Recently a friend of mine recommended me to watch the movie Heavenly Creatures. I went to justwatch.ca to see if it was streaming anywhere in Canada [1]. Not only was it not listed as streaming, it wasn't even listed to purchase anywhere. I went to as many places as I could think to find it: Amazon, Apple, Netflix, even Cineplex online. I was not able to find it anywhere available in Canada to stream for any amount of money. I found an article online that corroborates this is true [2] and recommends using a VPN to access content in other regions.<p>It made me realize that we are very much at risk of losing our cultural memory. For this particular movie I could use a VPN I suppose, but I imagine that some movies/music/books will someday not be available in any region in any form.<p>1. <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/heavenly-creatures" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/heavenly-creatures</a><p>2. <a href="https://www.entoin.com/entertainment/heavenly-creatures-on-netflix" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.entoin.com/entertainment/heavenly-creatures-on-n...</a>
When my son was younger he liked Paw Patrol, so we bought several season of Paw Patrol, I now have a duaghter that is the same age and likes Paw Patrol. I pulled up my handy Youtube subscription, went into my bought movies and found out that the Paw Patrol season I had bought and paid for was no longer available because it was now only available on KidsToons+ or PreimerParenting or some other bull hockey like that.<p>I decided at that point if they can yank away media I had already paid for on a whim, we no long had a contract. Now I am working on buying myself a fine sailing ship, and unfurling the jolly roger to sail the high seas seeking booty and plunder and buried treasure.
If steam and gog proved anything, it is that piracy is a service level issue. It is so much easier for me to purchase from of those, because I can trust ( at least until Gabe dies in Steam's case ) to some reasonable extent that they won't try to pull a rug from under me.<p>CD Projekt is a public company now, but you CAN download raw ISOs if you are so inclined.<p>If there was a similar reasonable repository for other media. Right now.. what we have almost the exact opposite that will likely result in a spike of piracy. I have 3 streaming services ( wife's bidding; don't judge ), but it is going to end up soon if they don't have anything worthwhile on it -- and I already argue that they do not.
I'm from the region and every regular person pays for streaming these days, especially youngsters.<p>I've searched for content on danish trackers once, for content that wasn't on any services, and i think a few people use it for that, ie. fans or film buffs.<p>Often whole seasons are removed, content jumps around, or stuff just disappears forever even if you've paid for it.<p>So this operation seems very excessive.<p>Maybe there's an active strategy to remove old stuff to keep people interested in the newer?<p>Either way this weird cultural goldfish-memory is tragic. There's so much out there not on streaming these days.
I wanted to watch a special by my favourite comedian Stewart Lee. It's only available on BBC iPlayer and most VPNs I have tried don't seem to work with it. Is it really unethical for me to torrent that special that I literally can't pay for even if I wanted to? Information wants to get out (almost like a gas), and as long as it's suppressed, torrenting will remain relevant.
why am i paying severe amounts of tax money to protect the investment [1] of some garbage software, movie, and music firms whose product quality for the last 20 years have been at an all time disgraceful low to the point where i'm basically getting scammed if i buy their products but there is a cartel of such companies so no matter what alternative i choose it's just as bad.<p>1. and not even. the threat of piracy is just theoretical
crack down all ya want, the scene will continue. see comments here as to why. no apologies here for flying the jolly roger. reckon piracy is a response to shit business practices. i'm not jumping through VPN hoops to watch what i want to. i'm not dealing with content being removed for whatever reason. feels like it's even worse in the sports arena. local blackouts etc. bunch of nonsense. now where's my rum?
The big official content providers live in an expansive bubble world of sustaining themselves enough through legally sanctioned, DRM protected content streaming under restrictive moat conditions that they can afford to ignore the obvious stupidities of their distribution models. At the same time, they continue to lobby for anti-piracy controls without even slightly recognizing the deep flaws in their methods.<p>Why? Because enough rent gets extracted from things as they are, from millions of consumers who are just content enough to keep paying, that it doesn't really matter to do anything innovatively different. Instead, the existing balance between lobbying legally against piracy and maintaining a strangled content distribution system works just well enough.<p>This is why we keep seeing idiocies of DRM restrictions and policies that seem designed for a world in which the fully global internet and flow of information wasn't even a thing. You thus get situations where certain content is absurdly blocked in certain places without a single good practical reason because the balance I describe above isn't badly enough affected, at least for now.<p>However if they keep pushing along this path, things will change, and possibly in nasty ways against their interest to a point where they'll have to open up more or deal with genuine damage to their rigged markets. Technology often (though sadly not always) has a funny way of suddenly breaking down dams in unexpected moments. In this case it would be especially easy for this to happen because the infrastructure of piracy is already here and easily available to anyone who puts in a modicum of effort. New innovations aren't even really necessary. it only (again, for now) lacks the incentives that could make it surge.
Canada will eventually make anything illegal that doesn't contain a Canadian actor or something equally dumb. So practice practice practice all your circuitous downloading and cryptography skills boys and girls
Surprise surprise, people using services that announce their IP address and intention to seed torrents get caught because they were announcing their IP addresses.
You ever play an arcade game called Wack-A-Mole?<p>If so, this should seem familiar.<p>I have the same level of compassion as the media companies that have made a business model out of shitting on the talent, the writers, the authors, the customers, etc.
What are some good ways to automate getting all the latest torrents based on some patterns? Also, are private trackers still a thing? What are some good ones? I had access to a good invite-only tracker but lost it ages ago.