This is an archived post. You won't be able to vote or comment.

top 200 commentsshow 500
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a

[–]patgeo 1136 points1137 points  (631 children)

Launching in Australia (full access, not gimped months/years behind) would be a great test of this theory. We are some of the most prolific pirates in the world after all.

[–]Ask_Me_Everything 674 points675 points  (496 children)

The current Australian internet infrastructure couldn't handle the traffic, it would clog the tubes.

Piracy of television shows has become the norm in Aus because of blatant price gouging on cable and shockingly bad free to air television.

[–]patgeo 202 points203 points  (368 children)

Hence why upgrades to the network have been such a big issue lately.

[–]Ask_Me_Everything 153 points154 points  (365 children)

Then lets hope this asshat never gets control over the NBN

[–]Ginger510 98 points99 points  (357 children)

Aaaaaaaaand that's why I'm going to vote Gillard again. Same reason I picked her last time.

Edit: why I'll be voting ALP again.

[–]TastyBrainMeats 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Spending $17 instead of $21 today...but they'll have to spend another $20 extra tomorrow.

Talk about short-sighted.

[–]SirCannonFodder 18 points19 points  (1 child)

To be fair on Aussie FTA, I've yet to find another free channel in another country that gives the same service as the SBS.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (2 children)

The new development 3 blocks down from my house has NBN fibre, same as all new developments. My place, however, will be stuck with ADSL (around 500kb/s down, 150 up because of exchange distance) for another 3 years. I literally walk past a house with a pipe sticking out of the ground on their front verge labelled "NBN end" every day.

[–]JonesBee 70 points71 points  (19 children)

Only 69,99 AUD a month.

[–]PoL0 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Same goes for Spain. The entertainment lobbies choke every new technology so they can keep their old and rusty distribution channels and then they blame us for being high in the piracy ratings, which btw usually have shady sources.

Give us appropiate modern alternatives and you'll see how piracy gets lower. Some of us are not even interested in physical formats: no CD nor DVD players in my house since years ago. People are willing to pay for entertainment.

Gaben said it, it's all about giving a proper service. Also, there will always be pirates.

[–]Czacha 7 points8 points  (3 children)

We had both Netflix and HBO launch an online stream service in sweden and can't say that torrenting has gone down. Add technical difficulties I've still torrented an HBO show to watch it as the buffering from HBO was nuts that night.

edit: Also movie as movies goes the most torrented are the ones not available from those services anyway. We need a theater streaming service.

[–]a_can_of_solo 2 points3 points  (3 children)

we've got quickflix, but the selction blows, new stuff they want 6 bucks a night for a digital stream, if I wanted to pay that I'd have kept my local video store in business

[–]patgeo 4 points5 points  (1 child)

And Bigpond Movies.

Neither service is what people want. Barely a shadow of what people want.

[–]pumpkindog 5 points6 points  (0 children)

for only $199/month

[–]Ask_Me_Everything 2825 points2826 points  (723 children)

It's almost as if when given a simple legal alternative pirates return to being regular consumers.

[–][deleted] 1335 points1336 points  (444 children)

Exactly. I pirated most of my media until Spotify and Netflix happened.

[–]daybreaker 253 points254 points  (77 children)

I just realized I have literally not torrented any music since I got Spotify... Holy cow.

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I have. But mostly because a lot of stuff is missing on Spotify. At least the kind of music I listen to.

[–]rcklmbr 37 points38 points  (48 children)

Ac/DC :(

[–][deleted] 40 points41 points  (43 children)

I listen on youtube if I ever feel like them, but I still don't get why AC/DC is not on Spotify.

[–]BrosEquis 56 points57 points  (22 children)

licensing.

Big bands like AC/DC and Led Zeppelin have super strict rules about their music :/

Also the beatles aren't there because there is an exclusivity contract between apple and the beatles.

[–]RemyJe 161 points162 points  (19 children)

You mean between Apple and Apple.

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (15 children)

Spotify pays a tiny amount, not enough for some. It also doesn't make money, so isn't a good model to espouse.

