
'Netflix for piracy' Popcorn Time saved by fans - yitchelle
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25949340
======
corin_
> _Mark Mulligan, an analyst and co-founder of Midia Consulting, said this
> should give content creators great cause of concern._

> _" The next stage of piracy, and one rights holders need to be really
> worried about, is when the pirates start behaving like the rest of the
> internet and start making great user experiences."_

Couldn't really disagree more, for a long time the user experience has been
one of piracy's biggest selling points, second to (or possibly even above)
affordability.

~~~
caractacus
A few years ago, the piracy user experience was far and away better than the
legitimate user experience. Things then started to change: Netflix, Spotify,
BBC iPlayer, etc etc. The legit services are - with three exceptions - now in
most cases better and easier and smoother than the piracy alternative. But the
three exceptions can be fairly major:

1\. Price (well, duh). Netflix is cheap imo, Spotify is cheap, but piracy is
still free.

2\. Spread of content. Less an issue with Spotify which has just about
EVERYTHING but more so with video services. Piracy has any movie, any TV show.
Netflix (and other services) only have those they've signed up.

3\. Availability. Netflix is great in the US, okay in the UK, tolerable in
other places. HBO Go is only available in a few countries. BBC iPlayer only in
the UK. It's patchy.

But: the signs are there than when content owners and distributions services
can get their act together, legitimate distribution is a _better_ user
experience than piracy. That's only been the case for the last year, eighteen
months. Mulligan appears to be casting aside many years of history when piracy
was the only game in town. Popcorn Time has a great UI and is simple to use,
but it's now playing catch-up with paid services when for a decade or more,
piracy was streets ahead in ability and usability.

~~~
RyanZAG
The fact that I have to use the truly terrible Netflix player to watch Netflix
content is why I'd always choose a pirated .mkv version any day of the week.
In fact, I've sometimes bought games and movies and then later used the
pirated version because of how much better it is.

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Unosolo
The reasons why existing video services do not work for me and I've tried
Google Play and Amazon Instant so far:

\- Lack of on-demand high quality (true 1080) option: Google Play is 480 and
Amazon Instant is blurry on a big screen. Besides Amazon states in their TOC
that they can change quality as they see fit at the time of a video being
played.

\- Insistence on specific playback tech. Amazon Instant mandates Silverlight
and the playback is choppy on my media centre PC due to Silverlight's graphic
acceleration issues.

\- Lack of audio track (and often subtitle) options: in UK that's English
only. I want to be able to watch films dubbed and have a selection of
translations that are already available.

More generally I am opposed to the prepackaged nature of the paid service
offered and lack of control over how and what I can watch.

Some alternative ways of viewing the content offer me great choice and full
control over:

    
    
      1. Title I choose to watch.
      2. Video quality.
      3. Audio quality.
      4. Audio track. 
      5. Subtitles.
      6. Streaming vs. download, so I can make the best use of my connection.
      7. Hardware and software I am using for viewing.
      

In other words these matters are decided based on demand, instead of someone's
opinion of what the demand should be.

~~~
josefresco
If you're concerned with quality, why not "purchase" the movies in a
marketplace like iTunes or Google Play?

~~~
Unosolo
"Purchase" doesn't quite reflect modern TOC, I believe the more exact term
would be "pay a premium for a longer term license to view video content that
is revokable at vendor's will; neither continued availability nor immutability
of the initially licensed content is guaranteed".

I would really prefer to pay per view instead and retain a high degree of
control over my hardware and software configuration as well as having a
reasonable choice of options in terms of video quality, various subtitles and
audio tracks.

Ideally I'd be able to buy audio track or subtitles separately to combine with
the video content for viewing (plug-in), then there would be a robust market
of competing translations.

~~~
josefresco
That's why I put "purchase" in quotes... as it doesn't mean what most think it
means.

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aw3c2
'Netflix for piracy' Popcorn Time saved by being free software.

------
D9u
Screw Netflix!

$7.99 per month and they don't even have the last half of season 5 - Breaking
Bad.

Many movies are unavailable to US viewers, as services such as
[https://hola.org/](https://hola.org/) have shown us.

Large selection? It seems like every movie _I want to watch_ is "Unavailable
for streaming..." or is viewable for an additional $10 fee through their DVD
service.

I like Popcorn!

~~~
andyhmltn
Just VPN to the UK and you'll have the last half. Although I'm sure I read
about it coming to the US at some point this spring

~~~
probably_wrong
Or just pirate it - using a VPN is against Netflix' TOS, so since you'll be in
the wrong either way, there's no reason for doing it the expensive way.

I like what Netflix does, but as long as region locks exist (not Netflix'
fault, of course) there won't be a service that's both good and legal.

