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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Bragging about being a petty thief (basically). I guess I am not as cool as the kids these days.
if your researching "cutting the cord"....
- Thread starter kikdakan
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
I think I understand. Cable/satellite costs too much, and nobody needs it. But then it is ok to "share" passwords to access the same channels for less. Is that about right?
Right. After being gouged for years, I'm good with cheating the system a bit.
Where did I say it was cool?
I don't watch cable other than the occasional ballgame, so it doesn't make financial sense to pay $100+/month for cable if the networks are going to offer an online streaming option. Last I checked it is not illegal to share passwords. How is it any different than if I buy a book or DVD and then lend it to a friend, in exchange for a book/DVD that he bought?
I hate to derail your wonderful line of discussion about petty crime, but check this out:
WHAT IF I TOLD YOU...there is a thing called "concurrent user limitation" and that it not only stops an infinite number of people from sharing an account, but the TV/ISPs and streaming services have it. Which means not only are they aware this happens, they set their own limit on how many users they allow to share an account...
WHAT IF I TOLD YOU...there is a thing called "concurrent user limitation" and that it not only stops an infinite number of people from sharing an account, but the TV/ISPs and streaming services have it. Which means not only are they aware this happens, they set their own limit on how many users they allow to share an account...
Petty theft? Seriously.. Do you work for a cable company or what? I've never seen someone defend the cable companies so vehemently. I don't have strong feelings either way. I am perfectly fine paying them when there is something I want to watch on tv (football season). When there's nothing on that I want to watch (summer) I suspend my account because keeping it would be the same as tossing money in the toilet.
If the cable companies would allow me to pick only the channels I actually watch, or if the sports networks would allow to purchase access to them directly (like HBO does), I'd gladly pay a fair price for that (as I do now with Netflix). Forcing me to pay a lot of money for something I don't use is more unethical to me than sharing a password.
Again, how is sharing a Netflix subscription any different than if I buy a magazine subscription and then share the magazine with a friend after I'm done reading it?
Let me put it to you this way: If I go to Kuma's for a burger, they serve me a massive freaking burger piled with ingredients and a huge side of fries. I probably could eat all that, but it's far too much food. If I instead split that burger with my wife, is that gonna be ok, or should the waitress call the cops?
HOW DARE YOU!!! And I swear to God you better not be inviting friends over to watch the game on Saturdays, you tell those freeloading thieves to go watch alone on their own TV with their own paid service!
Is stealing services generational or culturally widespread now? It used to be the former, but I think it's probably the latter now. Full disclosure: I'm a journalist, and while it was a stupid decision 15-20 years ago for news organizations to make their content free online, it's now very important that all who read our work pay for that service or the service won't exist. So I'm biased that way.
Let's take a look at the flip side of this coin and how nobody feels bad for cable companies. Remember back in the 80s when cable first became common? And you needed a set-top box to hook the newfangled cable into your old antenna tv?
Then along came "cable-ready television." You plugged the line into the back of the set, boom, good to go. No box. Potential to save a lot of money on those boxes if you had a bunch of TVs in your house.
What did some genius at the cable company figure out? That they could encrypt their signal further and make it so that ONLY their box would decrypt it and carry their signal. Rendering your "cable-ready" tv again useless, and requiring you to either rent or buy a box for every set you want active. DTV charges me a $25 per month fee for my receiver, on top of all the other fees they already charge. Imagine the fun I could have if I wanted to activate 4 or 5 rooms.
But yeah, I feel terrible for them that a few people share passwords. They must be starving in the streets.
Then along came "cable-ready television." You plugged the line into the back of the set, boom, good to go. No box. Potential to save a lot of money on those boxes if you had a bunch of TVs in your house.
What did some genius at the cable company figure out? That they could encrypt their signal further and make it so that ONLY their box would decrypt it and carry their signal. Rendering your "cable-ready" tv again useless, and requiring you to either rent or buy a box for every set you want active. DTV charges me a $25 per month fee for my receiver, on top of all the other fees they already charge. Imagine the fun I could have if I wanted to activate 4 or 5 rooms.
But yeah, I feel terrible for them that a few people share passwords. They must be starving in the streets.
