Current state of piracy and where it is all going

[CaptainStrider]

I think overall the culture is fine. The less heat on my favorite sites, the better off the piracy community is as a result. Living with copyright law and anti-piracy in a first world country sucks and goes to show what the powers that be want you to do: be a good little consumer.

 

[abraKadabra]

Living with copyright law and anti-piracy in a first world country sucks and goes to show what the powers that be want you to do: be a good little consumer.

Very vell my son. You shall consume ze product for fulprice und open ze lootboxes to get fast dopamine like a gut kleine uzer.

 

[Deerhunter]

I was never really exposed to the fearmongering the government and big companies had on people as i was mostly just using spotify and youtube and i went by my days while tolerating the ads which i still frankly do as getting mad over ads felt like a waste of time. it wasn't until i discovered Soulseek through someone in a discord server i was in is where i found a side of music that i had no idea was there and as a result i used a music player (Musicbee) to host the files i got from soulseek to play around with. i found out about torrenting soon after and eventually r/piracy and FMHY's guide on what to look out for in our current landscape, its not perfect but i much rather have something like this of this substance then go blind. https://fmhy.pages.dev/

I've only been resorting to piracy for about 3 years now so i still have a long way to go and is not as experienced as with others like with Ross but for how i see it I see Piracy in a more stagnant position than anything else, let alone on the decline. In regards of the majority of media nowadays convenience is king with streaming services especially within music and gaming. in the music side of things spotify and soundcloud are easily peoples go to and i don't blame them as all you gotta do is make an account and basically let spotify do the rest for you once they've gotten a good idea on what you like. the same could be said for soundcloud although their music library is more community driven and their algrorithm of finding similar songs to the ones you like is actually not that bad from experience. on the flip side of piracy Soulseek is really the only service of its kind in the game, others look towards front ends of spotify to get the same experience just without the ads or simply download Mp3 files of music through youtube front ends or premium and play it on their phones. i'm no different as i use Newpipe on my phone and Indivious on my computer to listen to my music. I listen to a lot of music in general so i can't keep all my favorite in one place so i find these helpful a lot of cases especially if you starting to get into a new genre of music.

I feel like with the gaming side of piracy though its always been difficult for both pirates and the consumer to tolerate gaming companies especially within the last decade or so (at least in first world countries) where the subcription is abused so much nowadays, games being developed and shipped out in a broken state until they are patched months later, Preservation of old games being largely abscent if not abysmally excueted, People in general supporting indie games in general whether directly (i.e creator or studio's patreon) or indirectly via steam or GOG (though correct if im wrong about that), people scared of such things as pirating content. you can really (if barely) narrow it down to Morale, principles, fearmongering, convenience, laziness, or simplicity. that being said i dont think cracking games will fall off any time soon as it feels more uncertain than official. it will certsainly continue to thrive off on developing countries like those within south america, eastern europe, or most of africa thats for sure.

In terms of Movies and tv, couldn't be easier. with companies using subcsription models its easier finding new movies and shows in better quality. its especially the case with cartoons where i know some people who link Mega files on the latest episodes of X show to get my fix done. there tends to be a stronger emphasise on preserving obscure films whether that be found in private trackers or websites solely focused on genres of film or tv like Avant garde, drama, reality tv, or focusing on genres of film that less discussed like animation internationally.

 

[Venomnik0]

i found out about torrenting soon after and eventually r/piracy and FMHY's guide on what to look out for in our current landscape, its not perfect but i much rather have something like this of this substance then go blind. https://fmhy.pages.dev/

This is what I call educating yourself and word of mouth. You found out and now you are a pirate. Simple as that.

 

[Alice N Chain]

Although I see piracy being a growing field, I feel like its going to be a learning curve for a lot of younger people learning out to torrent, use VPN's, or even find out where to get materials. It'll probably be up to older, more veteran pirates to show how its done. I've met a couple of people just slightly younger than me that couldn't even figure out how torrenting works, so they just use stuff like "freemovieswatchhere.fart" or something like that.

 

[Ross_Я]

In terms of Movies and tv, couldn't be easier. with companies using subcsription models its easier finding new movies and shows in better quality.

