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diggan

> sometimes I literally can’t pay to watch it.

Yup. Top 2 reasons I became a pirate again after not being a pirate since maybe 15 years ago:

#1 I literally couldn't give someone money to watch/listen to what I wanted

#2 I was paying someone money to watch/listen to something and then they removed it

Even popular things like Saturday Night Live are still impossible to acquire legally in my country.

Edit: Forgot another point that became very annoying, the show is available but not with the subtitles I want and/or need. For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. But if I use Swedish Netflix, it would work, but technically breaking Netflix's ToS. Content rights have completely fucked up the user experience.

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I sometimes pay for things and then pirate them anyway because I can adjust the subtitle position on the pirated version. Or I can rely on being able to play them offline. Or a dozen other reasons where the pirated version offers a better UX.

> I sometimes pay for things and then pirate them anyway because I can adjust the subtitle position on the pirated version. Or I can rely on being able to play them offline. Or a dozen other reasons where the pirated version offers a better UX.

I've been doing this for years. I have a stack of Blu-Ray discs I've never opened because I send a request to my home server while I'm in line to check out at the store and by the time I get home the exact same content on the disc I just purchased has already landed there exactly as if I had ripped it myself.

As you note, every element of the user experience is better with the pirated copy and absolutely nothing is worse, even for those who legitimately own it. The only way you compete with free is by being better than the free offering, and the home video industry just refuses to acknowledge that reality.

Not every element: most pirated media lacks the extra content of DVD/BluRay like commentary tracks. It’s relatively rare to find shows with commentary audio tracks alongside the main audio.

Most people don’t care about that though.

And audio description[1] tracks.

there are specialized pirate sources that cater to this niche specifically, but most of them only have the AD tracks as MP3 files, without the actual video.

If you're watching with friends and your audience is a mix of fully sighted and visually impaired people, and you want both AD and video on the screen, you're in for a world of pain.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_description

mpv file.mkv --external-file=file.mp3 ?

These exist. I have tons of straight and remuxed Blu-ray rips from certain sites that contain extra content and/or commentary or other tracks. If you know the right sites that specifically cater to people who want this stuff, it's not a problem.

Maybe not related to this topic, but I was thinking about certain games I purchased from Ubisoft. Whenever I open Uplay, it asks me to log back in and enter a 2FA code. So basically all my Ubisoft games are playing pirated versions after purchase. By the way the anti-cheat system Ubisoft uses, EAC, also refuses to work at the same time as GoLand, so I can say that I really don't have a choice.

There are games I own on Steam where I'll prefer the cracked version because of asinine publisher decisions like forcing a third party launcher that often gets an update which breaks it on the Steam Deck.

This is EA's top priority, apparently. Their broken garbage launcher doesn't work.

"Forgot another point that became very annoying, the show is available but not with the subtitles I want and/or need. For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. But if I use Swedish Netflix, it would work, but technically breaking Netflix's ToS. Content rights have completely fucked up the user experience."

I think you can set which subs (and audio tracks) should be available in you Netflix profile. I can get chinese voice and subs for a lot of stuff in Sweden.

It is the same for Disney+ as well.

No, Netflix/Max/Etc literally limit the options available to you. They want to try to dissuade people from purchasing those services at a discount in lower CoL regions, and don't want to deal with multi-region licensing for dubs/specific media/etc.

The only regions that give you carte blanche (in general) language options are the anglophone countries and some EU regions.

But they're also geocoded (presumably, for travelers), so if you can get a VPN/tunnel that works, you can use another regions' primary languages. Max, last I checked, is the only one that outright limits usage outside of your region.

"No, Netflix/Max/Etc literally limit the options available to you. They want to try to dissuade people from purchasing those services at a discount in lower CoL regions, and don't want to deal with multi-region licensing for dubs/specific media/etc."

Have you actually tried to do what I have described? If you want to test, try with a studio Ghibli movie on Netflix, they have dubs and subs for a lot of languages.

