*What rights do you have to the digital movies, TV shows and music you buy online? That question was on the minds of Telstra TV Box Office customers this month after the company announced it would shut down the service in June. Customers were told that unless they moved over to another service, Fetch, they would no longer be able to access the films and TV shows they had bought. *

  • @Meuzzin@lemmy.world
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    1611 months ago

    *Arr Suite, QBT, and a Jellyfin Server. Done and done. There are scripts to set it all up in less than 30 seconds…

  • @GBU_28@lemm.ee
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    -711 months ago

    “I grew my garden on my neighbor’s lawn, and he mowed it over! I bought those plants!”

  • @Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzB
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    11 months ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    Git Popular version control system, primarily for code
    IP Internet Protocol
    NAS Network-Attached Storage
    NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
    Plex Brand of media server package
    SSD Solid State Drive mass storage
    VPS Virtual Private Server (opposed to shared hosting)

    [Thread #746 for this sub, first seen 14th May 2024, 01:15] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

  • @UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world
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    4611 months ago

    More and more it is becoming a good idea to store things on your own private equipment. If we don’t demand ownership of our own possessions we will soon own nothing

  • @designatedhacker@lemm.ee
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    1411 months ago

    They could offer a way to download a copy and steganographically tag it to hell with your id so that they know if you distribute it. You can “loan it out” by letting friends stream off your Plex or whatever. If you start selling that streaming service or it shows up in torrents, it has your ID on it.

    Boom, you own it forever and you’re incentivized not to over share.

    Or you know sell DRM free versions and let people do whatever, but that probably has a snowballs chance in hell.

    • @fitgse@sh.itjust.works
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      211 months ago

      I mean Amazon did this for their mp3s. It was literally just an id3 tag with a unique identifier. Not hard to remove but “good enough” to keep regular people from overly distributing it. You’ll never win against the real Pirate community no matter what you do, so just give people real incentive to buy and actually own.

    • @Olgratin_Magmatoe@lemmy.world
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      1111 months ago

      If somebody gets access to your system, they could use that to blackmail you, and/or frame you for distributing said media.

      “Give us $X, or we leak and distribute Y media on your behalf, and you will get sued by the corporate goons for shit loads of money”

      The only real solution is to completely overhaul IP law, and/or nationalizing funding for the arts. If we’re gonna keep corps that own/produce media, then they should have a very short and limited amount of time to distribute it before it becomes common property of the people.

    • Krafty Kactus
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      411 months ago

      Your first proposal still falls victim to the fact that screen recording exists.

      • @designatedhacker@lemm.ee
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        311 months ago

        The fingerprinting I’m talking about gets encoded in the screen recording too. Subtle pixel changes here or there over the entire length of the video. It’ll be lossy when it’s transcoded, but over the whole video it’s there enough times it won’t matter. Even scaling to lower quality won’t fix it and then it’ll also be lower quality.

        It’ll be like DRM, there will be people trying to remove it like anything else. They’ll break one thing and another will come along. There would still be a black market, but most people can get an unrestricted copy in exchange for money so there’s one less reason to pirate.

        Unless you’re actually pointing a camera at the screen, then OK, you do you.

          • lost_faith
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            11 months ago

            Oh, the memories… but we were paying a slight copyright fee on every blank disk and tape purchased in those days, regardless of use.

      • @_number8_@lemmy.world
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        411 months ago

        I literally watch TV through a capture card right now out of stubbornness and principle. Anything I want to record, I can just hit a button and safely keep. No DRM preventing me from taking screenshots, I can manipulate the picture to hide obnoxious graphics or ads (great for sports); the sense of control is extremely gratifying.

        • @ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 months ago

          I just bought a 4k 60hz loopthrough usb3 card so I can start saving the media I want from the services I still subscribe to. What software do you use for recording?

          • lost_faith
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            111 months ago

            I think I’ll try using OBS to capture a video tonight, granted its quality will be tied to the output but it requires no additional hardware. Then edit in DaVinci to get rid of the obvious mistakes i’ll make. I only have a 4070 ti super tho

  • @unreasonabro@lemmy.world
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    2411 months ago

    The idea that you could trust a corporation, any corporation, at its word is laughable on its face, and yet the courts have been relying on them to “follow the rules” unsupervised for years. Now capitalism doesn’t make anything that isn’t designed as a piece of shit that falls apart, and everything is a lie that they’re also making money from, from plastics recycling (not real and they make money on the chemicals they sell to the recycling industry) to the content you make that they get paid for and you don’t.

    The whole thing needs to go, all of it.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The idea that you could trust a corporation, any corporation, at its word is laughable on its face

      We’re surrounded by corporate entities all trying to leech profit out of us.

