I think Gabe Newell said it best when he said "
Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem".
"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the U.S. release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty."
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gronkpan @vomitinglarry.bsky.social, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:06,
Reply)
Gabe Newell who set up one of the best DRM solutions "steam"?
Netflix, iTunes, lovefilm all have digital download to name a few.
Not to mention many cable TV packagings include pay per few.
I like steam but I wouldn't suggest for a moment it's DRM free.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:18,
Reply)
I've been testing some of those
definitely a step in the right direction!
Quality is pretty darned poor for a fully paid up service tho, on most anyway, none seem to have quite got it right yet, but glad they're trying!
*edit* which I guess again proves my case a lil bit, if we aren't yet capable of putting films on online streaming commercially in a decent enough quality to be acceptable to the paying public, why are we suing the asses off those folks showing the dreadful quality stuff for free? If you can't yet provide a decent alternative that works, what sales are you protecting?
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..wil, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:21,
Reply)
The quality should be ok as reports from netflex seem to be 1gb an hour.
thats 1080p quality levels.
of course you need to be able to handle that bandwidth on your side though.
I can get a 1.5gb UDK build downloaded in about 10 minutes but I have a good connection.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:28,
Reply)
It's not that, the problem is one of compression
they seem to have pretty nasty problems of colour and shade, detail, it's not even as good as DVD quality on Lovefilm, like watchin an old VHS tape that's been stabilised in post, not great!
Netflix is better, my mate has it, but it still has problems, particularly with frame rate, not bad tho!
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..wil, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:33,
Reply)
My neighbout really needs to get a faster connection.
It takes me about 20mins to download a film over her wifi, the bitch.
(, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:45, Reply)
must be all the bingo she is playing
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fluffybunnykiller Is feasting on the clitoris of life, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 12:08,
Reply)
I didn't suggest it's DRM free.
He is directly competing with pirates - it's about as easy to download a game on a torrent site as it is to download from steam, yet somehow he makes money hand over fist. He provides a service and people give him their money.
There isn't a way to get this kind of service for films or tv shows yet, I have to use a fucking VPN if I want to watch shows on hulu or netflix.
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gronkpan @vomitinglarry.bsky.social, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:25,
Reply)
That ^
Very much that, the big companies and their silly global restrictions and public relations disaster teams of lawyers REALLY need to have a rethink, time advances, markets change, audience demands and needs change, and when you're not making enough profits from your wares no more suing every damned alternate or new media capable of supporting your content is NOT the way forward! FFS.
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..wil, Wed 14 Mar 2012, 10:19,
Reply)