[elijaht]

I watch a decent amount of movies, I can count on one hand the number of times I couldn’t rent it for <$5 on Prime or YouTube. I’ve never been unable to identify where I could find a particular movie to stream, and it’s certainly less effort than going to a physical storefront.

I think there are plenty of problems with the streaming model, but I think it’s borderline bad faith to try and make the claim that piracy is needed because it’s hard to navigate streaming sites. It’s certainly easier than finding obscure movies was pre-streaming

[Spastche]

>I watch a decent amount of movies, I can count on one hand the number of times I couldn’t rent it for <$5 on Prime or YouTube.

delve deep into most directors filmography from the 60s/70s/80s and you'll find plenty missing. Ken Russell, Robert Altman, etc

[LeonardoTolstoy]

You have to go pretty deep though for the record. At least, using one of your examples, for Altman if you look at his top 25 films on Letterboxd, 20 of them are available to rent or stream online. And for me at least the other five I can get at the library. There are none that are totally unavailable of those 25.

[freedomben]

Yep. I watch a lot of movies and TV shows from the 60s and below, and they are often not available to stream legitimately anywhere, and the only option is the occasional DVD release on Amazon which is hit or miss.

[MichaelBosworth]

It happens to me often enough. Might be a matter of taste in movies?

[elijaht]

I’m sure it’s related. I’m curious for any examples

[WarOnPrivacy]

I regularly run into shows and movies no one will carry.

A recent example is Hot l Baltimore. It's an early Norman Lear production and stared James Cromwell and Charlotte Rae.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_l_Baltimore

I planned to add Turn On (1969), Tim Conway. It was canceled while the 1st episode was airing.

But since the last time I looked for it, some ethical soul uploaded it to wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn-On

[WarOnPrivacy]

BBC: This Was the Week That Was. TV, aired 1962-1963

NBC: This Was the Week That Was. TV, aired 1963-1965. Someone found acetate audio recordings of two episodes and ripped them to YT. An act of culture, done in spite of rights holders.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtVRJ2qdYw4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pprBfg6OSRM

[ziml77]

Not a movie, but Police Squad is missing from streaming services. It's strange given it spawned 3 movies and now we even have an upcoming sequel to those.

[lupusreal]

Even when Amazon Prime has it, the rental terms are dogshit. I used to rent VHS and DVDs from the store and got to watch them as many times as I wanted for a week. With Amazon Prime, once I start watching it I only have 48 hours and then I have to rent it again. Friends coming over in 3 days and you think they'll like the movie you just rented? Too bad, have to pay them again.

It's flagrant bullshit that physical media, with real scarcity, had better rental terms than digital.

So why the hell shouldn't I pirate it? I get a better product, it's free, and all the people who made it are dead now anyway so spare me any bullshit moralizing.

[sib]

You may know this, but these rental terms are typically driven by the studio that published the film, not the TVOD service provider (Amazon in this case).

I know that it doesn't change the customer experience, but it's worth being angry at the right people...