Corporations: hey guys, let's unionize so the government doesn't exploit us.
Employees: hey, can we als...
Corporations: NO.
Collective action for we, not for thee.
Can't wait for this bullshit to get denied because writers/actors are already striking.
Well it's not employees want the corporations to have unionized, but they just have less power to do anything about it
I didn't say the employees wanted corporations to unionize or not. The joke was corporations interrupting employees asking if they can also unionize.
I didn't imply you wanted it
every pirate related theme song getting increasingly louder in the background
I just bought 16 TB to expand my media server :)
You must have a lot of Linux ISO backups. Doing your part to preserve open source software history.
I have a feeling part of their plan is to sink all the pirate ships.
Nintendo has been putting anti-piracy protection in all of their consoles since the NES in the 80's. Every single one was cracked eventually. Oh, but surely they must be getting better? Nope, the Switch was cracked less than a year from release.
And Nintendo controls the hardware in this situation. Streaming services do not.
Brace yourself for a tidal wave of corporate apologists rushing to point out that “revenue isn’t profit!,!”
The number you're looking for is $1.49 billion in net income for Q2 2023.
See? Clearly not profitable, need more ads
What's that? You want to share your four-screens-at-a-time account with three other people outside your house?
Fuck you, pay us more.
Profit is the portion of revenue that is stolen from workers and given to shareholders. Profit is bad. Revenue is good.
Unless you use that revenue to do stock buybacks, then it’s not considered profit but you still get to steal it from the workers. That way you can cry about unprofitability while all your shareholders and c suites crank up the exploitation of workers and consumers chasing “profitability” until the business collapses.
Which is crazy, right? If a stock sale allows an investment in a business, a stock buyback should be a paying off of that debt, freeing more revenue in the future to be used explicitly to pay workers who generate that revenue. How the fuck that is justified in instead enriching the value of other investments still held by other investors shows the selective use of the analogy by corporate interests and that the whole house of cards is just bullshit.
For the most part, it's not given to the shareholders, either. Dividends are pretty rare these days (which is when stocks largely went from being an ownership investment to - mostly - a form of gambling)
Anybody can look these numbers up. I'm not sitting on some secret Bloomberg terminal LOL
Then why only mention revenue?
Because fuck Netflix, nobody believes for a minute they're not profitable and couldn't afford to pay writers and actors.
I didn't realize people can't do a 10 second google search on their own. 🙄
Net income isn't the whole story anyways, especially when this article points out that one of their costs is lobbying for a cause that isn't necessary. They're raking in billions of dollars every year.
"just Google it, bro" is never a source.
Not my fault you aren't capable of typing 4 words into a search engine.
It's not a 'source', bud.
🙄
Did you know profitability =! Net income?
Yes. Did you know that "just Google it, bro" isn't a source?
Positing a claim =! positing a source. That's 0/2.
I didn’t realize people can’t do a 10 second google search on their own.
You specifically chose to quote a sentence about profit and then provide a number that is not profit. What was the point of commenting at all if the number you provided had no relevance?
My quote:
streamers are currently being forced to reckon with their profitability — or lack thereof.
profitability
Your misinformed quote:
You specifically chose to quote a sentence about profit
profit
There's a very important difference there that I think you're not built to understand.
...but it's not. And I really think people either don't understand that or they are intentionally misrepresenting the situation.
Being level-headed and fact-driven isn't "corporate apologist", it's how you maintain integrity and don't derail your own movement by being dishonest about shit that doesn't even matter.
It's like when Trump lies about his golf games. No one cares about his golf games but it makes you realize that if he's willing to blatantly and badly lie about something so trivial, he's probably also lying about absolutely everything else about him that might even remotely appear negative.
Plenty of people understand it, and some of them understand that profit is so malleable that it’s not really a useful measure of a company’s financial health. What really matters is how much they make over their essential production operational expenses. They can tailor their non essential expenses to seem as profitable or unprofitable as they want and use stock valuation tricks like buybacks to make money for shareholders regardless.
What does it matter if the company is profitable or unprofitable on paper when certain people can make lots of money off it either way? Twitter was “unprofitable” it’s entire life but somehow I bet the executives still got their bonuses, I doubt the shareholders were dissatisfied with their stock valuations or the buybacks, and it sure didn’t stop them from acquiring other companies.
Thank you for putting this more eloquently than I could. I must admit, I was losing my cool with people being irrational about this.
I don't know if people are ignoring expense scaling and stock buybacks or purposely choosing to hide it.
On a tangent, and nothing to do with you, but I don't like how these streaming companies are being called "streamers". Streamers are those people streaming on twitch, not a company like Netflix damnit.
Piracy is an access problem, not a consumer problem.
dismantle capitalism. I bet in like 24 years some disruptor is going to come along and buy up rights to the shit thats on peacock Hulu etc now and offer 9 bucks a month to stream it to you. rinse repeat. fuck this corpo nightmare.
