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mawkishdave,
@mawkishdave@lemmy.world avatar

Companies want to make it so you don’t own anything just rent the use of it.

krolden,
@krolden@lemmy.ml avatar

Duh

teamevil,

This is just absurd. Often times we are paying just as much as a physical copy and now Amazon can just randomly decide to remove that content? Sounds like theft to me

histic,

as much as I would love to blame it on Amazon it’s not their fault they don’t own the rights they are at the mercy of whoever does

ghterve,

Then they shouldn’t “sell” it.

atrielienz, (edited )

If they didn’t someone else would. Literally every single copy of paid media that is for sale works like this. You likely don’t know that because with physical media they’re not likely to come into your home and take back the DVD or CD you bought from Tower Records before they company folded. But you still don’t own that music or that movie. You own the right to enjoy it for the life of the media through which you purchased it. You don’t have the right to demand another Taylor Swift CD because you scratched yours. If you should decide to make a backup copy, that’s legal. But I didn’t endure the entirety of the 90’s with the FBI threatening me every five minutes every single time I watched a DVD or VHS tapes just so you could claim that companies shouldn’t sell media the way they have always sold media. The medium is different and therefore they can retroactively go in and take it back but the terms are basically the same.

Stream a movie to a crowd without the proper licensing and see if the media company who owns it or the FBI get to you first.

If your country doesn’t have an FBI it likely has an agency that handles this similarly and I’m happy to Google that agency and the terms under which they would seek any kind of arbitration or damages.

atrielienz,

youtu.be/OzLmkAEpV2s?si=KkpWRirLgV6GOOyR

ILikeBoobies,

They always can; when they aren’t able to distribute anymore then they can’t distribute it

FattestMattest,

They really shouldn’t be allowed to “sell” it but the same thing would happen if you bought something on Apple that Apple loses the rights to.

atrielienz,

It is not their fault you don’t understand fundamentally what you are purchasing. When you buy media (digital or physical) you are purchasing a license to enjoy that media indefinitely. However that license has limitations. For the consumer or the company selling the license. The company that actually owns the media is the one at fault. But everyone is mad at Amazon (or Apple, or Microsoft, or Google), instead of record labels or movie studios. The only reason a movie company won’t come into your home and take back that copy of Shrek you bought from Tower Records back in the day is because it’s cost prohibitive. They can legally do so though.

youtu.be/OzLmkAEpV2s?si=KkpWRirLgV6GOOyR

hihellobyeoh,

Amazon has made I harder and harder to download the raw audio files of music purchases, at this point I have to download it on my PC only to get the files on my disk, if I have a phone they have even managed to identify when you are using desktop mode on your browser and still tells you to download Amazon music.

jayrodtheoldbod,

Every day on the internet, a lucky 10,000 get to learn “common knowledge” for the very first time.

Like everyone said 50 times, yar har be pirate, all that.

Or, buy hard copy, which is refusing to completely die because of this shit, right here.

BUT, you have to make sure the data is on the hard copy and that you can access the data (play the songs, watch the movie, etc) WITHOUT internet access, that is you have to make sure the hard copy of the media is really on the damn disc, and it’s not just a glorified access key to media that will then be streamed from their servers they control. If it is then do not pay for it.

This is honestly why vinyl is still a thing, once you rip things back out of the digital realm it gets a lot harder for them to pull bullshit, they pretty much have to put the songs on the wax if they want your $40, and they do, oh boy they do they want that money bad.

Piracy is always a bigger pain in the ass than internet techies act like. No, I don’t want to buy a Plex server and learn how to use it and learn how to make my own VPN and make sure the VPN doesn’t just report my activity to 7 Eyes or whatever that things called and and and and, and results like “my movie got unbought” are also unacceptable.

Yes, we know, there are “special” websites that you can just surf to and it’s like a janky Netflix that “just works” so long as you already know the name of the thing you intend to watch, otherwise it’s just a blank search bar. Also, you cannot tell other people about the website or the website gets taken down. Nothing is more useful than a website that you absolutely can’t tell people about, wow, what a problem solver that is.

“I want to watch a movie” is a very “This activity must offer zero friction, I will only accept push button get movie” kind of activity so, yeah. “Be pirate” is not that useful, it’s just the internet’s go-to answer, they always speak loudly for the tiny minority in this place.

