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Comment by tluyben2 | Hacker News Reader

Exactly. Everything is already available and there are really simple ways to find, download, watch and even stream everything but they all have hurdles; how to know the quality you download, download speed (not everyone has fiber or Starlink etc), riddled with fakes, malware etc. Then streaming services that are illegal: again; finding good quality, porn ads popping up during watching, crypto miners in your browser, application installation attempts etc.

It is just far easier to just watch Netflix etc; if it had no drm, the vast majority would not change anything I would think, especially because the GP already said: no-one cares about drm. If they don’t care it doesn’t matter either way for most people (not the handful of Hn readers). It is like privacy; the vast majority of people don’t care; just the few that worry about dystopia.

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'Illegal' streaming services are legal for private use where I live. In German there is a huge market with many sites featuring basically any movie in different quality settings. I have an adblock, no idea which kind of evil ads they usually use. With Kodi I also have all of that on my TV available just as easy as Netflix.

However many if not most people still use Netflix even thought they have no real reason to.

Just as a heads up: to my knowledge that's not correct in Germany. It's only highly unlikely to get "abgemahnt" in addition to the difficulty of obtaining IP addresses of users in comparison to alternatives such as Torrents. But not getting caught != legal.

Streaming from a „offensichtlich rechtswidrige Vorlage“ (§ 53 UrhG.) is not legal. That has been clarified by a decision from the EuGH in 2017.

I'm not a lawyer though and this isn't legal advice. Let me know if there have been verdicts and legal proceedings stating the contrary.

I am Swiss. I just use German internet. Should have made this more clear

> With Kodi I also have all of that on my TV available just as easy as Netflix.

As an additional warning, some kodi addons are torrent based and thus potentially risky in germany without using an anonymisation service like a vpn

Most Kodi plugins for the German market are based on direct downloads. I too wouldn't recommend this to user from a more strict country, however it's completely legal to download for private reasons here in Switzerland

Many people in NL (my country) also think it's legal, while it's not. Are you sure it is legal and not just a persistent untruth?

Anyway; what adblocker? I use adblock plus and it works for most sites, but not these type of sites; they seem to use every trick in the book.

I'm not sure what they're using but ublock origin is the go to these days.

UBlock + PiHole. Also I am Swiss not German. It's actually legal for private use here.

Yeah, however better protect that router access, as in Germany you are responsible for anyone that accesses the Internet via it.

So that private use can quickly become public for those less technically inclined.

https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/digitale-welt/mobi...

was removed?

I wasn't aware of it. Thanks for pointing it out.

> iddled with fakes, malware

I've never had fakes nor malware in ~10 years of downloading stuff.

I haven't either, but it's absolutely true that streaming has taken a massive bite out of my downloading stuff.

Ultimately, it should be easy. If using Netflix and Disney+ is easier than using the Pirate Bay, then I gladly pay for Netflix and Disney+. If it becomes harder, more frustrating, fragmented, ad-riddled, or I need additional subscriptions to access the stuff I want, at some point the Pirate Bay becomes more convenient again.

That's not the case for me, as Netflix and Disney+ don't have what I want to watch.

10 years? Downloading stuff off the internet goes way longer than that

There are plenty of fakes and mislabelings. some malware (especially on the download software)

And before anyone complains, nobody needs a movie to take more than 700MB ;)

The answer to your first paragraph is "newsgroup" + tooling.

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