It turns out cable wasn't some unique product or way of doing things, it's just the natural form media delivery takes under capitalism. Streaming services are convergently evolving to take that shape too.
I mean that's not even a little correct.
Streaming allows you to watch videos on demand, and allows you to choose from a littany of providers, where you were previously limited to whoever laid cable in your neighborhood.
My average seed time is well over a year. Private trackers love me.
I even upgraded my pipe to fiber so I can share Plex with my friends and family. Built a machine with 16TBx6 RAID. Cost me a shit ton more than a year of all the streaming services but fuck them.
cost me a shit ton
Yes but now you have an elephantine Silicon Schlong
Was talking with a friend over lunch about this. I don't mind paying for media, but the greed I'm seeing from the streaming services now makes me feel like the more ethical choice is to pirate content and just contribute directly to the arts where I can.
They're getting to the point where they think that just because they have the platform and the licenses, they can soak their customers. Only a matter of time before the ad men move in. Anyway, fuck all that
Arr!
I never left ye lady-dressin' barnacle. Leekin' forward to sail with ye to meet those corporate scallogs for some happy fightin, lootin and rapin'
R
If I’ve learned anything about corporate lobbying groups it’s that they only exist to fuck you and ruin any legislation that attempts to protect you from them.
Eat shit SIA.
Corps form "unions" and use money gained by preferential treatment by government to create propaganda shitting on unions.
Funny that.
No wait, infuriating. That's the word.
They cry about the "free market" and then run to the Government to ask for "protection".
Wait, what? What corporations form labor unions designed to undermine labor unions? Are you calling a lobbying group a union? Are you using terminology creatively or is there something I hadn't heard about? EDIT: I guess I never get to find out. :(
Sorry for the late reply, I'm not on all the time.
I was using it creatively which is why I used quotation marks. They act as a collective for their own benefit as a union does.
Cool! Thanks for the update.
Get rid of them. Socialize their service. Host all content at media.gov and take costs out of taxes. We could pay artists more, have 0 ads, all for like $15 per paycheck. Those taxes would fund grants for artists and cover platform costs. No ads. No corporations.
P.S. you already pay taxes on media through various 3 letter institutions and licensing. It's not different from what we have other than eliminating the things we all dont like.
Watch the video. Benn Jordan has done a lot of the heavy lifting for us.
This lobby exists to stop that from ever happening and nothing more. Fight them to the death.
$15, that sounds like so much...now let me refuel my truck up and buy another beer.
How do we socialise these globally important services? Let's say the Americans socialised all of the services we use heavily every day here in Europe. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc etc.
How will that affect our access to these now internal US National Services? How will it affect our rights and ability to take those services to court - now taking the US State to court instead, when they do something bad?
How does that increase my rights as a consumer, rather than stifle them?
You're forgetting that the USA doesn't live in a bubble. Other countries exist. This is a global issue.
Well, we would have the content we own. We would pay to lease the content we don't. If any non US residents want a media.gov account, they can pay for one out of pocket what Americans pay in taxes.
Problem solved.
It increases your rights as a consumer because it consolidates the location and entity at/to which you pay for that content. You get all the content in one place as opposed to via 12 different accounts.
I can only imagine the delicious conversations about what objectionable art other people are enjoying that 'their' tax dollars paid for. Sure, let's do it.
And when the GOP holds enough power again we could finally have real US branded State TV! The Trump News Network will live, lol
Could they, instead, band together to offer a service that’s more user friendly than piracy? I suppose bribery is cheaper and easier.
They did, it was called Netflix.
Then the Netflix rates went up while everyone pulled and splintered content onto their own services and then started shuffling it around.
It would be such a wonderful thing wouldn't it? Now where was I again about profits and squeezing the customers?
but muh maximum profits
Imagine not being able to force set the resolution and bitrate on your stream, even tho you pay for 4k. (Btw. Same goes for YT)
Plex and jellyfin are just superior.
What do you mean same for YouTube? I can still set resolution? Is that changing?
What client do you use? I mostly use the iOS client and there they only give you the illusion of a choice: „higher quality“ and „lower quality“ maybe there are still clients which allow force set resolution/bitrate.
You need to select the advanced option for the resolution options (I use the official client currently)
A, lol, woops, I forgot that they re-added that. 🫣
What you're asking for is a monopoly. It rarely is cheaper or easier. Sometimes, when heavily regulated, it could be. But history shows most of these are eventually privatized and deregulated and then we know what happens.
Don’t put words in my mouth. Industries get together and set standards and form partnerships all the fucking time. It’s as much a “monopoly” as this lobbying project is.
Lobbying should be fucking banned.
It is far more likely that remarks against lobbying will be banned, because someone would lobby for that.
It's still a useful mechanic to be able to influence government policy in between elections. Not all lobbying is pushing for this dystopian stuff, this is just what ends up in the news.
