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posted by janrinok on Friday March 28 2014, @10:35AM   Printer-friendly
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.

 
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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by hb253 on Friday March 28 2014, @01:15PM

    by hb253 (745) on Friday March 28 2014, @01:15PM (#22489)

    Recently, in an attempt to reduce my monthly expenditures, one of the things I did was convert my Netflix account from DVD/streaming to streaming only. Now, I find I don't watch anything because what's available on streaming generally does not interest me. I don't have the energy to deal with torrents and all that, so the net effect has been less TV.

    --
    The firings and offshore outsourcing will not stop until morale improves.
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  • (Score: 3) by JeanCroix on Friday March 28 2014, @01:31PM

    by JeanCroix (573) on Friday March 28 2014, @01:31PM (#22502)
    I did the exact same thing. And honestly, I've found better things to do, so I can't say I'm missing it. In the end, the content cartel's own poor services effectively weaned me from its offerings.
    • (Score: 3) by elf on Friday March 28 2014, @02:37PM

      by elf (64) on Friday March 28 2014, @02:37PM (#22530)

      I'm the opposite, I have periods of time where I am obsessed with Netflix's. I start a TV series then watch it as much as possible because I get addicted. I watch more netflix's than normal TV now.

      For me I don't go to the cinema anymore, I'm completely happy to wait and spend my money on the one medium where I can watch movies / tv as much as I like. Not everything is going to be there but enough new stuff comes on board that I always have something that interests me.

  • (Score: 1) by mwvdlee on Friday March 28 2014, @02:12PM

    by mwvdlee (169) on Friday March 28 2014, @02:12PM (#22519)

    So net total positive or negative?

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by bigjimslade on Friday March 28 2014, @04:08PM

    by bigjimslade (212) on Friday March 28 2014, @04:08PM (#22568)

    yep, another one here. if they don't have anything streaming of interest to watch, the TV goes off. and hey look, there's that book i wanted to finish. and it's nice outside, maybe i'll go for a walk in the neighborhood.

    the end result, less TV, and less revenue for them. sounds fine to me.

    --
    Remember, Tuesday is Soylent Green Day
  • (Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Friday March 28 2014, @04:35PM

    by GeminiDomino (661) on Friday March 28 2014, @04:35PM (#22580)

    Then why not just cancel the account?

    --
    "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
    • (Score: 1) by hb253 on Friday March 28 2014, @04:56PM

      by hb253 (745) on Friday March 28 2014, @04:56PM (#22589)

      You read my mind - I may take that as a next step.

      --
      The firings and offshore outsourcing will not stop until morale improves.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @08:18PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 28 2014, @08:18PM (#22675)

    Don't have the energy? I find the legal way more complicated than the illegal ones.

    If you want to do it legit, you have to suffer all sort of DRM, crappy web players, buffering, competing stores with exclusivity. Some sites / stores simply don't work on my smart tv or my WDTV. There is often advertisement even for payed material. It's completely ridiculous.

    With the illegal way: Click magnet link, few seconds after I can stream it to VLC or any other video player in my house. I can stop and resume the video whenever I want on the devices I want. I can keep the file for later or to watch offline.

    Pirating always work, all the time, flawlessly.