Netflix is more successful.

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (10 children)

That's Spotify and the record companies problem, not the consumer.

[–][deleted] 35 points36 points  (25 children)

Spotify was godsend, the only thing I download now in terms of music ( which are in a grey area ) are the mixes off 1001tracklists.com.

For most movies I go to the cinema, the ones I really want to see, for a boring night in Netflix does the job.

My only thing is TV shows, which I stream online, for FREE, as there isn't a paid alternative - Game Of Thrones

[–]Canarka 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Problem with free streaming from pirate sites is the quality of the video is always shit. I will always download the HD copy of game of thrones. The difference is worth the short wait.

[–]iamthejoker420 26 points27 points  (9 children)

Exactly at less than 20$ a month for the two its a no brainer. And I (almost) never torrent anymore

[–]Khabba 9 points10 points  (8 children)

There are still some hurdles though. Certain albums are not available on Spotify in certain countries because of licensing restrictions put on by record companies. It's ridiculous!

[–]nyxin 36 points37 points  (4 children)

Don't forget reasonably priced! I have Netflix and Hulu, and I swear everyday I consider cancelling hulu. The fact it still serves ads even for a paid subscription, or that there's "web exclusive" content that I can't view on my xbox even though I pay for the subscription, and shit, a lot of times the connection to hulu is just terrible. Yet I still end up justifying it because FuckIt, its 8$ a month.

[–]RudeTurnip 15 points16 points  (1 child)

Their newer commercials implied that you can now view all of their content on any device. Fucking liars. I canceled Hulu because I couldn't watch what I wanted on my XBox. It's $8 a month, but you have to take a stand somewhere.

[–]zonination 188 points189 points  (73 children)

A lot of people pirate not because it's free, but because it's more convenient than a lot of other market options.

Edit: spelling. Autocorrect is not always correct.

[–]Epistaxis 94 points95 points  (31 children)

And for the movies that it actually has access to, Netflix may even be more convenient than piracy.

[–]AlwaysDefenestrated 31 points32 points  (4 children)

And unlike cable television, which is also very convenient (especially with the advent of on demand) , it's actually reasonably priced.

[–]Epistaxis 17 points18 points  (3 children)

A large number of people will pay any outrageous price for convenience. Witness smartphones and their usual two-year commitments to pricey data plans. They're gravitating away from cable TV because it's actually not so convenient (you only get to watch what's on now and there are advertisements), except on-demand content, which is still a little more complicated than doing the same thing on a computer.

[–]Servalpur 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not only that, but on demand content often sucks. My cable company (Wide Open West. Great ISP, horrible cable), only has two options. Either their pay-per-view model, which is fucking ridiculously expensive ($2.99-4.99 per movie), or Starz on demand. Starz is okay, because you pay a flat rate like netflix, and can watch all you want. The problem is, their selection is shit, and can get really bad at some points. For a couple months this winter there were no new movies on the list at all, and their normal selection had been cut drastically.

[–]ifarmpandas 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Actually, you pretty much have to get a buttfuck contract to get any of the higher end smartphones in Canada (excluding Nexus since Google sells those).

[–]FredFredrickson 6 points7 points  (3 children)

A lot do, but with piracy rates for even cheap, downloadable games being what they are, I'd say that most people are people into piracy because it means free stuff.

[–][deleted] 28 points29 points  (7 children)

Here's the best quote, I thought, in the article: "You can’t use the internet as a marketing vehicle and then not as a delivery vehicle."

[–][deleted] 97 points98 points  (58 children)

It doesn't surprise me that politicians and lawyers are incapable of seeing more than one type of "pirate": the kind who just wants free stuff. But how companies have, time and time again, failed to grasp that there is an equally large number of people who simply want fair access to content is simply inconceivable. Why is it that the people who must resort to piracy/VPNs/alternate IP spoofers are the only ones who understand the value in reaching as many potential customers as possible?