In Canada anyone can review federal and provincial lobbying activity. Eg:
I'm guessing there is something like that for the US.
Every form of corruption is a useful mechanic to be able to influence government policy between elections.
Ya that's kind of what I'm saying. I'm not thrilled about it.
Vote in representatives that will ban it.
In theory yes, but in practice extremely rich lobbyists will buy up enough votes to not ban it. Sorry, I mean "successfully lobby against it legally".
Streaming has ultimately taught me how little I 'need' to watch since it trains you to really only seek out a couple things per service. I've also become very advertisment sensitive being blessed with tools to avoid that and companies honeymooning people for a while with fewer ads compared to what cable did.
Obviously, the dipshits are springing their 'trap' but I'm not bullish on the strategy of forcing consumers to suddenly tolerate a return of ads everywhere and always on entertainment. I just see folks running away again/further disconnecting from traditional media.
Yup. The high seas are looking more attractive every day.
And the tools to emulate the good parts of streaming with a home setup have never been better.
The search for something to watch and to evaluate what streaming service I should subscribe for the next 2 months or so has become so tedious and the overall quality so low that I'm simply giving up on them as a whole. The price increase and ads weren't even necessary to drive me away. They only ensure I will not come back.
"Guillotine sales soar as citizens band together for lobbying power"
One can dream
Kind of lobbying I can get behind.
What's the famous quote? Something about how a capitalist will sell you the rope from which you plan to hang them? Something like that?
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free.
Yo ho.
Any port any storm.
Batten down the hatches! KEEP THAT POWDER DRY!
It felt inevitable at some point this was going to happen after they got caught off guard by the strikes to make sure that it never happens again, but the fight is not over yet.
It's more important than ever then for you guys to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, fight for workers, and fight for unions.
Otherwise, they'll just keep squeezing and squeezing, until there is nothing left.
Can't support the WGA strike as it's over.
Yay
Laws like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which features overly broad definitions of the platforms it targets and has troubling privacy implications thanks to surveillance requirements, could sweep companies like Netflix or Disney up into its dragnet.
Streaming companies are usually pro-net neutrality, and that’s been a difficult concept for lawmakers and regulators in DC to fully grasp.
For those that read just the headline. Not everything is black and white.
Every now and again, their interests align with the average person.
But make no mistake, the companies forming a coalition like this for one or two good causes won't make up for the long term damage it will no doubt cause.
It doesn't matter; they're controlling media and entertainment and that makes them always bad regardless of any extenuating circumstances.
All of those problems can be solved by breaking apart all of those corporations, putting all modern franchises in the public domain and legalizing pirating. Change the law solely for our benefit and not theirs. If they don't make content anymore, great; we'll shut off their shitty AIs and make shit ourselves like we were supposed to be doing the whole time.
I think this is why net neutrality is so important. Back in the days the electromagnetic spectrum was not as heavily regulated as it is now. Technically anyone with the technical know how could set up a broadcasting station. Then CBS, ABC, NBC all got together and did exactly what these companies are doing. They banded together to make it harder for the average person to get access to technology. This is their primariy goal. To give their companies priority at the network level (seconds matter) and also, most likely what they want is to 1. Find ways for their content to be regulated differently and be sold as network packages 2. Probably allow their content to be delivered through means that require people pay THEIR ISPs. Now, i will be honest. I have not read the article but i knlw this has been the intended goal for many years.
Yea, the logical next step is sadly for the streaming services to just buy the ISPs with the amount of money they have and lobby so they can block Torrent, Usenet and VPN traffic to stop piracy. Most people will keep paying for the services whilst there's signs of this happening because they actually believe all the "you wouldn't steal a car, so why would you steal the 9th shitty Star Wars spin off series" propaganda.
Then they'll block porn tube sites too, for the children of course. The first one to do it will get all of the Christians on-side immediately who will accuse the others of being evil and allowing such awful filth so the others will quickly follow suit. After time passes I'm sure they'll bring out their own almost porn type content that will prove very popular.
I could be wrong, but it'll be interesting to see how things turn out.
Spooky shit!
That's cool, I've kicked them all to the curb over the past two years.
I like the way you think. Hoist that flag! 🏴☠️
Omg, it's Limewire, I can't believe it! I used you when I was a kid! Can I have your autograph!?
May your anchor be tight, your cork be loose, your rum be spiced and your compass be true.
𝐿𝒾𝓂𝑒𝒲𝒾𝓇𝑒
Checkout streamio
You'll definitely stop paying these streaming giants.
Thanks, going to check this out.
Dude everything on that site was pay for or made you go different apps and pay subscription. Streamio is BS.
Streamio is not for regulars.
I'll give you a hint- torrentio
Is it legal? I don't want to go getting into illegal stuff
Let's call it "Grey area". If you know what you're doing.
You probably unknowingly break multiple laws a day settle down
Imagine missing the point so completely. Streaming, what a joke now.
