this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Netflix blaming piracy is just a warning that hostile legislation will pass and all of this will be shut down. Call me pessimistic.

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[–] [email protected] 105 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue.

- Gabe Newell

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I think Jeff Gerstmann once said "you ha e to be able to compete with free" to combat piracy. Tech companies used to understand this...

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Honest question: could some of Netflix's enshittification be because of the media industry, and not their fault? The fragmentation of streaming was the opposite of what they wanted. So maybe his point is that it's impossible to compete because the industry is so powerful and greedy that they couldn't hold onto their monopoly. Spotify has been able to hold onto theirs because record labels hold less power and don't want to get into the streaming business.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

Little bit column A, little bit column B.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

I find that sarcastically interesting.

I initially signed up for Netflix all those many years ago because it was finally a solution that was easier than piracy.

Didn't take long for them to completely fuck me and the service over, and I left to go back to piracy and I'll never look at Netflix again.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Netflix, steam, and Spotify got me out of piracy. Companies who owned the IP just decided they all wanted to replicate what Netflix did without understanding that it was impossible for more than one company to accomplish that.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It's possible for more than one companies to thrive in streaming space. Just look at music streaming industry. There are healthy competition there with several global music streaming apps and various regional/country-specific music streaming apps. All they have to do is not locking contents behind exclusivity deals and compete on price and features instead. Also, not cracking down too much on family sharing usage also helps.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Hahaha, good

I love taking from all these billionaire companies.

[–] [email protected] 84 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

Piracy is really easy to compete against. Ask GabeN. Steam has singlehandedly taken me out of the piracy game because they have what I want, it's super easy to get and if it's not reasonably priced today I'll wishlist it until it goes on sale (and it will). If it sucks, or my hardware can't run it, I just dm someone and I get my money back. I know they can disappear shit from my library like any online store but they haven't abused that privilege with me yet and that makes me confident they won't.

With Netflix, there's a small chance that they actually have what I want. If they do, it's gonna disappear soon. Prices only ever go up, not down, and that series you love is gonna be cancelled as soon as it stops driving new subscriptions. To watch everything I want I can spend a hundred dollars a month on a rotating set of accounts on several streaming services or I can go LOOK for the MOVIE 2 stream for free without even messing with a DOT TOrrent file.

Piracy is easy to prevent if you provide a better service than the pirates. What he meant was that it's hard to get people to pay you to shit in their mouths when someone else is giving out sandwiches.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yep, Steam is my "video game piracy canary". The day I lose access to my games on Steam will be the last day I ever buy any video game, and probably any non-physical piece of media for the rest of my life.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Mostly the same for me. I'd still be open to it if it's convenient, DRM-free, and easy to back up somewhere, but far less likely to put effort into finding out.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

until it goes on sale (and it will)

Except Factorio. It has never and will never go on sale, and they were able to use that policy to get money back that they lost from G2A.

That being said, Factorio is worth the price tag

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (1 children)

in fact for the games that have been removed I actually still have full access, like rocket League still in my library just not purchasable anymore

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Isn't that just because RL went free to play?

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

As long as Netflix doesn't do 1080p on Firefox and reduces their price considerably and gets rid of stupid limitations on account sharing and ads, I'm never paying for it. Same for games with DRM. I'm not suffering from DRM bs when I can pirate the same without DRM. Why should i pay these asshole companies more and be more restricted than a pirate lol.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago

Cable TV 2.0: "Boohoo, pirates are eating my profits!"

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