llebkcir
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https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-disney-and-warner-bros-are-causing-internet-piracy-to-boom
Are we really surprised?
Platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Disney+ were supposed to do away with pirated media. Instead, they may make them stronger than ever.
In our digital era, movies and T.V. shows were supposed to get easier to watch, not harder. But it turns out, media companies are fickle—and media distribution can get complicated as it crosses borders.
Warner Bros. Discovery has purged a bunch of high-profile movies and shows, either canceling them in post-production or deleting them from the Max platform. The sci-fi show Westworld disappeared from Max after its fourth and final season. WB killed off the completed superhero flick Batgirl without ever releasing it. Hulu, Disney+, and Paramount+ have also conducted their own, smaller purges.
So what are a viewer’s options when a studio or streamer abruptly yanks a film or series from distribution or, eyeing a tax writeoff, cancels it right before release? These issues are also compounded as physical media like DVDs and Blu-rays disappear from stores and movie distribution remains fractured by geography.
For a growing number of people, the answer is: steal it. After dipping in recent years, online piracy is on the rise again. And a not insignificant contingent of filmmakers and their fans believe this theft is justified.
5knotcans
Surging? I never stopped sailing.
HylianDuskMaiden
"Pirates are just unsatisfied customers." --Gabe Newell
TheobromineAddict
My hat's off to the hero's who still pay for streaming and record shows for upload.
OhIfIMust
When everything's run by greedy, short-sighted morons who can't think beyond the current quarter, is it any wonder that they never learn anything??
harrison100012
VPN + ThepirateBay Always
mikenco
Disney tried hiking the price of their subscription recently and others are threatening to have ads. I had subscriptions to them all, I am slowly cancelling them all now. The movie makers need to stop giving hundreds of millions to a few actors and start filtering some of the wealth back down the chain. I used to be an avid fan of TPB and the ilk, I have no issues raising the mainsail and heading back.
SkeletorOverlordofEvil
sfbiker
I don't even mind subscribing to a handful of streaming services, but I get tired of searching around to figure out which streaming service has the content I want to watch, and then finding out that it's been moved to another service when I try to watch it. Piracy is more of a one-stop shop and once you download the content, it's yours forever, you don't need to search for it again.
DaSauceSeeker
boruto
Fun fact: I have a friend who used to be a stripper who did a pole dance to this song. It was part of an "awkward songs to strip to" contest and she won hands down.
This animation huts differently now haha
DaSauceSeeker
captainfakeypants
It's fine. Piracy restores balance to the system. When execs get greedy, we all cancel our subscriptions and steal that shit instead. We'll pay if it's quality content at a fair price, but THE INSTANT it isn't worth paying for, we'll steal it for sure.
wazeewa
Piracy surges when its easier or more cost effective to pirate than it is to purchase. (I use that term loosely because apparently purchasing doesn't mean owning anymore)
arkthan
i paid for disney, one son paid for netflix, and another son paid for hbo. we shared the accounts. we have since dropped them all because of lack of new good content and price hikes. back to pirating what i want to watch again
kgfox
Streaming companies are exactly like AirBnB, Uber, etc. They weren't created to be be profitable at first. They were created to disrupt the Established companies, steal their clientele with lower prices. Once they destroy the Established companies THEN they become profitable by jacking their prices and doing exactly the same thing as the companies they replaced.
Thanlarkis
I'm not a pirate, I'm a librarian. I collect and save stories. Books, graphic novels, movies, shows... I save stories.
CodingMoose
Always Valid : https://xkcd.com/488
MightyIink
No shit... the only ones who didn't see this coming where the executives who keep making terrible decisions. Put everything back on one platform and stop taking them away and you'll get your customers back.
unluckyandbored
I don't want a single monopoly streaming service, but I don't want THIS mess that we have now either.