They're capitalists. It's what they do.
It's almost never a pricing issue, but a service issue. They can band together in their bullshit campaign all they want. They're still not getting my money, because I'm not paying 15 a month, to watch one movie with 7 ads, after which they'll also sell my data
It especially doesn't make sense when you can stream most things for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
All you need is uBlock Origin.
Incoming attempts to legislate recordless VPN bans and over the top piracy mitigation strategies instead of attempting to provide better services to their users
Netflix and others look for power in number$.
Welcome to the United $tate$ of America, people; Where money is the only thing that matters
Guess we have to band together then as well.
Don't forget to seed your torrents!
That's called a cartel
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
You don't need a union, we are all family here.jpeg
This can only be a bad thing.
They will win and like live nation, will merge with more well placed companies until they are printing their own money.
they have to since they can't make any money in the free market, because their products are total shit
illegal sports streaming sites have better performance and usability than official/legal ones.
corporate streaming services are a joke
The new group is led by two former policymakers acting as senior advisers: former Republican Rep. Fred Upton and former Democratic Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acting chair Mignon Clyburn.
Oh sounds interesting, not available were I am compared with the rest in the thumbnail but sounds cool.
Although clearly is one of those of subbing 1 or 2 months and leave, because it seems very focused on certain content.
Unless is super cheap of course.
Its cheaper than the main ones (hulu, prime, etc ) and such and honestly a lot of good content. But i love horror so maybe im bias.
Oh sounds interesting, not available were I am
Try mullvad vpn and change location to the usa, maybe?
Maybe works no idea but usually they check for the credit card being from USA or other checks but I haven't check maybe there is a way.
It's so good. They pick up some pretty niche shit that bigger services wouldn't even think of.
Agreed.
Check out
The Beach house
&
Dagon
Thanks! I haven't watched The Beach House yet, but Dagon is great
I think it's a horror movie/series focused platform
Spot on! The past few years has seen them get bigger budgets and they've pulled off some pretty clever/creepy movies
AMC, it's just their horror subsidiary channel.
Is good to see the US us finally embracing unions ❤️
These fucks never did learn
With our powers combined we are CAPTAIN (old) CABLE!!!!
This does not spark joy.
Arrr matey, it be lookin like time to raid an pillage
Ha hoy capt'n!
I wish I had never gotten rid of all my dvds
Buy em back! DVDs are dirt cheap right now (sometimes $1 a pop at flea markets, garage sales, and thrift stores)
You can do with a better medium that is less bulky and less prone to damage.
Just get a VPN and download them for free.
The Expectables.
Great, now let me pay a single fee for the SIA, and be able to watch anything on any of those channels. I'd happily pay a higher amount for that privilege.
That's not likely to happen, but if it did, it would be much more expensive and include ads. We're not returning to cable benefits without plenty of the downsides (and, no doubt, some new ones).
This is honestly what Google should've done with Fiber.
Big tech's lobbyist dollars would have beaten Comcast's with ease.
I'm such an apathetic consumer of media nowadays.. it'd suck if we all just started going outside again, yknow?
The mall and downtown are dead
That's fine, the people in the mall were dead to begin with. Just another outlet for zombie consumerism. There are better places outside.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The new trade group should give companies like Netflix and Disney a solid foundation from which to deal with current and future regulation by the federal government related specifically to streaming.
The SIA formed as regulators look for ways to deal with a changing entertainment landscape that increasingly includes content creators on social platforms, which these companies don’t necessarily want to be lumped in with.
In addition to Netflix and Disney, Axios lists SIA members Paramount Plus, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, Peacock, TelevisaUnivision, and some small streamers like For Us By Us Network, Vault, and AfroLandTV.
Netflix joined the MPA in 2019 and left the Internet Association, a broader trade group representing Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon that can’t really help streaming video firms with intellectual property fights (and in some cases, could be at odds with them).
Because streaming video companies exist in such a weird limbo between all of these worlds, they could get caught up in legislation that’s intended to target other facets of the internet.
Laws like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which features overly broad definitions of the platforms it targets and has troubling privacy implications thanks to surveillance requirements, could sweep companies like Netflix or Disney up into its dragnet.
The original article contains 366 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So what makes it new? Is it just bringing in digital pure plays like Netflix and Amazon into the fold of TV industry stalwarts like NBC, Disney, and Disco/Warner? Is it new working groups that focus exclusively on digital regulation as opposed to legacy over the air and cable TV?
I'm really glad I took the time to set up a Jellyfin server recently.
Corporations: hey guys, let's unionize so the government doesn't exploit us.
Employees: hey, can we als...
Corporations: NO.
Collective action for we, not for thee.
Can't wait for this bullshit to get denied because writers/actors are already striking.
Well it's not employees want the corporations to have unionized, but they just have less power to do anything about it
I didn't say the employees wanted corporations to unionize or not. The joke was corporations interrupting employees asking if they can also unionize.
