[HN Gopher] Pirating "The Pirate Bay" TV Series Is Ironically Di...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Pirating "The Pirate Bay" TV Series Is Ironically Difficult
        
       Author : HieronymusBosch
       Score  : 89 points
       Date   : 2024-11-08 17:37 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (torrentfreak.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (torrentfreak.com)
        
       | lysace wrote:
       | Streaming https://www.svtplay.se/the-pirate-bay works via e.g.
       | Mullvad VPN (pick a Swedish location).
       | 
       | It only has audio and subtitles in Swedish though, so...
        
       | thisislife2 wrote:
       | I think this article is jumping the gun ... Give it time ... I
       | hadn't even heard of this show, and so obviously wasn't even
       | looking for it ... And if it is in Swedish, I'll also have to
       | wait for the complete English subtitles before I can watch it.
       | (And personally, I've found that pirated TV shows / movies that
       | are not English are, in general, difficult to find online).
        
         | Dylan16807 wrote:
         | They want to talk about the series so the article isn't really
         | jumping the gun. The title is just their hook.
        
         | deaddodo wrote:
         | I literally found it in two seconds on one of the most popular
         | non-legit streaming sites. Checked two others, and it's there
         | as well.
         | 
         | The article author has no idea what they're talking about.
        
           | meowster wrote:
           | I may be ignorant, but streaming is not the same as
           | torrenting, and The Pirate Bay is known for the latter.
        
             | colecut wrote:
             | you can couple a torrent service with something like put.io
             | and now it's a streaming service =p
        
             | deaddodo wrote:
             | Not ignorant. Definitely overpedantic.
             | 
             | The Pirate Bay is known for its championing piracy, in
             | general. Those streaming sites are piracy. They also
             | usually use the same source videos as those found on
             | torrent sites; if not outright acting as a thin media
             | player on top of torrents, in some cases.
        
           | crtasm wrote:
           | The article was published over 5hrs before your comment, do
           | you know when those sites added the episodes?
        
       | whalesalad wrote:
       | Aw man does anyone remember way back in the day there was a TV
       | show produced by (I think Sony?) that was all about IRC pirating?
       | 
       | Edit: I think it was this, "The Scene"
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scene_(miniseries)
        
       | dscottboggs wrote:
       | AI generated bullshit slop it just hasn't made it to public
       | trackers yet
        
       | 0x38B wrote:
       | It's funny how much better the Russian torrent tracker
       | <<Rutracker>> is for foreign movies and serials, this show
       | included. I love foreign movies and shows, and sometimes I
       | literally can't pay to watch it.
        
         | diggan wrote:
         | > sometimes I literally can't pay to watch it.
         | 
         | Yup. Top 2 reasons I became a pirate again after not being a
         | pirate since maybe 15 years ago:
         | 
         | #1 I literally couldn't give someone money to watch/listen to
         | what I wanted
         | 
         | #2 I was paying someone money to watch/listen to something and
         | then they removed it
         | 
         | Even popular things like Saturday Night Live are still
         | impossible to acquire legally in my country.
         | 
         | Edit: Forgot another point that became very annoying, the show
         | is available but not with the subtitles I want and/or need. For
         | example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't
         | let me have English subtitles for example. But if I use Swedish
         | Netflix, it would work, but technically breaking Netflix's ToS.
         | Content rights have completely fucked up the user experience.
        
           | crossroadsguy wrote:
           | # 3 There was 1 subscription streaming service to pay for,
           | then 2, then 3, then 4... and eventually I decided to stop
           | counting but the number kept on going up.
        
           | rightbyte wrote:
           | A big bullet point for me is that I find it unethical to
           | support most of the studios and media companies.
        
             | bazoom42 wrote:
             | How about just not consume their products then?
        