My personal experience... With the way corporate America has fleeced the citizens of this country since basically the 80's in every imaginable way possible, for a few extra points on a stock price to make a few elite shareholders richer, I will gladly share every password and take advantage of every loophole possible and not even feel the least bit of guilt doing so. I live stream ppv's for free, watch sports streaming and at worse experience a few seconds (maybe upwards to 30 seconds to a minute at worse). I only have an antenna, and have no problem watching those channels whenever sporting events I don't want to watch are on. In fact, in my view, the cable company is a dinosaur, and soon its time (in its current setup anyways) will be over. But I'm sure they'll find another way to screw the mid class out of their hard earned money... But the great thing is, there will always be another "free" way invented by people who don't want to give their money to the elites of this country. And I'll be right on board that train too as soon as its on the tracks.
I just hope you distinguish between the corporate media giants and nonprofit news organizations like mine that rely on the public's honesty. It's sounds as if you do. Of course, it's up to me to make sure the content is worth paying for. I get that.
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
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I like what LJS does where I do the little survey to read the article. Dunno how that's working out for them financially, but I like it as a trade-off.
Print media will need to make its money from ads most likely.
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Is it written and understood that only you can eat the burger?
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
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Where did I defend cable companies? I just think the whole password sharing stuff is childish and lane. Nothing more
If you guys only knew what was going on in the alternate IPTV space, you would see how disruptive the tv changes are becoming.. it blows my mind, not only how much content is out there, but also how many "channels" are being created for consumption. It really is like the wild west and lots of jostling for position going on.
Another angle that wasn't expected, is globalization of that content. No longer is the USA the only source for content. There are many free sources of content from all over the world. In addition to that, many "USA shows" are being farmed out to other countries to save on costs. Not only is the old cable model going to die, but so is the old model of content creation.
There are people that have semi-successful youtube shows, that now have their own IPTV channels. Of course, you aren't going to see that with your 'corporate' amazon or apple box.
The internet is going to do to the Video Media industry what it did to the Music industry.
Also, the argument about stealing from the cable company is not at all true. When cable first came out, the promise was no commercials for pay tv. That sure didn't last long. They have been stealing from the consumer for years.
Did you watch the Mayweather fight? How did it feel to basically be the only country where you had to pay to watch it? Yes, it was free to watch in most of the rest of the world.
Things are going to be radically different in just a few short years.
Furthermore, I doubt Nebraska ever sees that money they are expecting from the B1G as a result. That whole BTN thing is built on the old model, and that's going bye bye.
Another angle that wasn't expected, is globalization of that content. No longer is the USA the only source for content. There are many free sources of content from all over the world. In addition to that, many "USA shows" are being farmed out to other countries to save on costs. Not only is the old cable model going to die, but so is the old model of content creation.
There are people that have semi-successful youtube shows, that now have their own IPTV channels. Of course, you aren't going to see that with your 'corporate' amazon or apple box.
The internet is going to do to the Video Media industry what it did to the Music industry.
Also, the argument about stealing from the cable company is not at all true. When cable first came out, the promise was no commercials for pay tv. That sure didn't last long. They have been stealing from the consumer for years.
Did you watch the Mayweather fight? How did it feel to basically be the only country where you had to pay to watch it? Yes, it was free to watch in most of the rest of the world.
Things are going to be radically different in just a few short years.
Furthermore, I doubt Nebraska ever sees that money they are expecting from the B1G as a result. That whole BTN thing is built on the old model, and that's going bye bye.
There are a lot of news projects — ProPublica is an example — that rely not on advertising revenues but on somewhere between one and thousands of private funders. Most of us do investigative and explanatory journalism, but not all.
Specifically what is the problem with allowing somebody else to use a license you pay for while you are not using it? How is that any different than if you borrowed my car?
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
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I asked if you guys felt the need to stick it to the providers. Pretty simple question that Beav finally answered after the freak outs. I can get with that. Its just not for me. But you are also talking to a lameass that has never downloaded a single song for free. Why? Not sure, but I always thought mp3 sounded like ass.
The free market works. People will gladly pay a fair price for something quality in return. Netflix continues to put out great original programming, commercial-free, for a fair price - and they continue to own the cable companies and networks. My brother gave me his Netflix password a couple years ago, and I was impressed, so I then bought my own subscription the next month. People will support quality work and service.
Just like people got tired of paying $15 for an album with 1 or 2 good songs, they are now tired of paying $100+/month for 1 or 2 good TV channels. I don't want to pay for the Oprah Network just so I can watch the Huskers once a week.
Just like people got tired of paying $15 for an album with 1 or 2 good songs, they are now tired of paying $100+/month for 1 or 2 good TV channels. I don't want to pay for the Oprah Network just so I can watch the Huskers once a week.