I didn't imply you wanted it
every pirate related theme song getting increasingly louder in the background
I just bought 16 TB to expand my media server :)
You must have a lot of Linux ISO backups. Doing your part to preserve open source software history.
I have a feeling part of their plan is to sink all the pirate ships.
Nintendo has been putting anti-piracy protection in all of their consoles since the NES in the 80's. Every single one was cracked eventually. Oh, but surely they must be getting better? Nope, the Switch was cracked less than a year from release.
And Nintendo controls the hardware in this situation. Streaming services do not.
The only way to do that, is to kill humanity.
Yo-ho, all together, hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!
Yar har, fiddle de dee Being a pirate is alright to be Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free You are a pirate!
It sounds terrible but I still love it
ALESTORM INTENSIFIES
Just call it what it is: bribing power
Pretty sure it's more or less a cartel at this point.
Collusion*
Netflix's 2023 2nd quarter revenue: 8.1 billion dollars BTW
Brace yourself for a tidal wave of corporate apologists rushing to point out that “revenue isn’t profit!,!”
The number you're looking for is $1.49 billion in net income for Q2 2023.
See? Clearly not profitable, need more ads
What's that? You want to share your four-screens-at-a-time account with three other people outside your house?
Fuck you, pay us more.
Profit is the portion of revenue that is stolen from workers and given to shareholders. Profit is bad. Revenue is good.
Unless you use that revenue to do stock buybacks, then it’s not considered profit but you still get to steal it from the workers. That way you can cry about unprofitability while all your shareholders and c suites crank up the exploitation of workers and consumers chasing “profitability” until the business collapses.
Which is crazy, right? If a stock sale allows an investment in a business, a stock buyback should be a paying off of that debt, freeing more revenue in the future to be used explicitly to pay workers who generate that revenue. How the fuck that is justified in instead enriching the value of other investments still held by other investors shows the selective use of the analogy by corporate interests and that the whole house of cards is just bullshit.
For the most part, it's not given to the shareholders, either. Dividends are pretty rare these days (which is when stocks largely went from being an ownership investment to - mostly - a form of gambling)
Anybody can look these numbers up. I'm not sitting on some secret Bloomberg terminal LOL
Then why only mention revenue?
Because fuck Netflix, nobody believes for a minute they're not profitable and couldn't afford to pay writers and actors.
Shareholders: "that's where you're wrong, bucko"
I didn't realize people can't do a 10 second google search on their own. 🙄
Net income isn't the whole story anyways, especially when this article points out that one of their costs is lobbying for a cause that isn't necessary. They're raking in billions of dollars every year.
"just Google it, bro" is never a source.
Not my fault you aren't capable of typing 4 words into a search engine.
It's not a 'source', bud.
🙄
Did you know profitability =! Net income?
Yes. Did you know that "just Google it, bro" isn't a source?
Positing a claim =! positing a source. That's 0/2.
You can't count, either? That's rough, buddy.
You specifically chose to quote a sentence about profit and then provide a number that is not profit. What was the point of commenting at all if the number you provided had no relevance?
My quote:
Your misinformed quote:
There's a very important difference there that I think you're not built to understand.
...but it's not. And I really think people either don't understand that or they are intentionally misrepresenting the situation.
Being level-headed and fact-driven isn't "corporate apologist", it's how you maintain integrity and don't derail your own movement by being dishonest about shit that doesn't even matter.
It's like when Trump lies about his golf games. No one cares about his golf games but it makes you realize that if he's willing to blatantly and badly lie about something so trivial, he's probably also lying about absolutely everything else about him that might even remotely appear negative.
Plenty of people understand it, and some of them understand that profit is so malleable that it’s not really a useful measure of a company’s financial health. What really matters is how much they make over their essential production operational expenses. They can tailor their non essential expenses to seem as profitable or unprofitable as they want and use stock valuation tricks like buybacks to make money for shareholders regardless.
What does it matter if the company is profitable or unprofitable on paper when certain people can make lots of money off it either way? Twitter was “unprofitable” it’s entire life but somehow I bet the executives still got their bonuses, I doubt the shareholders were dissatisfied with their stock valuations or the buybacks, and it sure didn’t stop them from acquiring other companies.
Thank you for putting this more eloquently than I could. I must admit, I was losing my cool with people being irrational about this.
I don't know if people are ignoring expense scaling and stock buybacks or purposely choosing to hide it.
On a tangent, and nothing to do with you, but I don't like how these streaming companies are being called "streamers". Streamers are those people streaming on twitch, not a company like Netflix damnit.
To be clear, revenue does not equal profit.
Net income doesn't equal profitability either. Companies scale their costs, including stock buybacks, based on revenue. https://ycharts.com/companies/NFLX/stock_buyback
The slow march back to cable is unstoppable.
Pirate everything. Share everything.
