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from the we-show-the-movies-you-don't-want-to-watch dept.
mendax writes:
A New York Times op-ed reports:
A team of web designers recently released an astonishingly innovative app for streaming movies online. The program, Popcorn Time, worked a bit like Netflix, except it had one unusual, killer feature. It was full of movies you'd want to watch. When you loaded Popcorn Time, you were presented with a menu of recent Hollywood releases: "American Hustle," "Gravity," "The Wolf of Wall Street," "12 Years A Slave," and hundreds of other acclaimed films were all right there, available for instant streaming at the click of a button.
If Popcorn Time sounds too good to be true, that's because it was. The app was illegal - a well-designed, easy-to-use interface for the movie-pirating services that have long ruled the Internet's underbelly. Shortly after the app went public, its creators faced a barrage of legal notices, and they pulled it down. But like Napster in the late 1990s, Popcorn Time offered a glimpse of what seemed like the future, a model for how painless it should be to stream movies and TV shows online. The app also highlighted something we've all felt when settling in for a night with today's popular streaming services, whether Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Hulu, or Google or Microsoft's media stores: They just aren't good enough.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SpockLogic on Friday March 28 2014, @12:32PM
Until the content cartel can guarantee there will be no stalling while the stream is buffering and current releases are available at reasonable cost I will continue to download files to my media server and enjoy them for free. Offer me a better service if you want my patronage.
Oh, get rid of all the crappy trailers, I just want to watch the movie.
Overreacting is one thing, sticking your head up your ass hoping the problem goes away is another - edIII
(Score: 3, Interesting) by willyg on Friday March 28 2014, @01:29PM
THIS!!!
People with technical savvy had already found the solution to the crappy streaming feeds and crappy selection, and the solution often contained some form of the letters tee pee bee. People found it provided what they wanted at a cost they could accept. It had the downside ( for some ) of being illegal in many locations.
However, these technical people probably also assisted other less technically endowed people to access this solution by means of the USB data drive - in the form of spinning rust or crappy NAND memory or a bluetooth enabled data exchange. After all, almost everyone has a need for what someone else can provide, be it sex, drugs, food or even daycare, and a particular arrangement of data bits can have a value, and that arrangement can easily be a non-monetary means of exchange.
The ship left port and sailed off a long time ago, but the content industry missed it, and still denies it even happened.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 29 2014, @02:38AM
In many ways I am grateful to this vast multitude of less technical users, many of whom appear oblivious to the legally-questionable status of their online sharing. It is this very multitude that provides an ample pool of seeds on the rare occasion I do want to torrent something.
For years I've been helping people that had trouble with their computers. Now those same people are flocking to "share" files. It's rather nice - they are helping me out for a change!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by nukkel on Friday March 28 2014, @02:02PM
Even more preposterous than the trailers on DVDs is the cartel's "infotainment" trailers telling you it is wrong to "pirate" movies.
I mean, WTF?? I just bought a DVD fair-n-square and I am rewarded for my honest purchase by having to suffer watching through a non-skippable, patronizing clip trying to impress upon me the faulty logic that "piracy" equates to stealing a purse from an old lady or smash a window to break into a car.
Another aspect where the quality of the torrented version exceeds that of the official package ;)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Friday March 28 2014, @02:56PM
Those themselves wouldn't bother me if you could simply press the menu button, but they always have the flag set that instructs the player that it can't skip them.
I bought an album recently (Mr. Bill's IRL - well recommended) that typified just how to approach selling digital content. This artist had released tracks on his Soundcloud for two months or so up to release in full, with a link to his bandcamp stating the release date. After being able to listen to half the album beforehand, I was perfectly happy to throw £10 at it, paying a bit extra than the stated minimum of £7 simply because I felt it was worth it.
I got a wide array of download links including MP3, FLAC, OGG etc. and an email link so I can redownload them whenever I wish. No stipulations, no hassle, and I'm not treated like I'm a criminal.
Instead, the film industry still insists on the adversarial model. The purchaser is treated as a ne'er-do-well who will rip off their precious multi billion dollar industry as soon as look at it. I see DRM schemes as essentially saying "you've bought our content, but we still don't trust you". Very well, then why should I buy your content? Why can't I have the same courtesy from you as I get from a Glitch-hop artist on bandcamp who has a fraction of the resources you do?
The victim card the film industry uses to justify their behaviour is nauseating.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @08:08PM
£10
Slashcode still doesn't do Unicode. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by umafuckitt on Friday March 28 2014, @08:44PM
There was a really awesomely dumb trailer on the Showtime DVDs for the penultimate season of Dexter. They force you watch a minute or two of snippets from Showtime shows each time you enter any of the DVDs from the box set. You can't skip it. The real issue, however, is that one of the snippets they show you is a spoiler for what happens at the end of the season. So if you watch the trailer you've lost the surprise. Big backlash about this on Amazon comments.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Friday March 28 2014, @03:08PM
VLC.
Not the slickest video player by a long shot, but I can't remember the last time I watched any sort of trailer on a DVD - pop it in, up comes the navigation menu.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday March 28 2014, @03:27PM
i'm still waiting for somebody to release a 3d printer file for a vehicle, because yes, MPAA, i sure as hell would download a car if it were possible. ideally the print-a-vehicle file will be included with every movie and album torrent on tpb.
(Score: 1) by useless on Friday March 28 2014, @06:22PM
Here you go:7 13.html [tf3dm.com]
http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/lamborghini-reventon-17
(Score: 1) by Teckla on Friday March 28 2014, @08:18PM
I've never fully understood why my devices can't download the next movie on my queue overnight, so that it's ready the next day or evening in high quality and without any buffering issues.
Besides the quality and buffering issues, streaming even makes rewind and fast forward an annoying experience.