Emphasis on new. Every second time I watch for a movie, it's a nightmare. And why the fuck people do not bother ripping subtitles off their DVDs? You are ripping it anyway - rip the fucking subs, asshole!
On a side note: anyone has an Amazon Prime or Apple TV account and knows how to rip subs off it? I know there's an Apple TV sub scraper, but it doesn't support series.

I listen to a lot of music in general so i can't keep all my favorite in one place so i find these helpful a lot of cases especially if you starting to get into a new genre of music.

As a man who listens to absolutely massive amounts of music, I just have to ask: what exactly prevents you from keeping your music on your HDD? Neatly and accurately in one folder named "Music". And as much subfolders as you want. Though even subfolders are optional - with something like MP3Tag and sorted out tags, it's as easy to navigate as humanly possible. The only trouble is that MP3Tag takes several minutes to read through my whole collection every time I launch it, but it's a minor thing.
It's comfortable - plus you own the files and can make minor adjustments, like cutting off slow intros you do not like or fix pops and clicks in bad vinyl rips.

 

[Venomnik0]

what exactly prevents you from keeping your music on your HDD?

It isnt the fact that its difficult. It's just a bit costly. Not every normie has more even more than 500gb on their computers. 1TB is enough to get working but it adds up over time.

 

[Ross_Я]

It isnt the fact that its difficult. It's just a bit costly. Not every normie has more even more than 500gb on their computers. 1TB is enough to get working but it adds up over time.

I guess it can become an issue if you use FLAC. But all my music is strictly mp3 and I have a 500 GB HDD that serves me since... I dunno, for a long time, it's a 500 GB HDD. The sticker that, I think, supposed to carry the date or something is plain white at this point. But at least since 2016 or so. And music only takes about a half of the HDD space.

I gotta add that 500 GB HDD is my "active" external HDD. One of many ones, obviously, but it is the HDD I keep my music on, so, I dunno... Kind of applies... I think.

 

[Deleted member 7044]

I guess it can become an issue if you use FLAC. But all my music is strictly mp3 and I have a 500 GB HDD that serves me since... I dunno, for a long time, it's a 500 GB HDD. The sticker that, I think, supposed to carry the date or something is plain white at this point. But at least since 2016 or so. And music only takes about a half of the HDD space.

I can confirm that as someone who deals with FLAC and MP3. My personal collection of music are all MP3s and it only takes up ~50GB currently. Meanwhile the FLAC copies I have on another drive for seeding are several times larger.

 

[Ross_Я]

Meanwhile the FLAC copies I have on another drive for seeding are several times larger.

I throw all the FLACs for seeding to a friend of mine who has a stack of 14 TB drives he ordered from China XD
Cannot really spare any space for FLACs, space is tight.

 

[Venomnik0]

I guess it can become an issue if you use FLAC. But all my music is strictly mp3 and I have a 500 GB HDD that serves me since... I dunno, for a long time, it's a 500 GB HDD. The sticker that, I think, supposed to carry the date or something is plain white at this point. But at least since 2016 or so. And music only takes about a half of the HDD space.

I gotta add that 500 GB HDD is my "active" external HDD. One of many ones, obviously, but it is the HDD I keep my music on, so, I dunno... Kind of applies... I think.

Oh yeah this applies to FLACs. I prefer even if it might not be the most efficient in terms of storage size. However I follow a general rule of thumb of getting mp3 320 kbps for first time albums and full on FLACs for albums I dearly love. No major difference of course but respect to my favorites.

 

[abraKadabra]

Might be off topic, but in my opinion, marginalising the mp3 format by so-called "music experts" has been an idiotic trend for a very long time. And people just need to understand that being an audiophile doesn't equal having a good music taste at all, as well as the other way around. I personally am so tired of certain shitheads showing off their "understanding of music" by sticking their nose in every conversation and yelling crap like "Listening to mp3s are like playing the demo of a game and thinking you've experienced all of it", or "Do you listen to music in mp3? LOL, did you know mp3 files are sooo limited in quality that listening to anything that way is considered a crime against the REAL AUDIO?" (ok, nobody really says that, but you've got my point).