Vinyl is making a huge comeback.. not only for quality reasons, but also for copy protection.
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
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Why you hating on the Oprah network? YOU MUST BE RACIST!!! (I figured I would join in on the extremeness that this thread has turned into)
My friend pays for Netflix and I pay for HBOGo. It's better than both of us paying for the exact same thing. Plus I love the adrenaline rush it provides.
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Is it understood that I could turn around and lend your car out whenever I wanted, and return it with an empty tank every time? I could get with that, and not feel guilty because you deserve it... right?
You guys/girls are all a bunch of movie pirating, torrent using, password sharing free loaders!!!! Uncle Sam's giant hat is flattening and Bald Eagles are falling from the skies as this thread progresses. 
I'm not sure you've followed what I've said about concurrent user limits above. That's not how it works.
This I am totally for. If you put out a quality product, at a reasonable price, with no bs on the side... I'll pay. In fact, if its local, I'd probably be more inclined to pay for it. The key words in all of this though is "reasonable price". The kicker is everyone has a different thought on what reasonable is, and I can only go on what I feel reasonable is.
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
Guest
Sorry. It's difficult to read when I am stuffing so much Taco Bell in my mouth endlessly.
Final straw for me with Directv, after allowing then to kick me square in the nuts for far too long, was when I went to unhook them.
They made me ship back all their 7 year old equipment, on my own dime. Which I thought was BS but whatever.
They then proceeded to tell me that they would inspect the equipment when it arrived and if they determined that it was damaged I could be liable for huge amounts -- for damaged 7 year old technology and they would bill my credit card for anything they determined wasn't working properly.
Yeah, I don't think so.
I sent them back all their old equipment and even paid for that. While it was on the way, I "lost" the credit card they had on file and visa sent me a new card. Screw that. Let them send me a bill trying to extract more money from me for the fully functional dinosaur equipment I shipped back to them. Haven't seen it yet...........
They made me ship back all their 7 year old equipment, on my own dime. Which I thought was BS but whatever.
They then proceeded to tell me that they would inspect the equipment when it arrived and if they determined that it was damaged I could be liable for huge amounts -- for damaged 7 year old technology and they would bill my credit card for anything they determined wasn't working properly.
Yeah, I don't think so.
I sent them back all their old equipment and even paid for that. While it was on the way, I "lost" the credit card they had on file and visa sent me a new card. Screw that. Let them send me a bill trying to extract more money from me for the fully functional dinosaur equipment I shipped back to them. Haven't seen it yet...........
Both sides of the argument fall under that old adage of: "You can shear a sheep all its life, but you can only skin it once."
We were all happy to be shorn once upon a time, but they switched from the clippers to the knife.
BTW, cable companies are well aware of who is pirating content and they let it continue, because most of them are also ISPs. They know what you're doing on their bandwidth, they know all the filthy stuff you watch when your wife isn't home and they have a log of everywhere you've been online. They'd lock torrenters out if they cared that much about stopping piracy. But in truth, they'd rather have your subscriber fee.
What they WILL get you for is if you're uploading and distributing content. Those are the bigger fish, and they don't want the media company to try to nail them in a lawsuit for turning a blind eye to the distributors.
We were all happy to be shorn once upon a time, but they switched from the clippers to the knife.
BTW, cable companies are well aware of who is pirating content and they let it continue, because most of them are also ISPs. They know what you're doing on their bandwidth, they know all the filthy stuff you watch when your wife isn't home and they have a log of everywhere you've been online. They'd lock torrenters out if they cared that much about stopping piracy. But in truth, they'd rather have your subscriber fee.
What they WILL get you for is if you're uploading and distributing content. Those are the bigger fish, and they don't want the media company to try to nail them in a lawsuit for turning a blind eye to the distributors.
Cut the cord if it makes you feel better. Like Jeten mentioned most cord cutters I know blow far more than I do on my dish bill every month. Such as my smoker brother in law who also drinks. And my sister and brother in law.
Lastly I dont think I know any cord cutter who gets by without mooching passwords for ESPN, HBO Go etc apps off of paying family or friends and never paying them anything.
For those that truly dont need it? Great. Just stay off your damn soap box. I think thats what annoys people more than anything.
Lastly I dont think I know any cord cutter who gets by without mooching passwords for ESPN, HBO Go etc apps off of paying family or friends and never paying them anything.
For those that truly dont need it? Great. Just stay off your damn soap box. I think thats what annoys people more than anything.