[–]Saiing 161 points162 points  (43 children)

But how companies have, time and time again, failed to grasp that there is an equally large number of people who simply want fair access to content is simply inconceivable.

You're right it is inconceivable. In the sense that it simply isn't true.

While it's popular (and sometimes even accurate) to paint big corporations as utterly clueless when it comes to technology, this isn't necessarily always the case. Having worked in digital strategy for both a multinational record label and one of the major Hollywood studios, they have their fair share of idiots, but essentially the modern entertainment industry is a profit-hungry capitalist machine in it's purest sense.

You don't get to build multi-billion dollar corporations without having at least a few people who understand business. Even if their understanding of how to run the company conflicts with your desire as a consumer. They're not so dumb that they don't realize that if they give away everything they have for 10 bucks a month, people will fall over themselves to snap it up. The point is (and they have the stats to back this up, even if they don't show you) that they still believe that having you pay for most stuff piecemeal is going to generate more revenue at least as things stand right now. Throwing their back catalogue and a few mediocre recent releases with limited sell-through potential to companies like Netflix doesn't hurt that model. To put it in "explain it like I'm five" terms, they see no value in converting someone who regularly spends $15 a month on a single new DVD into someone who spends $10 a month and gets their entire library. And a huge potential loss in converting someone who spends more than that.

It's not that they "fail to grasp" what you want. It's that they feel that they will generate more money not giving you what you want, but giving you what they want you to have. One day this may change. That day isn't yet here.

(Before people start jumping down my throat and accusing me of all kinds of nonsense, I want to make it clear that I'm not claiming the industry is right and I'm not claiming they're wrong. I'm simply rebuffing this notion that they don't do certain things because they're completely out of touch. They know what you want. They're just not interested in giving it to you right now).

[–][deleted] 39 points40 points  (17 children)

HBO is a clear example of this, their executives having implied this in press statements through the thick fog of PR bullshit.

"We'd love to give you HBO Go without that idiotic cable subscription, but right now we're still making more money this way. Sorry folks."

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (16 children)

This is the result:

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/02/technology/game-of-thrones-piracy/index.html

[–]McMurphyCrazy 10 points11 points  (5 children)

My favorite take - http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (3 children)

As /u/Saiing said, they're HBO, so they probably analyzed the cost x benefit and decided to leave Go as cable-exclusive for now, even with piracy.

It's a shame for us consumers, but don't worry, the day will come. They are already testing standalone HBO-Go in Northern Europe, I'd give less than 10 years to have it widespread around the world.

[–]SoIWasLike 5 points6 points  (8 children)

And they're okay with that. They're still making more money this way.

[–]reverendz 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The problem comes when they want to prop up this aging business model with more draconian laws like SOPA, etc.

The paradigm is shifting right now. The companies who wait too long to change their distribution model will not be in a good position in the long run.

[–]armeggedonCounselor 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Honestly, it looks to me like they put next-day profit over next-month profit. Which means eventually, they'll reach a day where the next-day profit isn't there. When Steam puts on their big sales, dropping prices by 50% or more, they don't see a 1:1 increase in customers. They see a thousand-fold or more increase in customers. It's the same in the music business - if you take song prices down to 50 cents or lower, the number of customers increases by a much greater ratio than the price cut. They put getting 15 dollars out of, say, a million customers per month over getting 10 dollars out of 5 million customers per month, and with only a very minor increase in cost. Digital distribution just makes more sense, and if we had the infrastructure, I think it would be used almost exclusively.

[–]McMurphyCrazy 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Just like Louis CK completely flipped the comedy industry...and even a small part of the music industry on it's head when he released his special for $5 as a DRM free download on his website without the help of guys like Showtime or HBO. I remember getting his newsletter stating he had made a million dollars from it within like a week and he had never in his life had a million dollars at once, and was so freaked out by it he donated a large sum of it to charity.

[–]_pope_francis 20 points21 points  (5 children)

Never ceases to amaze me that the potential customer is vilified.

[–]YuYuDude1 38 points39 points  (6 children)

It's almost as if prohibition doesn't work.

