PCs to using stuff like Chromebooks or Android tablets for tech. It's just a layer of abstraction overtop of a standard Operating System that simplifies how to interact with files, and when these kids step into the real world they have no idea how to do basic things like attach a file to an email. Specifically with torrentinf, for us growing up in the 90s/00s, piracy was the only way to consume media without shelling big money for CDs/DVDs, but now they have access to pretty much anything they want to see on streaming services, again removing any incentive to learn how to do these things. I know I will be teaching my children how to use a Windows PC so I don't wind up being their tech support for the rest of my life.
Seriously! I straddle the line between Millennial and Gen Z, but I had to train my fully Gen Z coworker on how to do certain computer operations for our work. The software he grew up with (basically apps) had simplified a lot of things, so he never really developed the skill of troubleshooting or manually doing stuff. Thankfully he's quick to pick up on stuff like this, but it was kind of interesting to see a big gap like this even in just half a generation apart.
Troubleshooting and research is a dead art form. I see it in IT every single day. Something that takes me 30 seconds to find via Google search is a huge issue requiring multiple Teams meetings to discuss among younger Network Engineers.
I'm one of those folks who was a very tech-inclined young teen when the iPhone came out. By the time I had one, I already had the computer skills that mean I'm probably always going to prefer a desktop or laptop over a tablet for any given task. Troubleshooting, research, problem-solving (in tech or not), and being able to work with unfamiliar technology are rare skills and they've more or less made my career for me even outside of tech. The greatest thing my dad ever did for me was make me figure out my own computer problems when I was little. I feel fairly confident in saying I can come up with a solution to any problem that I encounter in any area of my life. In my opinion, that ability is more valuable than just about any other skill.
Assuming "we" means Gen X'ers, yes this is definitely the case. The reason is that for us computers and tech didn't "just work". Heck, even just getting the tv running with an audio system required multiple cables of different types and an understanding of basic data flow. Getting a PC game running often required learning about computer memory architecture, display capabilities and audio driver configuration. Writing a document or spreadsheet before GUI interfaces required understanding obscure computer commands and syntax. Today, most electronics are like a toaster. They just do stuff and generally "just work".
Yeah, I used to be concerned that the next gens would be ridiculously far ahead of me by the time they were in High School. Then the iPhone came out.
Some of my students (same age as previous posters kids) also struggle to use computers. My school gives almost every student a Chromebook. So they can use a few web based programs fine but anything like unzipping or converting file types is beyond them.
My experience is that the kids can barely even use those web-based programs. We stopped teaching intro to computers classes at some point because someone decided that the kids were all “digital natives,” and now most of them can’t do anything more complex than downloading stuff from the App Store. I have to teach my seniors basic word processor functions every year.
I mean, I had to help people figure out how to do screenshots on the Chromebook when it is a simple Google search. Other people didn’t even know you could download something as a PDF from Google Docs.
I had a group of 5th graders, I got a bunch of old desk top PCs from a university salvage, took out the hard drives, ram, etc. put the parts in piles and had them put together a pc, talking about what each part was for and what it did, then download and install Ubuntu. I think it helped some of them. When my daughter was about first grade she wanted a tablet. We got a single board computer, some ram, a touch screen and USB components and 3d printed a.case.and made an android device. I think that first start really helped her. Ten years later she still uses linux on her laptop but shifts to school Chromebooks etc as needed.
Well if you grow up tech-savvy, you can torrent instead of paying. And you install adblockers. And whatever else.
No, they absolutely are. They're a HUGE liability that nobody is considering. I recently put out a job listing for a receptionist. One of the daily job duties is to boot the computer and print out a list of that day's patients from Excel. Figured it would be great summer money for a kid off to college this August. They can't operate a PC. They have no idea how to. Most of them can't even properly type on a keyboard much less grokk the purpose and function of a Yubikey. And these are supposed to be the kids getting into cybersecurity to keep our country safe. With what? An iPad and a Snapchat account?
>beyond entering credit card data. I can feel you parental stress and frustration from this one sentence
IT'S NOT MAGIC IT'S MIDICHLORIANS lol
I got so much stuff off of IRC at that age, but now as an adult I have zero memory of how I did it, lol.
It's a cheap convince factor people are missing in this thread. I have friends/family who have and do pay for pirate services that offer everything with a UI they can easily navigate. No having to download stuff or any other torrenting options. It usually offers nearly everything and costs way cheaper than it would to sub to multiple services or even cable. Because I've seen some of these services offer live cable too. It's basically the hacked firesticks people have been buying online for years now.