Piracy is an access problem, not a consumer problem.
dismantle capitalism. I bet in like 24 years some disruptor is going to come along and buy up rights to the shit thats on peacock Hulu etc now and offer 9 bucks a month to stream it to you. rinse repeat. fuck this corpo nightmare.
It turns out cable wasn't some unique product or way of doing things, it's just the natural form media delivery takes under capitalism. Streaming services are convergently evolving to take that shape too.
I mean that's not even a little correct.
Streaming allows you to watch videos on demand, and allows you to choose from a littany of providers, where you were previously limited to whoever laid cable in your neighborhood.
Welcome back to the high seas mateys!
🏴☠️
Already downloaded 4tb of movies and shows :)
Don't forget to seed!
My average seed time is well over a year. Private trackers love me.
I even upgraded my pipe to fiber so I can share Plex with my friends and family. Built a machine with 16TBx6 RAID. Cost me a shit ton more than a year of all the streaming services but fuck them.
Yes but now you have an elephantine Silicon Schlong
Was talking with a friend over lunch about this. I don't mind paying for media, but the greed I'm seeing from the streaming services now makes me feel like the more ethical choice is to pirate content and just contribute directly to the arts where I can.
They're getting to the point where they think that just because they have the platform and the licenses, they can soak their customers. Only a matter of time before the ad men move in. Anyway, fuck all that
Arr!
I never left ye lady-dressin' barnacle. Leekin' forward to sail with ye to meet those corporate scallogs for some happy fightin, lootin and rapin'
R
If I’ve learned anything about corporate lobbying groups it’s that they only exist to fuck you and ruin any legislation that attempts to protect you from them.
Eat shit SIA.
Corps form "unions" and use money gained by preferential treatment by government to create propaganda shitting on unions.
Funny that.
No wait, infuriating. That's the word.
They cry about the "free market" and then run to the Government to ask for "protection".
Wait, what? What corporations form labor unions designed to undermine labor unions? Are you calling a lobbying group a union? Are you using terminology creatively or is there something I hadn't heard about? EDIT: I guess I never get to find out. :(
Sorry for the late reply, I'm not on all the time.
I was using it creatively which is why I used quotation marks. They act as a collective for their own benefit as a union does.
Cool! Thanks for the update.
Get rid of them. Socialize their service. Host all content at media.gov and take costs out of taxes. We could pay artists more, have 0 ads, all for like $15 per paycheck. Those taxes would fund grants for artists and cover platform costs. No ads. No corporations.
P.S. you already pay taxes on media through various 3 letter institutions and licensing. It's not different from what we have other than eliminating the things we all dont like.
Watch the video. Benn Jordan has done a lot of the heavy lifting for us. This lobby exists to stop that from ever happening and nothing more. Fight them to the death.
$15, that sounds like so much...now let me refuel my truck up and buy another beer.
How do we socialise these globally important services? Let's say the Americans socialised all of the services we use heavily every day here in Europe. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc etc.
How will that affect our access to these now internal US National Services? How will it affect our rights and ability to take those services to court - now taking the US State to court instead, when they do something bad?
How does that increase my rights as a consumer, rather than stifle them?
You're forgetting that the USA doesn't live in a bubble. Other countries exist. This is a global issue.
Well, we would have the content we own. We would pay to lease the content we don't. If any non US residents want a media.gov account, they can pay for one out of pocket what Americans pay in taxes.
Problem solved.
It increases your rights as a consumer because it consolidates the location and entity at/to which you pay for that content. You get all the content in one place as opposed to via 12 different accounts.
I can only imagine the delicious conversations about what objectionable art other people are enjoying that 'their' tax dollars paid for. Sure, let's do it.
And when the GOP holds enough power again we could finally have real US branded State TV! The Trump News Network will live, lol
Could they, instead, band together to offer a service that’s more user friendly than piracy? I suppose bribery is cheaper and easier.
They did, it was called Netflix.
Then the Netflix rates went up while everyone pulled and splintered content onto their own services and then started shuffling it around.
It would be such a wonderful thing wouldn't it? Now where was I again about profits and squeezing the customers?
but muh maximum profits
Imagine not being able to force set the resolution and bitrate on your stream, even tho you pay for 4k. (Btw. Same goes for YT) Plex and jellyfin are just superior.
What do you mean same for YouTube? I can still set resolution? Is that changing?
What client do you use? I mostly use the iOS client and there they only give you the illusion of a choice: „higher quality“ and „lower quality“ maybe there are still clients which allow force set resolution/bitrate.
You need to select the advanced option for the resolution options (I use the official client currently)
A, lol, woops, I forgot that they re-added that. 🫣
What you're asking for is a monopoly. It rarely is cheaper or easier. Sometimes, when heavily regulated, it could be. But history shows most of these are eventually privatized and deregulated and then we know what happens.