               | JackSlateur wrote:
               | I do that, too
        
               | bena wrote:
               | Right? "I don't like what you stand for or your views on
               | certain topics, _but_ I do want to enjoy the product you
               | make, so I feel justified in not compensating you for
               | partaking in the services you provide. "
               | 
               | Can I stiff my Uber driver if I don't agree with their
               | politics? If I don't like their car? Can my boss not pay
               | me for developing software if I didn't laugh enough at
               | his jokes?
               | 
               | We find it easy to say "no" in those cases. But because
               | media piracy is pretty easy to do and pretty difficult to
               | punish, we simply stop caring.
        
               | averageRoyalty wrote:
               | I agree with your core concept, but I don't think those
               | analogies are fair.
               | 
               | TV and movies are part of pop culture and depending on
               | your circle can be critical to have knowledge on for
               | social reasons. If something is unavailable to you due to
               | means outside of your control (licensing, internet speed,
               | accessibility of UI, etc) then there's more justification
               | to that than not paying your Uber driver based on
               | politics.
        
               | gruez wrote:
               | >TV and movies are part of pop culture and depending on
               | your circle can be critical to have knowledge on for
               | social reasons. If something is unavailable to you due to
               | means outside of your control (licensing, internet speed,
               | accessibility of UI, etc) then there's more justification
               | to that than not paying your Uber driver based on
               | politics.
               | 
               | TV and movies are "critical" because... you want to
               | partake in watercooler banter? I'm not sure how that's
               | more convincing than uber being "critical" because you
               | need it to get to work on time, or to get home safely
               | after drinking.
        
               | amtc80 wrote:
               | > Can I stiff my Uber driver if I don't agree with their
               | politics?
               | 
               | That would be an example of the opposite. Uber is pretty
               | much a tracker (peer-to-peer platform) for unlicensed
               | taxis.
        
             | __MatrixMan__ wrote:
             | Agreed.
             | 
             | I'd love a better way to pay the artists of the content I
             | end up torrenting--just so long as it actually gets to the
             | people who made the content and not the people turning the
             | world into a pile of telescreens.
        
             | karaterobot wrote:
             | As someone who pirates _a lot_ of movies and TV, I think it
             | 's hard to justify based on ethical arguments against the
             | industry. At a certain point, it feels like a wobbly
             | justification to say we like using something but refuse to
             | pay for it, and that's actually fighting the good fight.
             | Personally, I don't like some of what these companies do,
             | but I like other parts--like the movies and shows their
             | dark malevolence provides me. I have to admit that the real
             | reason I pirate is because it's more convenient and cheap.
        
               | freedomben wrote:
               | I would naturally tend to agree with you, and when it
               | comes to DRM-free things (like most music) I totally
               | agree, but I genuinely think financially supporting
               | companies using DRM is unethical. I used to buy (and
               | still would buy) a ton of ebooks and a fair amount of
               | movies/shows, but at this point I refuse to. The only
               | exception is Audible. I still buy a ton of audiobooks
               | from Audible (unless I can find them on Downpour or
               | another DRM-free site) because I think they've gotten to
               | a reasonably happy medium on the DRM. I would rather they
               | drop the DRM, but it's at least not a giant pain in the
               | ass to strip for people like me who really care about
               | that.
               | 
               | I strongly want to pay people for good content, and I
               | think they deserve to make some money for their work, but
               | as soon as they slap DRM on it to limit _my_ ability to
               | back it up, consume it on whatever device I want, etc,
               | the scales are tipped and I think piracy is actually
               | _more_ ethical than supporting such shit financially.
        
               | themadturk wrote:
               | Are you familiar with libro.fm?
        
           | js2 wrote:
           | I sometimes pay for things and then pirate them anyway
           | because I can adjust the subtitle position on the pirated
           | version. Or I can rely on being able to play them offline. Or
           | a dozen other reasons where the pirated version offers a
           | better UX.
        
             | zxilly wrote:
             | Maybe not related to this topic, but I was thinking about
             | certain games I purchased from Ubisoft. Whenever I open
             | Uplay, it asks me to log back in and enter a 2FA code. So
             | basically all my Ubisoft games are playing pirated versions
             | after purchase. By the way the anti-cheat system Ubisoft
             | uses, EAC, also refuses to work at the same time as GoLand,
             | so I can say that I really don't have a choice.
        