Torrenting was always a niche activity, most people, even "techies" never used torrenting sites.
The younger generation seems to be about as adept at understanding the technology they use on a daily basis as my boomer parents. I don't know what the hell happened because I was damn sure most of my life that the next generation behind mine was going to be all computer wizards.
They use iPads not full computers. Technology had a learning curve so we ended up learning the basics. It’s like cars. Boomers could do a lot of servicing themselves that Millennials didn’t learn because car design makes it harder. Forget changing spark plugs, I couldn’t even change the headlights on my Volvo.
This is a fantastic analogy. My boomer dad can do all sorts of servicing on his old Toyota himself. Me? I can just about change my engine oil, and I'm the only one in my friend group who can do even that much.
That takes more time. This is just the convenience of a streaming service with the content you'd expect from an actual streaming service. You don't need to plan ahead, you just have everything at your fingertips.
Torrents will quickly get you DMCA'd if you don't know what you're doing. Streaming the content does not.
my mother kept getting hit with DMCA's so i set her up to be able to start torrents on my torrent box that sits exclusively on a VPN and its set up to write to the NAS that she also has access to.
I can torrent and do torrent stuff like games, but for movies and shows it is much easier to find a site like this, primarily because of the huge amount of corrupted and infected torrents. piratebay is full of faulty torrents. Finding a good torrent is harder than a needle in a haystack.
Torrents suck, I don't want to download a movie or episode before I watch it, I want to stream. Streaming torrents is possible but I always get buffering despite having enough speed to stream 4K remuxes from my paid service of choice.
> caused “substantial harm to television program copyright owners,” Oh no! Think of the copyright owners! Those poor poor people :( Edit: I'm not celebrating Actors and others getting fucked. I'm celebrating a pushback against streaming services who keep rising the costs while making their catalogs smaller and worse in quality. I do not support the illegal streaming platform, but I am happy to see a serious financial threat to the various streaming platforms, which hopefully will make them think twice about the "copyright holders" before continuing to raise prices & drop in quality. Edit 2: If hollywood & corporations had a dick, some of you would be queuing to suck it. Holy shit.
I'm trying to think about the copyright owners suffering but I just keep getting harder...
The American justice system does not uphold laws or protect the people, it exists solely to protect the property of the rich.
Most of these actors are already getting fucked by streaming services. A whole lot of contracts were made before streaming was a thing, and thus the networks and copyright owners are able to avoid paying any royalties on streamed content to the actors and crew since it was never mentioned in the contract. Case in point, most of the actors for Breaking Bad, one of the most popular shows of the modern era, make absolutely nothing in residuals, since they signed their royalty contracts just before streaming took off, and they make nothing off of the show being a hit on netflix. Piracy is a non-factor in their income because they frequently get nothing even if you watch it legitimately.
I told my kids straight up "you do not pirate anything in my house, PERIOD. You get me caught after all these years behind a VPN and imma be real pissed".
Host a Plex streaming library for the fam of content you pirated, two birds w/ one stone
This is the absolute way. If my kids want a movie, they just leave me a note on my desk. Then it's on Plex by that night.
I do the same thing with my kid. She has a Plex collection literally with her name on it with all the movies I add for her. When she sees an ad for a movie now, unless she REALLY wants to go to the theater, she'll say "I can't wait to watch that when it comes out on Plex!" I've got the girl trained lol
Have you seen Overseerr? I’m still trying to work it out myself but it lets people on your Plex account make requests without having to interact with the arr’s themselves.
Step 1. Bind
Lol you must show them the way
Your kids give a shit about something other than YouTube??? Weird..
Why is this not the onion material?
It's not, people are just missing the point completely that it's subscription based still.
This isn't really oniony at all
Paying for illegal streaming when u have illegal free streaming
If Sony can remove content that people bought and their access is removed, then Piracy is not crime when buying products no longer means permanent ownership
Glad it wasn't the one I use
Same here, lol
Meanwhile, Epstein clients (remember they r****d enslaved minors) are not only free, but the list is still secret.
Will I get banned if I say Epstein's clients raped enslaved minors? Why are people censoring these words?
Just to clarify, they were charging for content. Hardly worth martyring
Martyring?*
Prosecutors report that all twelve movies were hosted on a single hard drive, seized at the scene of the crime.