FallingStar7669
And if, in their stubbornness, they refuse... fine. The indy market is exploding; YouTube did it's job: it showed people that they can be successful making video content. There are already video essayists making 2+ hours long documentary-style movies, multi-episode serieses, small teams doing long animations and individuals doing long aimatics... and a lot of it is good quality stuff. ... if the executives of Old Media wish to die on their hill, let them. They will die alone.
schueyWrecker
Nebula has some FANTASTIC content creators - all creator-owned! The documentaries and other things are worth the minimal price to keep them going. Waiting for them to start making films lol
LostCaterpillar
The thing is, they're not trying to minimize piracy. Their goal is to maximize profits. Even in music piracies peak it only made up a very small percentage of the overall market. Most people simply don't pirate and never will.
As long as the increased profit from the 90% outweighs the lost revenue from 10% flying the Digital Roger execs will keep tightening their grip.
AWeeStabInTheDarkSide
‘The Digital Roger’ is a new phrase I like.
LittleLionMan63
Disagree. Back then pirating was for the young. Most people didn’t pirate because they didn’t grow up with it and weren’t savvy. I think you will find that if pirating comes back it will do so with a vengeance comprised of even older folks who know how to do it.
LostCaterpillar
We'll have to wait and see. In my social circles I've observed that even most people that did pirate when they were young don't anymore, even when they run into DRM restrictions that outright block them doing what they want. I'm not entirely certain anyone but myself is even still flying the black flag at all. The closest the average middle aged adult gets to piracy is password sharing and we've already seen what happens when Netflix cracks down on that...
FallingStar7669
Either kill the dragon and distribute the wealth, or, steal the wealth out from underneath it.
BriefcaseTacos
yo ho ho, motherfuckers
StewedTomaters
Wait, Westworld isn't available on HBO's own streaming service?
Ultratoxic
We had a deal. They altered the deal. Now we hoist the colors because if anything file sharing has gotten even harder to track and prosecute.
robingal1
Thankfully my VPN allows me watch most shows. Technically legal and I only need maybe 2 streaming services
darkchiron
Unchecked greed is going to kill us all.
ImaginaryMamboNumber5
Deleting a series for tax breaks should be illegal
pixelpatron
When it was 10 bucks or less a month it was easy, but it’s been disgustingly gross to see the greed of these streaming services price gouging the hell out of all of us. Bye.
Themark5
Gave Newell solved this on the gaming side years ago, it's not always about the cost, it's the convenience.
I have a subscription to all the major streaming services, Disney, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount, etc. It's still cheaper than the $90/month basic cable subscription. But when I can't find the shows I want to watch, or when my favorite shows get canceled on a cliffhanger, that's when I start looking into how much I actually use a service.
Themark5
I've had HBO(Max) for months, but the last thing I remember watching is Our Flag Means Death, and after seeing in the news today that the third season isn't happening, I'm dropping Max until something catches my attention again.
SilverStarling
Looking for anything to watch on crunchyroll, everything is free for the first 3 episodes then requires a subscription of £4.99 a month. Cheapest Netflix has ads, and costs £4.99 a month. Youtube sometimes has a 1 min ad every 4 minutes of video. Prime has removed the cheapest option AND now has ads. No way am I paying £8.99 a month to steam with ads.
HandsomePenguin
For a lottle while there, using streaming services was just more convenient than pirating. Now that prices have doubled, ads have increased, and sharing is getting stopped, it is no longer convenient.
StevieTheAussie
I mean, it wasn’t that lottle. Seemed like it wasn’t that long at all.
Thunderbox666
It's gone beyond inconvenient... It's now unaffordable. In my country, Netflix went from $6 to $26 a month in a few years while also adding quality and sharing restrictions
Disney went from $6 to $14 in just 2 years.
I'm on a disability pension and after rent, I have about $300 a week for food, medicine, transportation and bills.
Add to that the general cost of living going through the roof and now streaming is just out of the question. At least when I could share accounts it was possible.
Jewdakris
The thing that got me is having to have like 5 services because they all wanted to pretend their stuff is only gonna be there. Now we are seeing declines and they are willing to license out to Netflix and such again. I just always will never stop laughing at the fact that none of them realized Netflix wasn't making money. It never was so profitable that being in their industry was a good idea.
tsuelue
How would NF make money these days anyways? The good stuff is 3-5 years old and their own productions are just pure shit, alas.