             | wolrah wrote:
             | > I sometimes pay for things and then pirate them anyway
             | because I can adjust the subtitle position on the pirated
             | version. Or I can rely on being able to play them offline.
             | Or a dozen other reasons where the pirated version offers a
             | better UX.
             | 
             | I've been doing this for years. I have a stack of Blu-Ray
             | discs I've never opened because I send a request to my home
             | server while I'm in line to check out at the store and by
             | the time I get home the exact same content on the disc I
             | just purchased has already landed there exactly as if I had
             | ripped it myself.
             | 
             | As you note, every element of the user experience is better
             | with the pirated copy and absolutely nothing is worse, even
             | for those who legitimately own it. The only way you compete
             | with free is by being better than the free offering, and
             | the home video industry just refuses to acknowledge that
             | reality.
        
               | throwup238 wrote:
               | Not every element: most pirated media lacks the extra
               | content of DVD/BluRay like commentary tracks. It's
               | relatively rare to find shows with commentary audio
               | tracks alongside the main audio.
               | 
               | Most people don't care about that though.
        
               | Sakos wrote:
               | These exist. I have tons of straight and remuxed Blu-ray
               | rips from certain sites that contain extra content and/or
               | commentary or other tracks. If you know the right sites
               | that specifically cater to people who want this stuff,
               | it's not a problem.
        
               | miki123211 wrote:
               | And audio description[1] tracks.
               | 
               | there are specialized pirate sources that cater to this
               | niche specifically, but most of them _only_ have the AD
               | tracks as MP3 files, without the actual video.
               | 
               | If you're watching with friends and your audience is a
               | mix of fully sighted and visually impaired people, and
               | you want both AD and video on the screen, you're in for a
               | world of pain.
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_description
        
             | Sakos wrote:
             | There are games I own on Steam where I'll prefer the
             | cracked version because of asinine publisher decisions like
             | forcing a third party launcher that often gets an update
             | which breaks it on the Steam Deck.
        
           | yieldcrv wrote:
           | #3 it ultimately got more inconvenient than pirating, just
           | like 20 years ago. the streaming apps simply matched parity
           | with the early 2000s piracy experience and then surpassed it,
           | but then the content licensing system made it lose its
           | advantages
        
           | Suppafly wrote:
           | >#1 I literally couldn't give someone money to watch/listen
           | to what I wanted
           | 
           | This, I'm constantly seeing reels and clips of shows and then
           | searching for "where to stream _x_ " on google and finding
           | out that not only is the show not available on any of the 5
           | or so paid services that I have access to, it's not available
           | for streaming at all, or if it is, it's by paying $3 per
           | episode.
        
             | karaterobot wrote:
             | In case you don't use this resource, try justwatch.com for
             | figuring out who streams what.
        
               | Suppafly wrote:
               | thanks I always forget the name of that site, just
               | searching on google works so-so, sometimes the AI thing
               | that structures the results now pops up a useful list and
               | sometimes you just links to sketchier versions of
               | justwatch.
        
               | karaterobot wrote:
               | It's not a great name. I always have to look up what it's
               | called by going into Letterboxd and seeing the co-
               | branding mark on a specific page. But, a neat service
               | nonetheless!
        
           | tuna74 wrote:
           | "Forgot another point that became very annoying, the show is
           | available but not with the subtitles I want and/or need. For
           | example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix
           | doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. But if I
           | use Swedish Netflix, it would work, but technically breaking
           | Netflix's ToS. Content rights have completely fucked up the
           | user experience."
           | 
           | I think you can set which subs (and audio tracks) should be
           | available in you Netflix profile. I can get chinese voice and
           | subs for a lot of stuff in Sweden.
           | 
           | It is the same for Disney+ as well.
        