So it leads to FLAC, a very specific format for very specific use, being used the wrong way by the people who don't really need it. For example, there are a plenty of shitty album rips converted to FLAC, dumped on torrents and labeled as "100% Clean Authentic Original Ultra Audio", as well as a ton of comments underneath reading "OMG thanks! That's what I call the REAL high quality!". This happens even on private music trackers once in a while! The reasonable question here is: if the majority of music nerds aren't really audiophiles and just pretend to be able to tell the difference between a quality mp3 track and a crappy FLAC track, WHY THE FUCK music nerds even need FLAC? I personally, as a certified music nerd, rarely use it, because it's big, dumb and isn't worth it most of the times. And I call for all the decent people out there to follow my example, stop pretending to be something you are not, stop fucking with 10TB Chinese HDDs and just embrace the mp3 format, because it's not that bad, for fuck's sake.

 

[Deerhunter]

Emphasis on new. Every second time I watch for a movie, it's a nightmare. And why the fuck people do not bother ripping subtitles off their DVDs? You are ripping it anyway - rip the fucking subs, asshole!
On a side note: anyone has an Amazon Prime or Apple TV account and knows how to rip subs off it? I know there's an Apple TV sub scraper, but it doesn't support series.

i personally don't have to deal with that problem but that should definitely be an option for people wanting to get into media internationally.

As a man who listens to absolutely massive amounts of music, I just have to ask: what exactly prevents you from keeping your music on your HDD? Neatly and accurately in one folder named "Music". And as much subfolders as you want. Though even subfolders are optional - with something like MP3Tag and sorted out tags, it's as easy to navigate as humanly possible. The only trouble is that MP3Tag takes several minutes to read through my whole collection every time I launch it, but it's a minor thing.
It's comfortable - plus you own the files and can make minor adjustments, like cutting off slow intros you do not like or fix pops and clicks in bad vinyl rips.

im gonna be blunt and say its mostly cause my internal storage on my computer is small (50GB) and because of fear of just fucking up my computer again. i have a potato of a computer, i've had it for over half a decade now and i've been clumsy with it or just straight up unlucky when it gets damaged. I definitely made an attempt to sort my music in folders and files alike and had moderate success with it until my storage began clogging up and at one point had only 3GB of storage left in the internal drive causing me to delete a large number of them just to let my computer breathe. even after i switched to linux i get worried that i might get carried away again and not let my computer operate properly. so i opted to front ends instead. i can really always use the flash drive i got last year when i attempted to dual boot linux with windows but the fear i get still fucks with me. feels embarrassing to even talk about it at times yknow?

 

[Ross_Я]

50GB

50?! How? One movie nowadays can weight that much. Or just one video game. Heck, I'm pretty sure Win10 won't even let you install itself on a 50 GB drive. Just... how do you operate with that?
Also, is it an old drive with those old PATA connectors, huge 4-pin molex for power? Or are there SATA drives that are that small out there?

i've had it for over half a decade now

One thing you shouldn't diss is the age. My current PC has been assembled in 2018. My previous PC served me for about 12 years. Probably more. And, as a matter of fact, still operational.

i can really always use the flash drive

No. One thing you definitely should not use is a flash drive. HDD or SSD, but not flash drive.

Overall, well, I see your problem. What can I say. It's a pity. I cannot imagine my life without owning files locally, and once my current HDDs will run out of space, I'll buy new ones like I usually do, whatever it takes. HDDs are like water to me.

 

[eris]

Emphasis on new. Every second time I watch for a movie, it's a nightmare. And why the fuck people do not bother ripping subtitles off their DVDs? You are ripping it anyway - rip the fucking subs, asshole!
On a side note: anyone has an Amazon Prime or Apple TV account and knows how to rip subs off it? I know there's an Apple TV sub scraper, but it doesn't support series.


As a man who listens to absolutely massive amounts of music, I just have to ask: what exactly prevents you from keeping your music on your HDD? Neatly and accurately in one folder named "Music". And as much subfolders as you want. Though even subfolders are optional - with something like MP3Tag and sorted out tags, it's as easy to navigate as humanly possible. The only trouble is that MP3Tag takes several minutes to read through my whole collection every time I launch it, but it's a minor thing.
It's comfortable - plus you own the files and can make minor adjustments, like cutting off slow intros you do not like or fix pops and clicks in bad vinyl rips.