Don’t put words in my mouth. Industries get together and set standards and form partnerships all the fucking time. It’s as much a “monopoly” as this lobbying project is.
Lobbying should be fucking banned.
It is far more likely that remarks against lobbying will be banned, because someone would lobby for that.
It's still a useful mechanic to be able to influence government policy in between elections. Not all lobbying is pushing for this dystopian stuff, this is just what ends up in the news.
In Canada anyone can review federal and provincial lobbying activity. Eg:
https://lobbycanada.gc.ca/app/secure/ocl/lrs/do/clntSmmrySrch?return=true&time=1695867498006
I'm guessing there is something like that for the US.
Every form of corruption is a useful mechanic to be able to influence government policy between elections.
Ya that's kind of what I'm saying. I'm not thrilled about it.
Vote in representatives that will ban it.
In theory yes, but in practice extremely rich lobbyists will buy up enough votes to not ban it. Sorry, I mean "successfully lobby against it legally".
Streaming has ultimately taught me how little I 'need' to watch since it trains you to really only seek out a couple things per service. I've also become very advertisment sensitive being blessed with tools to avoid that and companies honeymooning people for a while with fewer ads compared to what cable did.
Obviously, the dipshits are springing their 'trap' but I'm not bullish on the strategy of forcing consumers to suddenly tolerate a return of ads everywhere and always on entertainment. I just see folks running away again/further disconnecting from traditional media.
Yup. The high seas are looking more attractive every day.
And the tools to emulate the good parts of streaming with a home setup have never been better.
The search for something to watch and to evaluate what streaming service I should subscribe for the next 2 months or so has become so tedious and the overall quality so low that I'm simply giving up on them as a whole. The price increase and ads weren't even necessary to drive me away. They only ensure I will not come back.
"Guillotine sales soar as citizens band together for lobbying power"
One can dream
Kind of lobbying I can get behind.
What's the famous quote? Something about how a capitalist will sell you the rope from which you plan to hang them? Something like that?
Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free.
Yo ho.
Any port any storm.
Batten down the hatches! KEEP THAT POWDER DRY!
It felt inevitable at some point this was going to happen after they got caught off guard by the strikes to make sure that it never happens again, but the fight is not over yet.
It's more important than ever then for you guys to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, fight for workers, and fight for unions.
Otherwise, they'll just keep squeezing and squeezing, until there is nothing left.
Can't support the WGA strike as it's over.
Yay
For those that read just the headline. Not everything is black and white.
Every now and again, their interests align with the average person.
But make no mistake, the companies forming a coalition like this for one or two good causes won't make up for the long term damage it will no doubt cause.
It doesn't matter; they're controlling media and entertainment and that makes them always bad regardless of any extenuating circumstances.
All of those problems can be solved by breaking apart all of those corporations, putting all modern franchises in the public domain and legalizing pirating. Change the law solely for our benefit and not theirs. If they don't make content anymore, great; we'll shut off their shitty AIs and make shit ourselves like we were supposed to be doing the whole time.
Hello https://jellyfin.org, transmission, radarr and sickbeard
I think this is why net neutrality is so important. Back in the days the electromagnetic spectrum was not as heavily regulated as it is now. Technically anyone with the technical know how could set up a broadcasting station. Then CBS, ABC, NBC all got together and did exactly what these companies are doing. They banded together to make it harder for the average person to get access to technology. This is their primariy goal. To give their companies priority at the network level (seconds matter) and also, most likely what they want is to 1. Find ways for their content to be regulated differently and be sold as network packages 2. Probably allow their content to be delivered through means that require people pay THEIR ISPs. Now, i will be honest. I have not read the article but i knlw this has been the intended goal for many years.
Yea, the logical next step is sadly for the streaming services to just buy the ISPs with the amount of money they have and lobby so they can block Torrent, Usenet and VPN traffic to stop piracy. Most people will keep paying for the services whilst there's signs of this happening because they actually believe all the "you wouldn't steal a car, so why would you steal the 9th shitty Star Wars spin off series" propaganda. Then they'll block porn tube sites too, for the children of course. The first one to do it will get all of the Christians on-side immediately who will accuse the others of being evil and allowing such awful filth so the others will quickly follow suit. After time passes I'm sure they'll bring out their own almost porn type content that will prove very popular. I could be wrong, but it'll be interesting to see how things turn out.
Spooky shit!
That's cool, I've kicked them all to the curb over the past two years.
I like the way you think. Hoist that flag! 🏴☠️
Omg, it's Limewire, I can't believe it! I used you when I was a kid! Can I have your autograph!?
May your anchor be tight, your cork be loose, your rum be spiced and your compass be true. 𝐿𝒾𝓂𝑒𝒲𝒾𝓇𝑒
Checkout streamio
You'll definitely stop paying these streaming giants.
Thanks, going to check this out.
Dude everything on that site was pay for or made you go different apps and pay subscription. Streamio is BS.