What we’re actually doing is drastically limiting our spending on any of this type of thing, and never, ever pay money to “own” something digital. That era is over. It sucks, but it’s yet another shitty thing that would take bullets to change, and since it’s not worth bullets it’s not changing.

Honestly I doesn’t even take bullets but if you’re going to build the kind of political movement it would take to create change then all that work would be absolutely wasted on this problem while everyone eyerolls at you like you’re stupid and worthless for caring so yeah, it’s not changing.

So yeah, do not pay for digital ownership of any kind, ever. It’s only ever a lease with one-sided terms, at best. Amazon lost the contractual right to provide that movie, so you lost the right to watch it, and “buying” it meant buying a license to watch it on their terms, the end. Don’t pay for it.

bjfar,

I mean yeah you’re not wrong, but physical media doesn’t last forever either. Vinyl is pretty good, but pretty much every form of digital storage will slowly waste away without some dedicated upkeep effort. Unless you’re really willing to put in some serious effort maintaining a personal digital archive it kind of is just better to treat everything as a lease.

The only thing that really worries me are stuff like family photos and videos, and other important digital documents. Yeah I can print some of them, and I should do that more, but on the other hand they’re probably safer from destruction with Google than they are in my house. Both would be best though.

gigachad,

You asked for it

InternetUser2012,

You’re really over complicating the whole piracy thing. There’s websites easier to navigate than netflix to stream anything you want, often with better resolution. It takes about twenty minutes of research to find a VPN that would meet your needs. I would recommend anyone on the internet to use one for everything anyways.

EuroNutellaMan, (edited )
@EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world avatar
  1. put uBlock origin on firefox or your preferred browser (optional but takes you 2 minutes and will make your experience way better)
  2. install qBittorrent
  3. use a good P2P VPN like ProtonVPN (optional, costs money)
  4. go to 1337x.to or TPB
  5. search for your movie or series
  6. get the magnet link (on 1337x click the torrents thing then the last, green, button) and open it on qBittorrent
  7. wait for it to finish downloading
  8. stay seeding at least until you get a >=2 share ratio or for some time (optional but very appreciated)

That’s it, that’s all you need to pirate a movie or a series, it’s so easy a moron could do it blindfolded while juggling balls on one hand and giving a foot job to George W Bush

dutchkimble,

Do sonarr radarr lidarr with usenet, stick it into plex, never ending profit

EurekaStockade,

If (the royal) you can’t figure out Plex et al, then you pay the normie tax and deal with the corporations dictating your media consumption, and pay them out the ass for the privilege.

No such thing as having your cake and eating it too, but if you learn how to bake then you can eat all the cake you want.

nbafantest,

Pirating is really quite easy these days. With docker containers its literally just running a script or commandline and it does everything for you.

The hardest part about plex, for instance, is actually having a computer to run it.

I would say the second hardest part is actually just going to pirate bay and copying the torrent links to your torrent provider.

PixxlMan, (edited )

You expect them to keep playing you videos they can no longer legally license to you? I’m not saying that the state of things where this can happen are fine though.

gun,
@gun@lemmy.ml avatar

No, I think they expected that if they bought an item, they own it now, and none of this “legal license” mumbo jumbo would be relevant

histic,

maybe you should read the TOS then

TranscendentalEmpire,

TOS agreements aren’t to protect the consumer, they exist to protect the service provider and can be changed by the service provider at any point.

gun,
@gun@lemmy.ml avatar

Yeah, because I’m sure every consumer will read section 4-i of the Amazon prime video terms of service

TranscendentalEmpire,

Well what do you expect when services market themselves and charge people like they’re selling them a product?

This is an intentional ploy for service providers to suggest to their customers that they are purchasing a product, not access to a product.

Imo service providers have way too much leeway with how the operate and present their services. They want the mode of profit of the production industry without all the regulation.

tinkeringidiot,

Oh, are we acting surprised because we forgot all the people that got screwed exactly like this on Kindle books in 2009?

