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Comment by coldtea | Hacker News Reader

>Who loses out when fans provide subtitles for films? My partner's native tongue is Spanish and so we often want to watch films with Spanish subtitles. Unfortunately it seems incredibly rare that subtitles are provided through legal channels. I can't tell you the number of times I've paid for a film in iTunes only to discover that there are no subtitles available in _any_ language. There's subler but the timing usually doesn't match which means I'm forced to go to the pirate bay to download a film that we can watch that I've already paid for.

Maybe so, but in 99% of the cases, the people using the subtitles have not also downloaded the film in iTunes.

They just use them with the film they got off a torrent.

(Sure, they might have also "bought the DVD", but I doubt that too, if my friends are people I know are any indication).

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Is that supposed to be a problem? In some countries where basic cause and effect are respected, they don't try to stop you from downloading a copy of a file you already own a license to.

Your parent's point was that 99% of people do not own a license to the file.

Are you sure? The comment was very focused on the download method, even though that should be basically irrelevant.

>The comment was very focused on the download method, even though that should be basically irrelevant.

No, the download method is very much relevant. People download from torrents files they DON'T own any license for (from DVDs or whatever).

The just casually pile on new movies to watch.

Oh, and they are not previewing the movie to "consider it for purchase" either.

I've torrented a bunch of things I own. Ripping videos especially can be a waste of time.

Also think about how awkward it is to record free broadcast television on a computer compared to letting someone else package it.

>I've torrented a bunch of things I own. Ripping videos especially can be a waste of time.

Sure. But that's like 1% of use cases. Most people download movies they don't own -- to see new stuff without having to buy the DVD or go to the movies. Nobody I know (in several countries) downloads only (or even mainly) movies he owns from torrents.

That's how you get screeners on the most popular torrent lists. I seriously doubt those people own the DVD when it's not even released yet.

So, while you do that, and I sometimes do it (rarely), it's not representative of what is usually done.

1% of movies, maybe, but I bet the majority (or at least a very significant portion) of TV downloads are shows that are broadcast free for anyone to watch/record. Those need subtitles just as much.

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