~~~
lttlrck
Or just buy it on DVD

------
maccard
My stance, as a Netflix and Spotify subscriber is: I'd be happy to pay double
what I'm paying right now if you would give me the content. If I had the
ability to get the US Netflix library selection(Ireland here) for 16 euro a
month I'd be delighted. Remember also, that we pay much more than you guys in
the states do. You pay 60 euro a year, whereas we pay 100, and you get more
content than we do. I don't get why they don't want my money.If I can't find
it on netflix/spotify I'll check iTunes, which is usually a dead end, and then
finally I'll pirate it. Why not let me pay 8 bucks a month for HBO access
aswell, I'd happily do it!

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gibbitz
feel the need to chime in here... The reason this is taking off is because the
content providers are signing sweetheart deals with the services. If I could
pay one source a manageable amount to stream whatever I wanted (even if I had
to pay per view), I would take it in a heartbeat (sorry Amazon Prime, you
don't have everything). But alas, capitalism fails us here and we're left as
consumers to break the law in order to get what we would pay for otherwise.
Seriously, People are not all going to get Cable TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime,
Red Box, Warner Brothers, and Hulu Plus in order to have access to 80% of
movies released before 1995. In the past we had video rental shops VCRs and
DVD players, they're all going or gone now. If the industry wants to stay
profitable, they need to either become more cost efficient (sorry Brad Pitt,
but you need to take a paycut with the rest of us) or provide us with an
easier means of accessing the content online. What's happening here is not too
different from the disruption caused by the original iPhone to the carrier
market. They're still reeling from it even though they should have expected
it. Let's see how long it takes content providers to figure out how to stay
relevant without additional government regulation.

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nnnnni
If Popcorn Time "went legitimate", how much per month do you think would be a
reasonable price?

I'd happily pay $30/month if it worked on my TV -- I'd just buy a digital
antenna for local OTA broadcasts.

Even $50/month wouldn't be too horrible. I believe that $30 is the "sweet
spot", though.

------
kenanc
Netflix in Denmark: Price "79 kr" (14.72 $) 1.700 movies

Netflix in America: Price (7.99 $) over 14.000 movies

Makes no sense

~~~
vvvVVVvvv
Netflix in Ireland (and Uk roughly the same price) : 6.99 € (or 7.99)

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mintone
I would suggest that this is by far the biggest possible advert that popcorn
time could want.

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contingencies
We've had streaming torrent players for a decade here in mainland China.

------
Gonzih
So when we will see new page for the project build by community?

~~~
jaydz
[http://popcorn.cdnjd.com](http://popcorn.cdnjd.com)

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k-mcgrady
I can see very little reason for people to use this other than they don't want
to pay money for movies.

Netflix is cheap, has a large selection, is available in several countries and
its geo-block is easy to bypass with a Chrome plugin meaning you can get full
selection from any country. There are also other streaming services in various
countries. Not to mention the large number of countries iTunes Movies are
available in. Obviously new releases can only be viewed in the cinema but if
you really want to see something that's not too big of an ask - or you can
wait a couple of months.

There are always people trying to justify piracy and although I disagree with
it I can see their frustration at times but movies are incredibly convenient
and cheap to access. Is there a 'valid' reason to use something like Popcorn
Time?

~~~
ceronman
Netflix is not so good. Specially if you're not in the US and you don't speak
english. Here in the Netherlands the selection is very limited, you rarely see
subtitles in languages other than dutch. You can use a proxy to get US
Netflix, but that's illegal and doesn't work with a smart TV.

The Popcorn Time or XBMCTorrent experience is so much better. You get a huge
selection of movies and series in high definition, with subtitles and audio in
any language at a distance of a click.

I would pay many times what Netflix charges for a legal service like this. So
would many other people.

~~~
spindritf
_You can use a proxy to get US Netflix, but that 's illegal and doesn't work
with a smart TV._

This is by no means a good solution, and perhaps still illegal, but it does
work. I used to do that for Pandora:

You can run a VPN client on your router connected to a server in the US and
add routes for Netflix to go through that connection. That way all devices on
your home network should be able to connect to Netflix.

Or some other geo-ip-restricted service. You just need to sniff out their IP
blocks.

You set it to reconnect automatically and it's not even that inconvenient.
Although you do have to pick networking up as a hobby.