Welcome to digital media. If you can’t play it without some company’s say do, you don’t own it.

chemicalwonka, (edited )
@chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Richard Stallman already talked about this Here is the article: stallman.org/amazon.html

lucullus,

Wait, since when do they give a “refund” for content that is no longer available? A while ago I bought the first season of Fringe (knowing that I don’t actually own it), but I got nothing, when it was pulled. Do I need to ask explicitly for that gift card?

hitmyspot,

Looks like it’s a UK user. So likely due to consumer protections there. I’m guessing you are American where there are less?

lucullus,

No, I’m german, so similar levels of consumer protection. Not that I’ve looked for a refund. I just never thought of it as possible. Maybe I should look into it the next time

Stuka,

Fringe was a top priority for me to have an owned copy. Over the years it has gotten passed around so many services, and at times was completely unavailable to stream (afaik). Can’t stand that shit.

hitmyspot,

Or this time…

UnD3Rgr0uNDCL0wN,

Get this stuff on actual DVD or bluray. Put it all in archival boxes if you dont have the space.

Ooorrrrrr you can play the video, and split the HDMI with a decoder box and record with something like a haupage recorder (records to usb flash) https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/c9eba586-0f63-4225-a775-ea43715e0db4.jpeghttps://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/fcdf03f6-182a-4f5f-b64d-d843e62c1178.pnghttps://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/ef26504f-c9b6-422e-b13b-95a3aad2be47.jpeg

MaxVoltage,

post this on piracy bro they can get it to the front page

UnD3Rgr0uNDCL0wN,

I would presume they know.

Psychodelic,

I assumed you could use a capture card to record your video. Does this work similarly?

UnD3Rgr0uNDCL0wN,

should do. Just need to strip out the HDCP.

thejodie,

Or just use PlayOn to record your shows.

We’re all the way back to recording movies from TV with our VCR.

Honytawk,

But … but why?

Just get a 8-16 TB hard drive and download thousands of movies on it?

Why use some old physical media that can get scratched and takes up loads of space?

UnD3Rgr0uNDCL0wN,

Its archived. Hence the archival box…

judas,

Blu-ray FTW

TWeaK,

Yarr, there be better answers.

Honytawk,

You mean digital media for the win? Where it is stored doesn’t matter, really.

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

blu-rays are often as cheap or cheaper than “digital copies”, and ripping them to my NAS is pretty trivial these days thanks to makemkv.

the best part is, uncle jeff cannot legally break into your house and take back the disc just because of some petty rights issue.

PrawoJazdy,

I recently bought a 4k Blu-ray player. My brother asked me if I also bought a fax machine because streaming is “where it’s at” . Nah My 4k player cleans up DVDs really nice where streaming has artifacts and banding. Not only is it true ownership but a better quality.

beefcat,
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

4k streaming is also way lower quality than a 4k blu-ray

stonedemoman,

That is misinformation. The quality disparity you’re both pointing out is from streaming services compressing their media to much lower bitrates to ease bandwidth stress on their servers/clients and has nothing to do with a physical or digital medium.

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

lower bitrate == lower quality when using the same compression algorithms.

most streaming services are using h.265, same as 4k blu ray, but at substantially lower bitrates

streaming dolby vision profiles are also gimped considerably compared to blu-ray dolby vision

stonedemoman,

Doubling down on the misinformation, I see. H.265 is a high-efficiency codec, or in other words a better compression standard. Not a static compression level. This is why when you convert media there’s an input for quality, even when using HEVC. And you can absolutely stream the same Dolby Vision profile as a Blu-ray with single track double layer.

You’re still conflating digital medium with streaming services.

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

i am more than well aware of all of this. nothing i said is misinformation. same algorithm, different settings. the primary means by which you reduce bitrate with h.265 is by reducing the quality setting. there is no magical way to cut your bitrate by 75% using the same compression algorithm without sacrificing quality. no commercial streaming service is offering video at the same quality level as a 4k blu-ray.

few streaming boxes even support dolby vision profile 7, and no commercial streaming service offers it. so saying you can get it through a streaming service is actual misinformation.

i have literally been doing this shit for 20 years

stonedemoman, (edited )

i am more than well aware of all of this. nothing i said is misinformation

Your entire presupposition that Blu-ray quality is better than streaming quality by default is misinformation, and I’ve already explained why.

no commercial streaming service is offering video at the same quality level as a 4k blu-ray.