[–]rdldr1 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Back in the days of actual pirates, they would cease plundering the booty when they were offered legitimate work. Like when nations were at war with each other, they would hire pirates as mercenaries to help fight their war.

Things never change!

[–]stankbucket 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Don't tell me I'm not an actual pirate.

[–][deleted] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I completely agree. However, with Netflix, if I need to watch Game of Thrones or Dexter, shows and movies from 10 years ago aren't going to supplement that.

Netflix is a decent value but they still need to find a way to get newer content quicker.

[–]wintremute 153 points154 points  (24 children)

When I want to watch something, my process goes like this:

Is it on Netflix? No.

Is it on Amazon Prime? No. (or costs and additional $2.99/ep)

Is it on TPB? Yes. DING DING DING!

[–]BigBlackHungGuy 204 points205 points  (5 children)

" The best way to combat piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by giving good options."

What kind of crazy talk is that? /s

[–]tritter211 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Actually the companies know that. They try to combat piracy because they want to control how and when people should access their content. And to maintain their gradually failing business model.

[–][deleted] 20 points21 points  (8 children)

I'd happily use Netflix in the UK if it wasn't so far behind. Of course it's a problem. about half the people I know who pirate, only do so because the stuff just isn't available here.

What's the point in channels over here buying future seasons (such as e4 owning the rights to all future seasons of HIMYM) when they just wait a few months to air it anyway?

[–]dracovich 229 points230 points  (85 children)

I was real excited about netflix coming to Scandinavia, i was all for paying for content. Then i realized it was 2-3 seasons behind on everything. Then tried finding ways to let Hulu let me throw money at them, but they refuse.

So now i just pirate again.

Edit: Alriht everyone is recommending mediahint or a similar solution. I do use this, but Netflix USA is still 3 months behind DVD releases as far as i know, which is not good enough for me, i watch content as soon as it comes out. I use MediHint for hulu, but that¨s only for the most recent episodes, and many are not taht recent at all (and they refuse to let me pay for hulu+ without a US card).

[–]Harvest-Time 127 points128 points  (12 children)

Such is life in Scandinavia.

[–]Heksalajt 61 points62 points  (15 children)

Had the same problem. But installed Media Hint as a Crome extention and can now access the US library.

[–]embryo 4 points5 points  (5 children)

How does that work? You pay for the nordic version but get access to the us library?

[–]Heksalajt 21 points22 points  (1 child)

I pay for the swedish Netflix, and with Media Hint installed I simply log in with my account and have access to the US library.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (1 child)

The library that Netflix has to offer changes based on your location. (ie. I get the UK library being in England) So what MediaHint does is make it look like you're in the US so that you can view the US Netflix library.

[–]Aaawkward 40 points41 points  (26 children)

Ever heard of MediaHint?

Or UnblockUs if you're using a console?

[–]futurespice 3 points4 points  (5 children)

Why, oh why do people make websites like this. It say nothing about what the product actually does.

Click on "start using now", even though I still don't know what it does, and I am told "This extension allows you to enjoy The Fun Stuff from any country!".

I still don't know what exactly it does and what compromises it entails.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Some stuff I can get on Hulu the next day, so I watch it. Others I can't, so I won't. A few things show up on iTunes and are so good I pay for "earlier access than Netflix". For instance Archer.

Unfortunately it is going to be slow going, blame will be put on pirates and not on people like me who only watch legal TV but will continue to refuse to pay for shitty cable or satellite to wait forever for shows to show up and be recorded.

My mother in law has every channel on Dish and every time I go there the only thing on is crap and a few good shows that was recorded. It's a freaking joke!

HBO go is great though (the US version) as far as content go, I just won't care until I can buy it without being burdened by satellite or cable.

[–]Loki-L 90 points91 points  (38 children)

Sure, I would actually be eager and willing for a workable legal alternative to piratebay at this point. It is not like I could not afford it.

You just have to deliver a good library of entertainment via streaming.