Jewdakris
You gotta be the only one or one of the few and you gotta have ads probably. Eventually we'll get some more consolidation and I think the networks and studios will sell to Amazon, Apple and Netflix. It just makes the most sense for those to be the streaming services and the studios stick to along content.
I used Pluto a lot to fill time when I don't wanna figure out what to watch. The TV generation will tell you that sometimes it was nice to not have to decide what to watch, it was just on
Idonotkillpeoplethatismyleastfavoritethingtodo
I would love to pay a fair price for a streaming service but since they are all greedy fucks who won't even pay their actors and authors I won't give them shit. The end.
RandAIFlagg
Yeap. If I'm paying, don't advertise to me. I'm paying to not be advertised to, and to not have to spend time finding and downloading. If I can pirate a season in less time than they're going to make me wait through ads, I will.
FussyZeus
As has been said over and over, Gabe Newell figured this out two fucking decades ago: piracy is a service problem. Make buying (in his case) games easier then piracy, and people will just buy their games instead of pirating. For a brief window we had that but then the business majors realized they weren't making absolutely every penny that they could conceivably make, and did was business majors do: fucked everything up.
thekeyofe
And by trying to squeeze absolutely every penny, it will probably cause them to LOSE profits in the long run. "Fucked everything up," indeed.
FoamingToad
Yep. I've lost count of the games that I've pirated as a trial, then once it hit my payoff price in Steam I'd pay for it (there are some games I knew I wanted to buy from day 1, and went there accordingly). If I legitimatise a pirated game it means I no longer have to back up the installer, so win-win for me. And for the game studio, I've tried a game I wasn't too certain about, and they got a belated sale. Not fully legit, but a happy compromise for all concerned.
Colopty
Frankly it should've been a no-brainer to just copy-paste Steam's model: Let people sign up for a free account to a service where you get a free pass to shove products they can purchase right in the customer's face.
Steed
Absolutely, I used to pirate games yonks ago and the main factor in stopping was how easy it was to get games through Steam, and their sales used to be insane. Get a big new 6-12 months after release for ~£20. Other factor was games getting bigger, torrenting was slow and a hassle for a 10-20gb game.
llebkcir
the ads alone, for me, make it no longer worth my time nor money to stream. there are better options
TheDouche
Yup. It should cost money or have ads. Not both.
101Medic
I have no problem with ads on free services like Tubi or the Roku channels. I'm not paying for it, so the ads are a compromise. On paid services? Nah. That's why I made a pihole, use blokada, and cut services entirely when those fail.
TheobromineAddict
When you block ads on a streaming service movie, do you get several minutes of blank screen during the ad, or does it seamlessly skip over the ad?
TheobromineAddict
I'm so used to watching without ads, it's now utterly unacceptable to be exposed to ads.
GnomeDeGuerre
Yeah, I feel the same way. I do not consent to ads and seeing them in every day life makes me wish I dared paint them over.
HTCPCPError418
If I am paying for your service, *I* am your income. If you serve me ads while I am paying, I will be dropping your service.
NeverDunNuffin
Prime just started with ads here in the UK. You can, of course, stay ad-free if you're willing to pay more. I'm not lining the greedy fuckers pockets even more though so I just cancelled my Prime subscription.
dontfloatmygoat
That I can respect. If you don’t like something remove it from your life. Don’t steal. (Not saying you are) but there’s a weird disconnect that this kind of theft is absolutely ok with many folk.
Ffudmethen
I don't see the point of ads anymore, what value do these advertisers think they are getting, everyone has smartphones and instantly opens it up once an ad comes on
darkchiron
Hey, did you know that there's this drink you can buy called "Coca-Cola"? Just in case let us spend millions to make sure you get an ad letting you know about it.