What does that have to do with digital media?

This is also demonstrably untrue if you take 5 seconds to research self-hosted streaming services.

few streaming boxes even support dolby vision profile 7, and no commercial streaming service offers it

Plex on Nvidia Shield. EZPZ.

there is no magical way to cut your bitrate by 75% using the same compression algorithm without sacrificing quality

I never said anything in contradiction to this. I don’t know who you’re shadow-boxing.

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

OK i see the problem. you’re hung up on the fact that i said “streaming” without specifying commercial streaming services.

however, my context should have been made clear by the fact that i was talking about ripping blu-rays to my fucking NAS, where they get streamed from.

i’m saying “you don’t get the same quality from streaming services as a blu ray”. does that make you happier?

stonedemoman, (edited )

i’m saying “you don’t get the same quality from streaming services as a blu ray”. does that make you happier?

Yup, words matter. I’m not saying this to be snarky or pedantic, I just don’t want anyone to think that they’re getting something inherently inferior if they want to go digital.

however, my context should have been made clear by the fact that i was talking about ripping blu-rays to my fucking NAS, where they get streamed from

It’s also really ironic you’d say this, because I’ve seen you completely ignore the original context in my thread on another post and could provide it as an example.

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

scroll up. my very first comment, which is the top level comment in this thread, makes it pretty damn clear.

read the whole context before you go off half-cocked and accuse people of spreading misinformation when they aren’t.

stonedemoman, (edited )

I’ll do whatever the fuck I want. Thanks.

Start choosing your words more carefully and it wouldn’t be an issue. Your original comment says nothing about streaming and your follow up comment doesn’t clarify anything:

blu-rays are often as cheap or cheaper than “digital copies”, and ripping them to my NAS is pretty trivial these days thanks to makemkv. the best part is, uncle jeff cannot legally break into your house and take back the disc just because of some petty rights issue.

4k streaming is also way lower quality than a 4k blu-ray

I know how a NAS works, but other people might not or possibly even mistake you to mean you transfer media to another machine for viewing. Additionally, I didn’t have any evidence to speculate that you knew there was a tangential reason for the quality disparity despite your comment being easily misconstrued.

My very first comment in this thread laid out the correct details you missed and you still debated it as if I said something incorrect. So much for 20 years of experience.

Some people…

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

let’s think for 5 minutes here.

I know how a NAS works, but other people might not or possibly even mistake you to mean you transfer media to another machine for viewing.

I meant what I said. If you interpreted this incorrectly, that is your problem. stop trying to pretend someone else doesn’t know what a NAS is, they are perfectly capable of looking up words they don’t mean. me using a word someone else does not know is not misinformation on my part, it is ignorance on theirs.

learn to comprehend the whole conversation, don’t reply to individual comments like they exist in a vacuum. language doesn’t work if you interpret everything hyper-literally. do you fall apart when people use euphemisms or turns of phrase? because those are far more vague than anything i said.

maybe most importantly though, don’t be an absolute dick to people when you ask for clarification.

stonedemoman, (edited )

learn to comprehend the whole conversation, don’t reply to individual comments like they exist in a vacuum

Again, would you like me to show you exactly where you’re guilty of this in another thread?

The fact you keep repeating this is hilarious, as is your attitude that you’re so infallible that there’s never any need to correct anything you say.

Your argument falls apart when you look at how you misinterpreted my first reply, too. It happens. If your ego is so hurt that somebody can’t clarify something you said without you launching into a full-blown narcissistic meltdown, that’s not my problem. Especially when it’s misleading at best or unfathomably misconceived at worst.

I’m done coddling your arrogant assertion that I need your permission for elucidating truth and your deeply neurotic misconception that people can’t be mislead to form the wrong conclusions no matter the context, as you’ve literally done yourself twice now.

bortbits, (edited )

So you might not know this, but some Lemmy interfaces let everyone see the names of all the accounts that that upvote any given comment.

Now maybe it's a coincidence, but I think [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected] might be the same person. I could be wrong though, and this could just be a massive coincidence.

I get it though, egos need protecting.

stonedemoman, (edited )

A supporter of misinformation. I see. Not a good look.