      It’s less a question of trust and more of information alternatives. When all you can hear is the din of advertisement, it’s difficult to chart a path through the racket.

      You’re bound to get suckered by someone, eventually.

    • @GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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      211 months ago

      Even if they were trustworthy, nothing lasts forever.

      Does anyone seriously think Google Play Movies or whatever they call it is going to be around in 50 years? Audible? Spotify?

      Unlikely.

      I grew up with access to books that were printed before my parents were even born. I doubt your grandkids will be able to say the same. Not if you buy into DRM-infected ecosystems and vendor lock-in, anyway.

      The only consolation is that pirates are always one step ahead. But I wouldn’t want to count on that remaining true in 50 years either.

  • ddh
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    16411 months ago

    Piracy is only illegal because we made it so. We can change that.

    • @lowleveldata@programming.dev
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      7011 months ago

      I think what we should do is to have better non-piracy ways of owning things instead of “making piracy legal” (what does that even mean?)

        • @Railcar8095@lemm.ee
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          1211 months ago

          want to see a world where content creators are simply paid by the hour, while they work.

          Do you? Because that’s how game developers get their ideas crushed in favor of yet another game as a service that nobody asked for but makes stock holders happy.

          And for alternative creators, who would pay? Do they need to be churning content as a job and not because they are inspired?

          I get the idea, it’s just that seems hard to pull off

        • @localme@lemm.ee
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          311 months ago

          Thanks for sharing! I wish they had the date of publishing listed for this article. I get the feeling it was written 15 years ago, well before streaming music services existed. Would love to see them update this based on the latest technologies and services.

          • NekuSoul
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            611 months ago

            Looking into the metadata of the included PDF version reveals that it’s from 2004, so even a bit older than that.

      • @ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works
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        4711 months ago

        I think the more nuanced take is that we should be making “piracy” legal by expanding and protecting fair use and rights to make personal copies. There are lots of things that are called piracy now that really shouldn’t be. Making “piracy” legal still leaves plenty of room for artists to get paid.

        • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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          711 months ago

          Most people would be fine with this in the case of a home user duplicating one or two copies for his kids to watch and as backups. But we have seen whenever a rule permits something, someone will work out the MAXIMUM way in which they can abuse it for profit. Give them an inch, and they take a mile.

          Ideally, we could have laws that are really finely built to be specific to that first scenario. But I honestly don’t know how you write those.

    • @gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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      1211 months ago

      How do you change that without completely stripping property rights away from artists though? Not just corporate IP, but all artists?

      • @grue@lemmy.world
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        1511 months ago

        That’s the neat part: you don’t have to, because copyright was never a property right to begin with.

        First, not only are ideas not property, they’re pretty much exactly the opposite of it. I’ll let Thomas Jefferson himself explain this one:

        It has been pretended by some (and in England especially) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions; & not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. but while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural, and even an hereditary right to inventions. it is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. by an universal law indeed, whatever, whether fixed or moveable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property, for the moment, of him who occupies it; but when he relinquishes the occupation the property goes with it. stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. it would be curious then if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. if nature has made any one thing less susceptible, than all others, of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an Idea; which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the reciever cannot dispossess himself of it. it’s peculiar character too is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. he who recieves an idea from me, recieves instruction himself, without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, recieves light without darkening me.

        Second, a copyright isn’t a right, either; it’s a privilege. Consider the Copyright Clause: it is one of the enumerated powers of Congress, giving Congress the authority to issue temporary monopolies to creators, for the sole and express purpose “to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” Note that that’s a power, not an obligation, and the purpose is not “because the creator is entitled to it” or anything similar to that.

        Besides, think of it this way: if copyright were actually a property right, the fact that it expires would be unconstitutional under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. But it does expire, so it clearly isn’t a property right.

      • @WamGams@lemmy.ca
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        2611 months ago

        Piracy doesn’t take money from artists, just ask Cory Doctorow, a person making their living as a writer while uploading the torrents of his novels himself.

        Corporate consolidation is what kills the artists. The studios make less movies per year, so the a list actors go to television and take the roles Rob Morrow used to get.

    • @jabjoe@feddit.uk
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      211 months ago

      Also depends on the country. It isn’t everywhere. Non-commercial file-sharing is legal in a number of European countries and I’m sure elsewhere.

      It could be taken as a sign of the health of the democracy’s function and technically literacy of the population. In a society of tech heads with a highly functional democracy, it would be DRM measures that would be illegal…

    • beefbot
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      1811 months ago

      I never DREAMED Amazon would take away my content I bought! Just because they erased the novel 1984 off of everyone’s Kindles a few years back doesn’t mean leopards would eat MY face.