SupernaturalReactions
Hi, I'm Bob I'm the spokesperson for the Coca-Cola company. I'm here today to ask you to continue buying coke. Sure, it's a drink you've been drinking for years, and if you still enjoy it, I'd like to remind you to buy it again sometime soon. It's basically just brown sugar water... I'm Bob, I work for coke, and I'm asking you to not stop buying coke. That's all.
Kreviathan
Amazon literally has tried to send my phone 232k ads since December 1st through ingur, my webbrowser, etc. If I turn off my adblocker you know what the ads are for? Shit I already bought. I'm about done with Amazon too once they roll out their plan changes.
aslum
All you pirates, just a reminder to check your local library. Many lend out DVDs, it's free, legal, and safer. Downside is there's often a
Difyance
My library offers access to Hoopla as long as your library card is valid. It's a great source for audio books, and I only have to go to the library every couple of years to renew my card. They also recently added Libby, though I haven't checked it out yet. Libraries are still awesome!
llebkcir
i love doing this for audio books
aslum
Oh yeah! Also, if there's something you want to watch (or listen to) that isn't in your library's collection, ask them to get it. Often libraries will because then they KNOW that the item will circulate at least once. (source: am librarian).
aslum
waitlist for the newest releases, but if you just stay a few months behind you can probably borrow more than you can watch anyways.
TheSongofRiver
Pirating is more convenient. I can watch it all in 1 place, instead of hopping from streaming platform to streaming platform to check if the thing I wanna see is on it.
Mezinov
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvhv7bgmz64
JonnyHeat
I've watched so many things on a bootleg sight only to see later I had it on prime or whatever. Ohhh well, I went where I KNEW it would be lmao.
pareidoliaperson
Having a better job now, I'm sure content with Netflix. Instead of watching series on online services and torrented movies that tend to shut down from time to time or open unwanted ads (even with ublock).
hotaru251
yup. Especially netflix....can get better quality film doing it when they wont give you best version if you pay for it
disabledwerewolf
It is very easy to see whether a title is on a particular streaming service or not without hopping from platform to platform. I pirate, but it's not anymore convenient unless the content is just unavailable to me on the platforms I have.
billstranger
Get Jellyfin and you can watch your pirated shows on all your devices streamed from your main downloading device. Also ytdlp, which i use to download shows from cbc gem and others (which has ads, that can be blocked with ad blockers on pc) so i can watch them ad-free on my tv via roku (where i can't block the ads)
DoctorAvatarTheLastOfTheTimeBendingAirLords
Yeah, it's just harder to browse things and wait for it to be finished downloading and have it on a tv screen. You could automate it with an old laptop, some storage, and a list of shows, but that takes time, effort, and skill. I wish there was an app that scanned all the apps, pointed you towards an applicable torrent link, and then let you do the illegal parts yourself.
billstranger
I work from home, i find it enjoyable to take a few minutes per day or week while I'm working to browse for things i might like to watch later and download them and add them to Jellyfin to stream to my roku+tv or laptop in bed at a later time.
Beanholio
COUGH...Stremio + RealDebrid...COUGH COUGH
TheSongofRiver
.. I just stream from a free site, on my tv. Only thing I download are books.
halcyon742
A vpn connection is cheaper than 12 streaming services.
MostlyJeffGoldblum
Seedboxes are surprisingly cheap too.
IDoPictureStuff
Between my IPTV, VPN, and Real Debrid for premium streaming host I'm paying about 30 bucks a month to watch literally anything I want from anywhere. Got everything on an Nvidea shield tv pro to handle my media to my 4k tv. I'm setting up all my friends n family and sharing everything I've learned the last few years.
ewok4life
Spill the beans
wylkyn
I'd like to learn.
IDoPictureStuff
Message me if you like to know about setting up an android box. I'm not selling anything. Just like to help. I'd Ike to have a newsletter, or blog if I knew how, but it's hard to not hard run afoul TOS on most sites in this grey area. I'm only google smart, but have spent a ton of time finding resources, and what works well, most of time, for me n others.
drcaliflax
I would like to subscribe to your newsletter
affectatious
.
DookieHowserMD
.
