this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
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The article wonders why would anyone pirate, let us give him the reason:
Is 14 really a thing? Or are you talking about having to buy a new smart device that may or may not be included in your TV and that in any case can be replaced but a separate device?
Yep. Very much. Translated to English it says "Netflix is no longer supported on this device. Visit netflix.com/compatibledevices for a list of supported devices".
This is when hitting the netflix button on the tv remote. Worked until a few days ago.
I'd chuck that up more to "smart TVs are trash".
They have crappy processing power and TV makers support them for the shortest of timespans. I've solved that but turning my smart TV into a dumb screen and an NVidia Shield TV as its brains (NVidia has so far been exemplary in supporting Shield TVs).
I don't disagree that smart TVs are trash, but this wasn't the TV not keeping up, this was netflix deciding that I couldn't use it anymore.
I give them money, why are they making it hard for me to use their product.
These major corps are pulling some absolute bullshit all the time with this kind of stuff. People are frustrated with the rich in general, but I think they don't even comprehend the amount of fuckery that is pulled on us all.
One example, I have an android phone from 2017 that still works great. Luckily the company that made it doesn't go hard on planned obsolescence seemingly, but I was curious about replacing it, and new comparable phones are more expensive than mine was, have more bloatware preloaded, and lower specs to top it off. To be fair though they do have incredible new cameras.
It is likely due to: they want to update their software to add new features, but these device doesn't have enough power to support that or it takes far too much human resource to implement, so most logical answer is they drop it. As for what kind of feature they add that would make it so difficult to implement...
In this brave new world of companies, more ways to serve ads and new method to mine telemetry data seems to count as a feature.
Vendors should be entitled to withdraw support on particular hardware, but they shouldn't be allowed to brick the service as a result 'just because'. All it needs is a TOS/EULA update prompt advising that viewers with X hardware are on their own as of now. I'd be willing to bet this denial of service practice originates in kickback discussions between TV manufacturers and streamers.
It strikes me as another case where corporate can inculcate learned helplessness in the customer by having him think disallowing and withdrawing support for are indivisible.
I wouldn't mind using proprietary apps if they weren't so fucking horrible to use.
Goddammit, if you're going to force me to install your shitty program just because I want to watch a show you own the license to, at least put a semblance of effort into the UI...
I forgot to add
Also wanna add:
As a person who loves watching movies with subtitles, this is why I'm canceling Amazon Prime. The fuckers literally won't offer me English language subtitles for some flicks because I Iive outside the US.
I don't care if the movie itself is in English, why the hell can't I watch with subtitles in the same language as the film itself? Holy fuck.
Probably because the subtitles have their own copyright separate from the film itself and Amazon likely doesn't have the license to the English subtitles outside of the USA. It wouldn't surprise me, music lyrics have their own separate copyright from the recording after all.
The copyright system is the biggest problem here. It simply isn't fit for purpose in the digital age, unless that purpose was to benefit a handful of legacy mega corps while harming independent content creators and stifling culture across the globe.
Had no idea subtitles could be copyrighted separate from the film/media they're subtitling (but, it does make sense when you think about it).
I agree with you completely: the current US copyright system is a joke that serves little purpose (in today's media scape).
I wish it was just the US copyright system that's the problem, some nations have worse copyright laws. In France for example architecture can have copyright, and renovations have a separate copyright from the original architecture.. The lights on the Eiffel Tower have a separate copyright from the Eiffel Tower itself, which is currently in the public domain. So while it's completely fine to take a photo of the Tower during the day at night you need to have permission from the copyright holder, and they have taken action against people who have taken photos of the Tower at night.
Then there are some nations where there isn't even a public domain and stuff never loses their copyright.
Many of these worse laws have been driven by US and EU trade policies and Trade Agreements mandating draconian copyright and intellectual property laws.
Copyright laws are just a nightmare writ large.
And rip watching a Christopher Nolan Movie without subtitles nowadays
Yep, exactly.
Fuck you - if I'm paying to watch, I should get the very basic of features. Piracy is literally a better user experience right now.
And don't forget about the ads.
Also everything is just streaming. You can't actually buy DRM-free movies (important for things like VR headsets or when without Internet), often you can't even buy anything at all, it's all just the library of the streaming service were content comes and goes at random.
You will own nothing and you will like it!
You forgot about stuff that just gets taken down one day.
Edit: oh you added it in a comment.
There are a few what I'll term magnet shows on each streaming service. They want you to pay for the service for the magnet shows and then stick around and watch other half-baked filler garbage or a seasons of a show they cancelled before giving them any hope of finishing their story arc.
Most streaming networks have abundant garbage content I'd never want to watch, knockoffs of other shows, and global content that's often of soap opera quality with subtitles.
They also (on purpose) often offer no way to filter to the things you want to see other than search, and search is often misleading or terrible too.
It's basically a race to the bottom just like Amazon. Junk programs created for pennies pretending to match your results.
The whole thing is a crap fest that's quickly becoming worse than the cable network structure it replaced.
No, thank you.
If you go through the front page, there is usually only 100 shows the platform is pushing, ad nauseam. Like the algorithm is maybe some shows it thinks youll like, or shows they want to astroturf. I would really like a way to go into the dregs, the shit, the stuff netflix thinks is at the bottom of my metrics. Granted, piracy doesn't do this either (lol how would that even work? I put everything on that server myself) but I would have considered keeping my subscription if they did.
True I start a new movie or a series but can't see it past a few minutes.
More than food? That math just doesn't add up for me.