  • @ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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    511 months ago

    That’s why I’m always interested in self-hosting. I have my own Plex and Jellyfin seedbox server for the private trackers I’m in, with a VPS hosting an OpenVPN to make it look like I’m in a different country, just to make it that much safer. It works damn well.

  • maegul (he/they)
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    1811 months ago

    There are obvious responses here along the lines of embracing piracy and (re-)embracing hard copy ownership.

    All that aside though, this feels like a fairly obvious point for legal intervention. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are already existing grounds for legal action, it’s just that the stakes are likely small enough and costs of legal action high enough to be prohibitive. Which is where the government should come in on the advice of a consumer body.

    Some reasonable things that could be done:

    • Money back requirements
    • Clear warnings to consumers about “ownership” being temporary
    • Requiring tracking statistics of how long “ownership” tends to be and that such is presented to consumers before they purchase
    • If there are structural issues that increase the chances of “withdrawn” ownership (such as complex distribution deals etc), a requirement to notify the consumer of this prior to purchase.

    These are basic things based on transparency that tend to already exist in consumer regulation (depending on your jurisdiction of course). Streaming companies will likely whinge (and probably have already to prevent any regulation around this), but that’s the point … to force them to clean up their act.

    As far as the relations between streaming services and the studios (or whoever owns the distribution rights), it makes perfect sense for all contracts to have embedded in them that any digital purchase must be respected for the life of the purchaser even if the item cannot be purchased any more. It’s not hard, it’s just the price of doing business.

    All of this is likely the result of the studios being the dicks they truly are and still being used to pushing everyone around (and of course the tech world being narcissistic liars).

    • icallthebigonebitey
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      1011 months ago

      Another thing to add - these services can’t use the word ‘buy’ because that implies ownership. They should be forced to use a word like ‘rent’.

      • experbia
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        11 months ago

        I always thought it should be “unlock”, because that’s more what is happening. you’re not buying it, renting has a connotation of a fixed term ownership time, but unlock describes the action… they’ve had the movie the whole time sitting there, probably in a CDN near your home already, but you’re not allowed to see it until you pony up. it’s locked away.

      • maegul (he/they)
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        111 months ago

        Oh for sure. All of this is clearly a situation where the law is slow to catch up.

  • KillingTimeItself
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    2511 months ago

    it feels good to host a media server.

    It’s also a fucking nightmare when shit explodes, but damn do i feel good in every other instance.

  • @_number8_@lemmy.world
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    4411 months ago

    i tried to get into streaming but i grew increasingly uncomfortable with paying forever as titles appear and disappear at the whim of suits. how could that possibly be a pleasant UX for customers?

    i’d take the hassle of having discs or managing a server any day of the week over paying these goons for access to their files which they happily negotiate away for financial reasons. it’s just a disgusting paradigm. when netflix was starting streaming, i thought (i was like 15) we were emerging into a great new age, where every show you could ever want was on one beautiful service.

    now they won’t even let you share accounts or screenshot the fucking show (a pig-headed anti-piracy measure which is mind-blowingly stupid given every single show on there is available for free if you know where to look ANYWAY. what are they DOING.)

    fuck streaming, fuck netflix, fuck spotify. crash and burn. topple like the house of cards you are.

    • @barsquid@lemmy.world
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      511 months ago

      Streaming was great when it was just Netflix and had a ton of content. Now it is just cable TV on demand.

    • @RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      111 months ago

      Streaming in general is great. Streaming services are a mixed bag of results, but overall our options are excellent at this point in time. You can have streaming services with no contract, pay for one month and abandon it if you don’t like it. There are also numerous FREE streaming services with lots of great content.

      It’s important to understand the above in the context of how it used to be before Streaming was an option. There was basically only the option to have a cable or satellite TV on contract, or use OTA antenna TV, or watch everything on disc / tape. So yeah I think streaming is great.

      Having said all that, I buy anything I want to keep perpetually on disc. 4k Blu-ray for movies and CDs for music (I bought 3 albums on CD over the last couple weeks). Games don’t fit on discs anymore so I try to get stuff on GOG when it works out.

    • @DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com
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      1711 months ago

      increasingly uncomfortable with paying forever

      And paying more and more as time goes on. The thing that shits me the most is the increased prices but decreased range/quality of content. That’s clearly not a business model aimed at customer satisfaction.

      • @whereisk@lemmy.world
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        911 months ago

        All business models are aimed at company profitability. Customer satisfaction is an expensive early necessity which you can largely do away with as you become entrenched.

    • Jeena
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      511 months ago

      I never watch the same movie/TV show more than once, so I don’t see a point in hording this data. So for me the UX of streaming is most of the time preferrable than having a physical media which I need to carry to the new appartment every time I move.

      This is different with music, where I listen to the same Albums hundrets of times. There I can deal with vinyl and many files on my computer.