You might want to look at Bazarr. I use this for pulling in subtitles from a variety of sources when things I download don't come with them. If they're out of sync, I use Subsync to resynchronize them.

 

[Ross_Я]

You might want to look at Bazarr. I use this for pulling in subtitles from a variety of sources when things I download don't come with them. If they're out of sync, I use Subsync to resynchronize them.

Thank you, I will check it out.
And no worries about syncs, I use Aegisub anyway. The whole reason I want subs is because I want to translate them on russian and upload the show on a local torrent. I myself is fine without translation.
I might try to create subs with AI or something - I've heard there's an option nowadays - if everything else will fail. But it would be cool to have official original subs in the package.

Edit: well, that was quick.

I have Win10, but... uh, switching to it just to run a test for this software... I'll try it later.

 

[Venomnik0]

Just... how do you operate with that?

feels embarrassing to even talk about it at times yknow?

Nothing embarrassing about it friend. Its a common issue that happens when you hold alot and archive alot of storage. That's really the cost in all honesty and what I mainly reason about when I said that storage tends to be problem and why streaming is so dominative. Though.... how come you have less storage than S20 FE (128 gb). Bruh plz fix and get an ssd when you can.

For example, there are a plenty of shitty album rips converted to FLAC, dumped on torrents and labeled as "100% Clean Authentic Original Ultra Audio", as well as a ton of comments underneath reading "OMG thanks! That's what I call the REAL high quality!".

Pretty much how I felt when I downloaded a FLAC of SAW 98 and it sounded like total shit that could cause my ear drums to bleed. I don't know how'd you'd fuck up SAW but here we are. Still have the files I believe (which makes me upset everytime that shit ends up on my ipod). Also tell those FLAC snobs there's no difference between MP3 320kbps and FLAC 1400. Unless they got a triple hi-fi audio from jesus himself that costs about 10k, they're not going to tell the difference. Anybody who is is going schizo.

full on FLACs for albums I dearly love.

That includes myself.

 

[Venomnik0]

Thank you, I will check it out.
And no worries about syncs, I use Aegisub anyway. The whole reason I want subs is because I want to translate them on russian and upload the show on a local torrent. I myself is fine without translation.
I might try to create subs with AI or something - I've heard there's an option nowadays - if everything else will fail. But it would be cool to have official original subs in the package.

Edit: well, that was quick.
View attachment 87786

I have Win10, but... uh, switching to it just to run a test for this software... I'll try it later.

I swear to god I could never figure out/get *-arr shit to work.

 

[Deerhunter]

50?! How? One movie nowadays can weight that much. Or just one video game. Heck, I'm pretty sure Win10 won't even let you install itself on a 50 GB drive. Just... how do you operate with that?
Also, is it an old drive with those old PATA connectors, huge 4-pin molex for power? Or are there SATA drives that are that small out there?

well 56 to be more specific but yeah. i mainly have that be operated with as little software and programs installed as possible when i was still on windows. because of the bloatware or just flat out not being able to unistall windows programs or software, what was left in my storage was usually around 17 to 11 GB left in storage at best. i wasn't even aware that 56 GB was small until i found out when attempting to dual boot linux on my computer with the help of a friend. with linux its way more manageable now but im still having to choose carefully on what to install.

One thing you shouldn't diss is the age. My current PC has been assembled in 2018. My previous PC served me for about 12 years. Probably more. And, as a matter of fact, still operational.

thats true, old computers have their benefits despite their age and their own limits for when they were released. if it makes it any clear i use a lenovo laptop which is apperently used for lightwork productivity which explains a lot in my case but it still sucks.

No. One thing you definitely should not use is a flash drive. HDD or SSD, but not flash drive.

Overall, well, I see your problem. What can I say. It's a pity. I cannot imagine my life without owning files locally, and once my current HDDs will run out of space, I'll buy new ones like I usually do, whatever it takes. HDDs are like water to me.

Here's hoping i get a new laptop at all this year. my current one seems like its be going on long enough and is really not meant for me anymore. time will tell when ill get a new one though thats for sure.

 

[Venomnik0]

with linux its way more manageable now but im still having to choose carefully on what to install.

Bro now i wanna see how much space you'd save by getting something like Puppy Linux or a minimalist distro like arch or gentoo.