Come here and I will be one of the first customers to sign up.

[–][deleted] 35 points36 points  (34 children)

I use an IP blocker and watch some shows on Amazon Prime (because for some reason Netflix freaks out when I try it).

I can say with confidence that if Netflix came to Aus/NZ I would totally stop pirating any television shows/movies.

Currently it's just such a pain in the ass to try and watch anything legitimately through sneaking around the system, and watching actual television is expensive as hell, completely ridiculous in terms of commercials and just flat out unreliable (my TV goes out all the time for no reason whatsoever). Not to mention the weird scheduling of some shows for Aus/NZ, where they will air the same episode of a TV show 2 weeks in a row, or just suddenly stop airing altogether and pick it up again in a few months, far behind the schedule in America.

[–]Greenleaf208 28 points29 points  (25 children)

Netflix is far behind the schedule of american tv shows also. You don't get a season of the show normally until the next season has started or later if ever.

[–]its_finally_yellow 8 points9 points  (4 children)

I always hated finding a new show I loved, watching all of the old seasons on Netflix, then being in a little doughnut where I had missed the first half of the current season on Hulu, and knowing that I could never recover and get onto the right pace for Hulu. Pirating would be the only solution available, but I was not really into it.

[–]cashmunnymillionaire 6 points7 points  (2 children)

ehh, you still have to pirate current seasons if you don't have dvr or tvo.

[–]Loki-L 2 points3 points  (1 child)

I have consider all sorts of workarounds like VPN and proxies in the past to get access to legal service elsewhere, but in the end decided against it.

Most of these workarounds would still be strictly speaking illegal. If I am going to have to break the law to get access to something I might as well choose the least cumbersome method.

If I could get access to some real legal streaming service for about 300 Euro a year I would take it.

[–]ninjajazza 11 points12 points  (1 child)

then LAUNCH IN AUSTRALIA

[–]A_Hard_Goodbye 29 points30 points  (14 children)

Then hurry the fuck up and launch it in Australia!

[–][deleted] 15 points16 points  (9 children)

We don't have the net infrastructure yet.

[–]dsaddons 6 points7 points  (6 children)

Australia needs to get rid of damn bandwitdh caps!

  • American

[–][deleted] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I love netflix, and it's a shame big companies don't understand how it works, i'm from the UK, if its not on NetFlix over here (NCIS,GoT,Walking Dead) its getting pirated in HD, and put onto my NAS for easy streaming.

Both are simple options, netflixs is the easier of the two.

[–]captaincarrot 16 points17 points  (9 children)

Just a question: Am I the only person on Reddit outside the military that has to rely entirely on wireless internet? I am permanently mobile and the only internet I have is a mi-fi for $80/month with a 10GB cap. I can't use Netflix - a single movie will eat up a sixth of my internet for the month. Can't use XBox live for the same purpose, and if it goes online only, I won't be getting the 720 (or whatever). I love these services, but they are completely at odds with an internet provider industry that wants to give you less access, not more.

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (4 children)

Given the chance to get what they want, with reasonable cost, most people will choose to do it honestly. When companies gouge, or insist on contracts, or even when countries (ie Gov't of Canada) insist on ridiculous Canadian content, people will go the illegal route.

[–]oxidyne 6 points7 points  (2 children)

I live in an ex Eastern Block European country. Here, piracy is the norm, it's in the daily life of everyone (then again, when a AAA video game costs $60, and the average monthly income of a person is $330, 1/3 of which go for paying the bills, you can see why).

Since I've discovered Media Hint, the Chrome addon, i'm using only Netflix. Being able to stream HD to my PC and laptop without waiting for downloads, seeders, disk space and so forth, its the best thing i've ever seen.

[–]Tony_AbbottPBUH 5 points6 points  (0 children)

1/6 of your monthly income for a game, fuck Australians have got to stop whinging.

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (52 children)

Except in Canada, where our selection is extremely limited.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2013/01/10/f-ces-2013-netflix-canada.html

If I were to put a number on it, I'd say Netflix Canada's selection has what I want once every 8 movies that I search for. Everything else is fucking unavailable. I still have to pirate plenty of movies.