>The jury convicted the five men of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. In addition, the jury convicted Dallmann of two counts of money laundering by concealment and three counts of misdemeanor criminal copyright infringement. Dallmann faces a maximum penalty of 48 years in prison, while Courson, Garcia, Jaurequi and Huber each face a maximum of five years in prison, according to the Justice Department. A sentencing date has not yet been So you can get 48 years in prison for piracy but how much for attempting to overthrow a government which caused the deaths of police officers? Our society is sycophants to corporations.
48 for digital media piracy, house arrest for treason.
Flags at half mast today everyone 🏴☠️
Oh, god forbid. What monsters. /s
The true hero story is the one you never heard until they're gone.
lmao i work in animation and i have no problem with piracy. piracy doesn't hurt us. if anything, if our shows get more famous through piracy we have an easier time getting the next contract. by the time the show is done we are all paid, and it will never be anywhere near the millions execs and ceos are getting out of the show. to even watch the final version of our own work, that we freaking made, we have to pirate it or pay for it lmao. we get invited to the awards and sometimes the avant premieres to smile and look pretty, but they don't even pay my train ticket if it's another town, don't give us free copies of the show, and we get let go after every project so like...?? if they want me to start feeling like piracy is immoral, they should pay all the artists residuals instead of everything going to the exec suite. and then maybe we can say that piracy is hurting the actual workers. residuals would bring immediate relief to the vast majority of artists and we would not be struggling the way we are. right now, even if we work on a mindblowingly successful show, we get paid the same, still get let go, and just helped some rich assholes buy their third yacht. why the f not pirate lmao
There's a concept called '1000 true fans' which means that if you can reach those particular fans, and serve them what they want, you'll have enough income for life, to do the work you want to do. If it takes 10,000 pirateers to spread your content to reach those true fans, then so be it. The danger in the end, isn't piracy, it's obscurity. If your product is so bad that no one wants to pirate it, you have a serious problem. And to your specific issue about royalties. Good food for thought. You're not going to get paid more either way. The only problem piracy creates is that paying for content just contributes to the wealth gap between us and CEOs. They're not going to stop making content. That's their job that gets them the money they want. They're still going to pay you as little as possible. That doesn't mean that no one is going to pay for content. If no one did, no one would get paid. So they've already found their 1000 true fans. They're doing fine.
Wait, wait, wait.... You were *charging* people *monthly* to hook into your *pirated* content streaming service, and you were doing from *within the United States of America??* How fucking stupid can you be?? Did you do *zero* research into US prosecution of piracy in the last thirty years???? Did you ask *anyone* who's ever pirated anything before if this was a good idea?
FMOVIES is my fav bc it’s free :)
“Substantial harm” 😂
holy shit they were operating out of the US? they're insane
Paying the same as Netflix for a pirate website is wild. Learn to torrent people!
It's about convenience. I paid for Netflix back when Netflix was Netflix and would happily do so again. I have paid for zero streaming services in the last 4 or 5 years though instead.
The convenience is the whole point. Piracy all but disappeared for a decade during the 2010s because Netflix had everything you wanted, in high quality and a great interface, for cheap. Now, Netflix hardly has anything, and they increase their price regularly. Honestly, it feels like multiple times per year. Add in the actual availability of the material - you need multiple streaming sites just to watch a couple of shows - and the fact that companies are removing purchased items from libraries, and they've managed to breathe new life into piracy. Also, if you had told me that Disney and HBO Max would win the streaming wars even 3 years ago, I would've laughed at you. Netflix was that dominant, and look at them now.
This headline describes basically anybody that knows how to set up the "Arr" suite, a VPN and network storage.
Yeah most people just make their own. The steps are simple: buy a hard-drive, get every DVD you own and rip all of the video files and put them on the hard-drive and as a pro tip you can go to charity shops and buy new dvds for pennies. This is the legal route as you own those films/TV shows you're just making copies for your own use(check local laws). Should you happen to have another way of getting video files without buying the dvds first well that's not something I need to know about. On a completely unrelated note I enjoy sailing while singing yohoho and a bottle of rum.
I’ve long suspected all these subscription IPTV streams & plexshares all coordinate to copy & resell just a handful of massive libraries. Not that it’s hard to scrape your own & automate all reasonably popular shoes/tv while having a request server for less popular options, but why bother?
So they created television that the tv companies took away and overcgarged for.
Everyone I know around here uses some service that charges $10/m and they get everything including ppv. Most have no clue it's even illegal.
This is comically easy to do. You just don't charge money for it or you're going to get screwed. I'm hosting my own "Netflix" as well with better stuff than all of that combined too but it's for my personal use only.