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Comment by imustbeevil | Hacker News Reader

How can Netflix survive if you're able to pay $15 and download every video they have?

Someone who's going to pirate can readily get all of that content from various sources already.

I highly doubt that anyone has been persuaded to buy a Netflix subscription because of Netflix's use of DRM.

As for 'shady' -- well, not a word I'd necessarily use, but there's plenty of examples where DRM has blocked access to legitimately purchased content.

Netflix isn't using DRM for the customers, its using DRM for the content providers. It isn't there job to fix the rest of the Internet

> Netflix isn't using DRM for the customers, its using DRM for the content providers.

That doesn't for their own video. Whom are they using it for in that case?

> It isn't there job to fix the rest of the Internet

Apparently it's their job to break it though, by pushing this garbage into he standard.

1. DRM only hurts legitimate users.

2. Netflix claimed it's not their intent to use DRM, but demand comes from film publishers who distribute content through them.

3. Netflix make their own films now, but you can't find them DRM-free (legally).

Ergo, it's also their fault DRM was pushed into HTML. Q.E.D.

For whatever reason you seem to be on a puritanical crusade against anything DRM.

So tell me again how Netflix subscribers, who are only purchasing the right to be able to stream videos on a limited release cycle, are hurt by Netflix's use of DRM? I followed the massive draconian DRM push by the gaming industry, MPAA and RIAA during the 00s and let me tell you son - this ain't nothing close.

Not whatever, but quite simple reason of DRM being unethical overreaching preemptive policing methodology, on top of which is built an entire corrupted and undemocratic set of legal mechanisms like DMCA-1201 (anti-circumvention provisions).

>So tell me again how Netflix subscribers, who are only purchasing the right to be able to stream videos on a limited release cycle, are hurt by Netflix's use of DRM?

Others already brought examples above with this DRM limiting usability of where videos can be watched. But that's a minor damage in comparison with damage done by DRM pushed into HTML standard itself, in which Netflix is complicit.

See https://boingboing.net/2017/03/21/we-cant-handle-the-truth.h...

As someone else mentioned, netflix subscribers are hurt because only people using edge can get the 1080p version due to DRM. Non-paying pirates get the good version, paying customers get the low quality one.

Who are these videophiles who actually care about 1080p? It seems like if the show is any good, you don't need 1080p to enjoy it.

Okay, I'm old, but we watched movies on VHS and it was a lot better than broadcast signal in a rural area. DVD's are very clear in comparison. HDTV is just icing on the cake.

If you have a high resolution display, you'll get grainy video if the source is not high resolution enough.

And TV is a luxury, so you should be grateful that you get any at all. Back in my day, we didn't have nearly as many kids on our lawns, and we were happy for it.

/sarcasm

I do and I'm far from a videophile, but I do have a nice big TV that I sit rather close too. It's a nice to have, but at times it's a really nice to have, especially for things like blockbuster movies.

Two other areas I find it really critical are sports (not a favorite topic around these parts), watching the silky smooth world cup stream in 1080p a few years was breathtaking, another one is animated shows. It seems unintuitive and I have no idea why, but something like futurama is much better in 1080p.

Is this satire?

Nope, I really don't get the appeal.

Because it has the effect of making it difficult for honest users to use their product on platforms they arent developing for. While at the same time pirates have no trouble getting their content.

"If you want to steal shit that's your prerogative, but don't pretend like you have moral high ground."

Whether making a copy of a sequence of numbers without depriving the "owner" of those numbers of anything is theft is debatable.

That sequence of 0s and 1s cost money to make.

But it's free to distribute. So instead of charging customers for distribution, they should be charging customers the up-front cost of production.

How do you suggest that they do that?

Crowd fund production

That is a good question, and I'm not sure I have a good answer. Kickstarter and Patreon seem to be doing pretty well, but AFAIK they haven't been used to such a scale so they may not work for this.

This is a big issue and our economy is largely suffering for it, but old-world thinking about treating digital goods like physical goods is a poor response.

Veronica Mars movie was made through kickstarter way back when. That was successful, and specifically covered cost of production. I can't remember the donation system, but most tiers got free digital copy of the film.

It was a total failure at release though, since WB didn't make it available DRM-free[1]. It's a counter example of how to do things. The end result was - never trust WB.

A proper example would be something like Kung Fury[2].

1. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140314/23410326583/warne...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fury

I'm not against this, but it goes against the grain of a capitalist economy as it does not maximize overall profits. For this concept to work at scale, we might need to rejigger the whole economy.

It goes against the concept of commercialized art I'd say. Which is probably a good thing.

and?

Just because our economic models are out of date doesn't mean we need to change the way we behave to keep shoe-horning them in. It means we need to change our models to reflect reality.

To be clear, I am totally on board with reimagining the economy. Sorry, that didn't come through in my post.

My apologies. I feel my response was a bit defensive. I guess I'm just used to people arguing that "it would hurt because of $short_term_economic_issue, so we shouldn't consider it at all!"

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