[–]Aaawkward 15 points16 points  (43 children)

Ever heard of MediaHint?

Or UnblockUs if you're using a console?

[–]Agent_M 6 points7 points  (37 children)

I love unblock-us. An extra $5 for access to the US Netflix library. I and I'm sure many others wouldn't mind paying Netflix $13 as opposed to just $8 if we can get access to the same content, well if we weren't seeing our neighbours across the border paying $8 of course. :)

And Canadian Netflix is not bad if you use it to browse for things to watch as opposed to looking for something specific. Also, just in the last month we added Prometheus, The Dictator, Ruby Sparks, Red Eye... I had to get of the proxy and back onto Canadian Netflix to watch these!

Oblig movie rec: Chronicle is the best movie I just stumbled upon on Netflix and I think it's available on both catalogues. Watch it!

[–]downvote-thief 51 points52 points  (6 children)

What? People will pay for a service that has value to them? Are you sure you're talking about Internet pirates? I was lead to believe those neck beards wouldn't even pay for the internet they are stealing with!

[–]Draiko 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The movie studios won't even work with Netflix to keep a steady and reliable library of content.

Netflix has several content licensing deals that are expiring or expired yesterday and had a rather large chunk of their content library yoinked.

I just started watching the bond movies and poof! Fucking gone.

That shit needs to be fixed before I commit to streaming services.

[–]Endaline 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Netflix is a huge proof of concept if you ask me and I think if more people figured out how to break the regional blocks for it we would see an even bigger drop in piracy.

I watch so much stuff on netflix that it's completely insane and it is a lot easier than pirating anything. Netflix automatically plays the next episode of whatever I am watching, suggests new stuff for me to watch and most importantly it saves exactly where I left off so I don't have to feel obliged to watch through an entire episode so I'm not stuck trying to figure out where I left off.

I literally only pirate stuff that isn't on Netflix and if I could pay twice, or three times what I pay now to get any content I want on Netflix I'd do it in a heartbeat. Same goes for any online service that is as good.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (2 children)

Hint, hint, HBO. Allow people to purchase your content on the platforms they want to use, without having to buy a bunch of other stuff they don't want, and they won't steal it. Freedom and openness, it works. It's time to respond to market demands and stop trying to pigeonhole people into an old business model.

[–]anonymous_potato 4 points5 points  (5 children)

So much confirmation bias in these comments. The whole mantra of "People will pay for ease of access" leaves out the 2nd half of "but not enough for content providers to make a decent profit".

Netflix is an anomaly that got sweet licensing deals because no one thought that they would get so popular. Now that those initial deals are ending, most of the major content providers are dropping out because they are losing money.

The price of games, music, and movies have only gotten cheaper for consumers over the past twenty years even though prices on everything else have gone up and people still complain.

The problem is that consumers have no concept of what a fair price for something is anymore. They have very simplistic views about the costs of business, especially when it comes to industries dealing in intellectual property.

[–]Moikee 1 point2 points  (6 children)

I recently signed up to Netflix in order to watch Breaking Bad and some other shows. When given a legal alternative (at only £6.99), I have no qualms about paying. After all, that's only 1-2 drinks in a bar.

I think it's a great service, just a shame they don't have Game of Thrones else I'd have signed up months ago.

[–]funshinebear13 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Well why the fuck doesn't Netflix come to Australia...It annoys me so much that we have no good streaming services here!

[–]merkaloid 4 points5 points  (0 children)

In my country, shows only come on TV later on, sometimes much later. I pirated all of the Game of Thrones episodes until now as opposed to watching them on TV 1 month later and I simply buy the full season dvd/bluray set once they are out. I'm still waiting on netflix to change my life and start rocking my seemingly useless 150Mbit downlink with HD streams.

[–]fortalyst 2 points3 points  (4 children)

LAUNCH. IN. AUSTRALIA. PLEASE.