Did you actually read what I wrote and what you even quoted?

Go buy a Netflix/Max/Prime/etc account in Mexico/El Salvador/Indonesia/etc. It'll be 1/3 the price and you'll be limited to "original" (usually English) and Spanish for dubbing/subbing. In some cases you won't even have the original options. I've lived in a few of those low CoL regions, that's literally how it works.

As I said in the following paragraph (which you probably also didn't read), those limits do not exist for most accounts originating from English-speaking regions (especially North America) and some Western European nations. So if you're using your American/British/Canadian/etc account to try to disprove a point I never made, it's already been addressed.

Just....read.

> I think you can set which subs (and audio tracks) should be available in you Netflix profile. I can get chinese voice and subs for a lot of stuff in Sweden.

It's a geo-content restriction of some sorts. I'm guessing some of the subtitles Netflix is leasing/renting/whatever, they only lease for specific regions.

I'm 100% sure I've watched shows in the past on Netflix where if I use a VPN to set my location to Sweden, I could get English or Swedish subtitles, but if I use it without VPN (so Spanish location), it would refuse to allow me the English subtitles and instead allows Spanish or Swedish subtitles.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable knows exactly why that is.

"I'm 100% sure I've watched shows in the past on Netflix where if I use a VPN to set my location to Sweden, I could get English or Swedish subtitles, but if I use it without VPN (so Spanish location), it would refuse to allow me the English subtitles and instead allows Spanish or Swedish subtitles.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable knows exactly why that is."

If you are in Sweden Netflix algorithms give you Swedish as a language option. But you can add this in your profile as well when you are not in Sweden.

Last I checked, a lot of the time this is entirely dependent on region. For eg. the Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex series on Netflix exclusively has English dubbing and English subtitles everywhere but Japan but changing these settings did not make the Japanese audio available anywhere else that I was able to find out. It's also very annoying that sometimes the only subtitles available are closed captions when I really only want dialog subtitles. It's a real pain that all dialog and subtitle options aren't available out of the gate for everything.

geolocking content is violating human rights.

# 3 There was 1 subscription streaming service to pay for, then 2, then 3, then 4… and eventually I decided to stop counting but the number kept on going up.

#3 it ultimately got more inconvenient than pirating, just like 20 years ago. the streaming apps simply matched parity with the early 2000s piracy experience and then surpassed it, but then the content licensing system made it lose its advantages

>#1 I literally couldn't give someone money to watch/listen to what I wanted

This, I'm constantly seeing reels and clips of shows and then searching for "where to stream x" on google and finding out that not only is the show not available on any of the 5 or so paid services that I have access to, it's not available for streaming at all, or if it is, it's by paying $3 per episode.

In case you don't use this resource, try justwatch.com for figuring out who streams what.

thanks I always forget the name of that site, just searching on google works so-so, sometimes the AI thing that structures the results now pops up a useful list and sometimes you just links to sketchier versions of justwatch.

It's not a great name. I always have to look up what it's called by going into Letterboxd and seeing the co-branding mark on a specific page. But, a neat service nonetheless!

I literally just came back to this comment to remind myself what the site was called, lol.

A big bullet point for me is that I find it unethical to support most of the studios and media companies.

As someone who pirates a lot of movies and TV, I think it's hard to justify based on ethical arguments against the industry. At a certain point, it feels like a wobbly justification to say we like using something but refuse to pay for it, and that's actually fighting the good fight. Personally, I don't like some of what these companies do, but I like other parts—like the movies and shows their dark malevolence provides me. I have to admit that the real reason I pirate is because it's more convenient and cheap.

I would naturally tend to agree with you, and when it comes to DRM-free things (like most music) I totally agree, but I genuinely think financially supporting companies using DRM is unethical. I used to buy (and still would buy) a ton of ebooks and a fair amount of movies/shows, but at this point I refuse to. The only exception is Audible. I still buy a ton of audiobooks from Audible (unless I can find them on Downpour or another DRM-free site) because I think they've gotten to a reasonably happy medium on the DRM. I would rather they drop the DRM, but it's at least not a giant pain in the ass to strip for people like me who really care about that.