Streamio is not for regulars.
I'll give you a hint- torrentio
Is it legal? I don't want to go getting into illegal stuff
Let's call it "Grey area". If you know what you're doing.
You probably unknowingly break multiple laws a day settle down
Imagine missing the point so completely. Streaming, what a joke now.
They're capitalists. It's what they do.
It's almost never a pricing issue, but a service issue. They can band together in their bullshit campaign all they want. They're still not getting my money, because I'm not paying 15 a month, to watch one movie with 7 ads, after which they'll also sell my data
It especially doesn't make sense when you can stream most things for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/
All you need is uBlock Origin.
Incoming attempts to legislate recordless VPN bans and over the top piracy mitigation strategies instead of attempting to provide better services to their users
Netflix and others look for power in number$.
Welcome to the United $tate$ of America, people; Where money is the only thing that matters
Guess we have to band together then as well.
Don't forget to seed your torrents!
That's called a cartel
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
You don't need a union, we are all family here.jpeg
This can only be a bad thing.
They will win and like live nation, will merge with more well placed companies until they are printing their own money.
they have to since they can't make any money in the free market, because their products are total shit illegal sports streaming sites have better performance and usability than official/legal ones. corporate streaming services are a joke
Source: https://www.axios.com/2023/09/26/streamers-launch-first-official-trade-group
Mignon Clyburn is Jim Clyburn's daughter. SMH
Who's that?
Wtf is shudder!?
Horror and scifi based streaming service.
It slapzzz.
Oh sounds interesting, not available were I am compared with the rest in the thumbnail but sounds cool. Although clearly is one of those of subbing 1 or 2 months and leave, because it seems very focused on certain content. Unless is super cheap of course.
Its cheaper than the main ones (hulu, prime, etc ) and such and honestly a lot of good content. But i love horror so maybe im bias.
Try mullvad vpn and change location to the usa, maybe?
Maybe works no idea but usually they check for the credit card being from USA or other checks but I haven't check maybe there is a way.
It's so good. They pick up some pretty niche shit that bigger services wouldn't even think of.
Agreed.
Check out
The Beach house
&
Dagon
Thanks! I haven't watched The Beach House yet, but Dagon is great
I think it's a horror movie/series focused platform
Spot on! The past few years has seen them get bigger budgets and they've pulled off some pretty clever/creepy movies
AMC, it's just their horror subsidiary channel.
Is good to see the US us finally embracing unions ❤️
These fucks never did learn
With our powers combined we are CAPTAIN (old) CABLE!!!!
This does not spark joy.
Arrr matey, it be lookin like time to raid an pillage
Ha hoy capt'n!
I wish I had never gotten rid of all my dvds
Buy em back! DVDs are dirt cheap right now (sometimes $1 a pop at flea markets, garage sales, and thrift stores)
You can do with a better medium that is less bulky and less prone to damage.
Just get a VPN and download them for free.
The Expectables.
Great, now let me pay a single fee for the SIA, and be able to watch anything on any of those channels. I'd happily pay a higher amount for that privilege.
That's not likely to happen, but if it did, it would be much more expensive and include ads. We're not returning to cable benefits without plenty of the downsides (and, no doubt, some new ones).
This is honestly what Google should've done with Fiber.
Big tech's lobbyist dollars would have beaten Comcast's with ease.
I'm such an apathetic consumer of media nowadays.. it'd suck if we all just started going outside again, yknow?
The mall and downtown are dead
That's fine, the people in the mall were dead to begin with. Just another outlet for zombie consumerism. There are better places outside.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The new trade group should give companies like Netflix and Disney a solid foundation from which to deal with current and future regulation by the federal government related specifically to streaming.
The SIA formed as regulators look for ways to deal with a changing entertainment landscape that increasingly includes content creators on social platforms, which these companies don’t necessarily want to be lumped in with.
In addition to Netflix and Disney, Axios lists SIA members Paramount Plus, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, Peacock, TelevisaUnivision, and some small streamers like For Us By Us Network, Vault, and AfroLandTV.
Netflix joined the MPA in 2019 and left the Internet Association, a broader trade group representing Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon that can’t really help streaming video firms with intellectual property fights (and in some cases, could be at odds with them).
Because streaming video companies exist in such a weird limbo between all of these worlds, they could get caught up in legislation that’s intended to target other facets of the internet.
Laws like the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which features overly broad definitions of the platforms it targets and has troubling privacy implications thanks to surveillance requirements, could sweep companies like Netflix or Disney up into its dragnet.
The original article contains 366 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 43%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
So what makes it new? Is it just bringing in digital pure plays like Netflix and Amazon into the fold of TV industry stalwarts like NBC, Disney, and Disco/Warner? Is it new working groups that focus exclusively on digital regulation as opposed to legacy over the air and cable TV?
I'm really glad I took the time to set up a Jellyfin server recently.
bing ._.