Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by thedanbob 1533 days ago
If I want a movie, I’ll generally wait for it to go on sale on iTunes, buy it there, and then strip the DRM so I can put it in Plex. That worked for everything except Dune; Apple improved their DRM for recent movies and nothing I’ve found can remove it. So, I pirated it. And I plan to do the same in the future (buy then pirate).

I’m happy to spend money, but no one is selling what I want: DRM-free digital movies/TV shows. We got there with music but now that streaming has taken over I doubt we’ll ever get there with video.
3 comments
joshstrange 1533 days ago
100% this. I pay for all the streaming services and I would happily pay for shows/movies on a per-title basis but getting a DRM free version (or sometimes even a high quality version, some stuff doesn't get released on Blu-ray) is like pulling teeth. I've said more times than I can count "I'd pay 200+/mo for a fully legal version of Plex" (in this case referencing a platform that had all my shows, one UI/UX, ability to watch offline/cache locally, etc), it just doesn't exist.
link
powerslacker 1533 days ago
I don't know about $200/month but I am 100% on board with paying for DRM free entertainment.
link
accidentalthief 1533 days ago
> buy then pirate

I used to do this.

I stopped because too much of a % of what I pay goes to various forms of overhead (distributors/apple/amazon/studio/production company/etc/etc) vs what is going to the actual creatives involved.

I take the money I would have spent instead on streaming services and donate it via patreon to a few creators I enjoy, mostly youtube channels.

Legally? I know I'm doing something completely illegal (but so is buy-then-pirate!)

Morally? I'll live. I don't think what I'm doing is wrong.

I still buy when I know (enough of) the money is going to the people who actually created the content and not some MBAs.

link
tambeb 1533 days ago
Bought this little guy[1] back in 2015 to get around DRM and rip, with the exact same philosophy as you. I'm happy to buy, but if I buy it I'm gonna own it forever, regardless of account changes or ["AI" based auto-]shutdowns.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089DSLMY/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_B3R9...

link