I strongly want to pay people for good content, and I think they deserve to make some money for their work, but as soon as they slap DRM on it to limit my ability to back it up, consume it on whatever device I want, etc, the scales are tipped and I think piracy is actually more ethical than supporting such shit financially.

I'm not sure I see the ethics argument re: how the limitations affect your ability to back up / consume / multi-device. Those things might make it not worth your time and money, they might make it a bad deal, but it's not unethical to accept a bad deal.

For me, the ethical dimension comes from how the DRM will be abused. By paying somebody who develops DRM, you're complicit in building something that may later pivot from protecting content to silencing dissent or preventing local-manual override in a hazardous way, and that's unethical. Maybe it's not right up there with biological weapons, but it's still one of those things that we should not tolerate.

Are you familiar with libro.fm?

Ah yes, I should have mentioned them! I did have a really good experience there, and I appreciated being able to download an m4b file. Thanks!

Ye it could just be a rationalization, I have to admit.

How about just not consume their products then?

If the objection is that their claim to ownership is not legitimate due to harms done along the way, then refusing to access the media on those grounds would mean participating in the very thing you're trying to object to.

That's no way to disobey.

Right? "I don't like what you stand for or your views on certain topics, but I do want to enjoy the product you make, so I feel justified in not compensating you for partaking in the services you provide."

Can I stiff my Uber driver if I don't agree with their politics? If I don't like their car? Can my boss not pay me for developing software if I didn't laugh enough at his jokes?

We find it easy to say "no" in those cases. But because media piracy is pretty easy to do and pretty difficult to punish, we simply stop caring.

> Can I stiff my Uber driver if I don't agree with their politics?

That would be an example of the opposite. Uber is pretty much a tracker (peer-to-peer platform) for unlicensed taxis.

Actually, at least in the UK, Ubers are licensed by local councils. They have all sorts of stupid restrictions like if they drive someone to another city they cannot pick up any passengers there so they have to drive back empty even if a customer could have booked the journey. This is Enforced, DRM style, by the app. The same rule exists for local private hire companies but they can ignore it when it makes sense to.

I agree with your core concept, but I don't think those analogies are fair.

TV and movies are part of pop culture and depending on your circle can be critical to have knowledge on for social reasons. If something is unavailable to you due to means outside of your control (licensing, internet speed, accessibility of UI, etc) then there's more justification to that than not paying your Uber driver based on politics.

>TV and movies are part of pop culture and depending on your circle can be critical to have knowledge on for social reasons. If something is unavailable to you due to means outside of your control (licensing, internet speed, accessibility of UI, etc) then there's more justification to that than not paying your Uber driver based on politics.

TV and movies are "critical" because... you want to partake in watercooler banter? I'm not sure how that's more convincing than uber being "critical" because you need it to get to work on time, or to get home safely after drinking.

That would be a more principled stand, ye. But the conglomerates capture so much culture, such that it would be kinda peaty culture wise to skip mainstream content.

I do that, too

I know this one is a stretch, but one of my argument is: if they're paying to put up a billboard which I cannot ignore because it's out in the real world where I walk with my eyes open, they force a craving inside me. They literally payed money to instill a want in me that I never asked for. This is not a secondary effect, it's why they put the Billboard there.

In that case it's ethical to resolve this want by consuming the content without paying. Sorry if I'm not Monk McMonkface and deny this want with mental fortitude, but they have a whole marketing agency and I'm just trying to get by.

Agreed.

I'd love a better way to pay the artists of the content I end up torrenting--just so long as it actually gets to the people who made the content and not the people turning the world into a pile of telescreens.

"For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. "

This is so weird, why are they doing this? That the localized audio might have stupid local licenses ok, (or not ok) - but even the subtitles?

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