Two brand new accounts with no previous activity upvoting him/downvoting me and he wants to pretend he hasn’t been alt voting me this entire time lmao

I genuinely meet a good number of pricks, but I don’t meet a lot of genuine pricks.

beefcat, (edited )
@beefcat@lemmy.world avatar

wait a sec, are you using a bunch of alt accounts with the exact same username from various lemmy instances to upvote your own comments?

stonedemoman, (edited )

It’s pretty easy to just edit a comment to better reflect what you actually meant, you know?

roboticide,

I just bought a big ass TV, and I’ve just started buying discs for movies I truly want to own for a few reasons.

  1. You own it, period.
  2. Even if you trust Amazon, do you trust your ISP to stream 4K reliably on demand? I don’t. Fuck Comcast.
  3. A physical collection just kind of looks nice, especially if you fork out for Steelbooks and only buy your favorites. Steelbooks on eBay are like ~$30.
PoolloverNathan,

Hey! Don’t point that out or they’ll add it to the TOS!

LavaPlanet,

Google is just as bad, trying to do the right thing and support the movies we love, and now Google has locked all my movies so only I can watch them. I can still load them on the telly in the lounge, but I specifically bought them to be shared amongst my kids, who now can’t see them. They make it impossible to follow their rules. It’s become impossible to buy digital. I’m tempted to go apple and try Apple store, for all my purchases. I just want it all in one place and to actually own what I purchase. They’re talking out both sides of their mouth. On one hand they lambast you for taking a copy of something, but if you buy a copy they can take it away at any time and you don’t own it. There is no contract where money is traded for a product.

EuroNutellaMan,
@EuroNutellaMan@lemmy.world avatar

I’m tempted to go apple and try Apple store, for all my purchases. I just want it all in one place and to actually own what I purchase

Dude just pirate it. Apple will pull the same shit on top of costing you even more.

LavaPlanet,

True. Backed us into a corner of no escape.

Trainguyrom,

If you want to obtain the video content legally, go bargain bin hunting for DVDs and VHS tapes. If you want it illegally there’s a ton of actual children’s programming that’s officially posted to YouTube now, yt-dlp to download a copy. I did that in preparation for a multi-day car trip and on nights where the hotel WiFi won’t play ball and I just need to zombify the kids for a bit, I have a small selection of shows they can watch.

LavaPlanet,

Oh man, ta!! You’re the best! I really need to brush up on my sailing skills. I’ve let them rust.

Lordgeoffery,
@Lordgeoffery@lemmy.world avatar

Remember Google stadia? 😂

LavaPlanet,

I don’t! I don’t know if I hadn’t heard of it, or just considered it utterly unworthy of committing to memory, either could be true.

mvilain,

It’s been well documented that Amazon does this with eBooks all the time. A publisher pulled a copy of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE from Amazon over a contract dispute in the earlier days of the Kindle. So Amazon reached out and delete that copy from all Amazon customers who bought it through the Amazon Store.

Students who were annotating it for class lost all their notes. Amazon refunded the cost of the eBook. But those notes are toast.

It’s what prompts me to copy non-DRM’ed files to my Kindle and read them without Amazon having a record of purchase. It won’t stop them from logging in remotely and wiping the device, but I have backups and programs to convert them to non-Kindle format for another eReader.

spikederailed,

I only have a handful of books through them, but it might be time to get those locally.

parsiuk,

You know where Amazon (and any other company for that matter) can’t pull content from? My Jellyfin instance. Yo-ho-ho!

UnderpantsWeevil,
@UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world avatar

True. But your jellyfish instance only really works for you and a few trusted friends/neighbors. I would still like a comprehensive library that I can browse and select from at a moment’s notice.

The infuriating nature of Amazon / Hollywood / IP law / etc, is that these two combined goals are inimicable to the profit motive. I can’t have access to a big public library of continent, because that means someone else won’t be able to collect the real-time maximal market-rate from me to access it.

Shit happens. Tech breaks. You forget where you leave things. People outside your social circle (people you’ll never know existed) will want access to that same media at some future date. And Jellyfin doesn’t get them that.

pandacoder,

Skull joke? 😂

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