Sami1693
.
six2midnight
That's terrible. Where? Where does this pirating happen? I think the people need to know where the most pirating content is so we can stay away from there.
kazenokize
Streamio is great with the right add-ons
EkitaiHebi
google one part of some high seas word with megathread itll lead you to a magical place
ColdestOne
.
DreamingOfDistantShores
https:// www.wcostream .tv is one to avoid for sure, it's full of questionably-sourced cartoons and anime. Dishonor on your whole family if you go there.
ztedward
You should stay away from apps like radarr and sonarr. They parse a bunch of torrent sites at once for searches and integrate with torrent downloaders... The depravity!
michaeloberg
o">fmv<">""">/a"><">""<a><a>/a""">v">v">v">>ov>>fmov">o">fmov>iesz.to
eztv.rytser">">er>yts">er>yts.torrentbay.to
yts.mx
yts.rs
torrentgalaxy.to
1337x.to
cataz.net
lekana
Yify
tubitv.com + ublock origin
Movie4k
Kino.to
fmovies.to
Or 123movies, streamlord, soap2day, couchtuner. For all sports, go to sportsurge or VIPleague
Sflix.to
Movies7.to
Bflix.to
kittyanya
.
Haemaelaeinen
Surely there is no place where music can be easily obtained? That would be absolutely horrendous.
Murmull
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MasterAndPaquete
. Free real state
kaboomdeactivated
.
jinbee
That's terrible, I must bookmark these so I can avoid them.
HolyHeartBadger
.
KnightWhoSaidNi
Might I add: Yourbittorrent.com
mercemay
.
ScientistHere
.
Seotasr7
.
DW05
Dot for the Pirate. Also infinite upvote for you good sir.
spookyfckr
.
forTheIrony
.
drdannyd
.
Salpinus
Note to self, these are the websites you are looking for
LP19
F
JamesofBerkeley
.
GhostsofMars
.
IWTFYMITA
Doot
notgonnabelieveit
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clipboardfuntime
.
Onoratha
.
soulthreat
Why thats terrible, i can only guess where they go to watch anime
BriefcaseTacos
probably not anim">ge.to">animesuge.to or aniwatch.to, cuz that would be wrong
soulthreat
Those fiend wouldnt dare sink that low
KyosukeKadoya
nyaa.si
DrMarioSThompson
Rarbg is a site that you should not go to because it will enable you to break copyright laws that are just and reasonable and who would want to do that
mikenco
GarminNuvi
Shut down May 2023 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RARBG
DrMarioSThompson
Spoiler alert: its back online
Madeanaccounttofavouritestuff
Is it the RARBG guys or just a fake clone
TP4cornholio456
Fake clone, exercise caution.
DrMarioSThompson
I don't know, there are many mirrors updated often
ironymus
I'd stay far away from the pirate bay. This infamous site is still online and active
mikenco
GentlemanPotato
There's a much better reason to stay away from TPB, it's full of malware these days. 1337x is the way.
ironymus
good to know, thanks for the info
WoeToHice
I seem to be out of touch: how do you get malware from video files? Are we talking about data that exploits vulnerabilities in decoders and/or renderers somehow? Or are we talking about trying to trick people who don't know what they're doing into running an executable?
GentlemanPotato
It used to have lots of reputable uploaders but anymore, it's not worth risking it when there are better alternatives
WoeToHice
That doesn't actually answer my question.
IMGURdianangel
People sometimes try to hide executables as other files. For example you download a 'movie', the creator would have the file titled 'John Wick.mp4.exe" in hopes people don't know better. This issue is more prevalent when your trying to download games as they are expected to run like an executable and have the '.exe' at the end. I'm not too familiar with it, but that's one method I know of. Just be sure to pay attention to the last text behind the last period as that gives away the file type.
Colopty
And just as a general rule, don't get torrents that aren't associated with an account, preferably a well established one.
ironymus
But this trick is as old as the internet. All modern Operating Systems Check files for malware
WoeToHice
Okay, so it's the good old "trick people into running an executable", rather than "find a vuln in a widely used library and exploit it". Makes me feel better. Thanks!