             | diggan wrote:
             | > I think you can set which subs (and audio tracks) should
             | be available in you Netflix profile. I can get chinese
             | voice and subs for a lot of stuff in Sweden.
             | 
             | It's a geo-content restriction of some sorts. I'm guessing
             | some of the subtitles Netflix is leasing/renting/whatever,
             | they only lease for specific regions.
             | 
             | I'm 100% sure I've watched shows in the past on Netflix
             | where if I use a VPN to set my location to Sweden, I could
             | get English or Swedish subtitles, but if I use it without
             | VPN (so Spanish location), it would refuse to allow me the
             | English subtitles and instead allows Spanish or Swedish
             | subtitles.
             | 
             | I'm sure someone more knowledgeable knows exactly why that
             | is.
        
             | aniforprez wrote:
             | Last I checked, a lot of the time this is entirely
             | dependent on region. For eg. the Ghost in the Shell:
             | Standalone Complex series on Netflix exclusively has
             | English dubbing and English subtitles everywhere but Japan
             | but changing these settings did not make the Japanese audio
             | available anywhere else that I was able to find out. It's
             | also very annoying that sometimes the only subtitles
             | available are closed captions when I really only want
             | dialog subtitles. It's a real pain that all dialog and
             | subtitle options aren't available out of the gate for
             | everything.
        
             | deaddodo wrote:
             | No, Netflix/Max/Etc literally limit the options available
             | to you. They want to try to dissuade people from purchasing
             | those services at a discount in lower CoL regions, and
             | don't want to deal with multi-region licensing for
             | dubs/specific media/etc.
             | 
             | The only regions that give you carte blanche (in general)
             | language options are the anglophone countries and some EU
             | regions.
             | 
             | But they're also geocoded (presumably, for travelers), so
             | if you can get a VPN/tunnel that works, you can use another
             | regions' primary languages. Max, last I checked, is the
             | only one that outright limits usage outside of your region.
        
           | lukan wrote:
           | "For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix
           | doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. "
           | 
           | This is so weird, why are they doing this? That the localized
           | audio might have stupid local licenses ok, (or not ok) - but
           | even the subtitles?
        
         | changing1999 wrote:
         | There is a huge number of TV shows (e.g. old British comedy
         | shows) and movies (e.g. big releases from Trier) that are not
         | available to stream on any streaming service in the US. There
         | is no other option than to pirate. An astoundingly ridiculous
         | situation.
        
         | kelvinjps10 wrote:
         | For language learning (immersion based) piracy is the way,
         | Netflix doesn't allow me to watch most of foreign tv shows and
         | a bunch of tools like susbsr2, mpv and other work with the
         | local file
        
           | 0x38B wrote:
           | As someone who learns really well by listening - things I
           | hear tend to stick - audiobooks have been the most enjoyable
           | and immersive way to learn Russian and Ukrainian.
           | 
           | Returning to my favorite books is a concentrated dose of
           | spaced repetition; e.g. an Andy Weir book will have a lot of
           | scientific language, classics like the Lord of the Rings are
           | rich with literary language and description.
        
         | Yeul wrote:
         | Russian authorities don't cooperate with take downs. The US
         | government forces the world to comply.
        
         | redmajor12 wrote:
         | Christ, don't mention that tracker here!
        
       | drproteus wrote:
       | Never use public trackers (unless you're downloading Linux ISOs
       | of course).
        
         | neoromantique wrote:
         | Seedboxes are a good investment :)
        
         | diggan wrote:
         | > Never use public trackers
         | 
         | ... if you live in a country where the police don't have better
         | things to do.
         | 
         | There are plenty of countries where literally nothing happen no
         | matter how much you download/upload, even when using public
         | trackers. Police there tend to focus on people do the initial
         | uploading, if anything.
        
           | zxilly wrote:
           | Mostly the police don't care about this, it's the owners of
           | the copyrights who care , they might send an email to your
           | ISP and then you'll have to pay.
        
             | diggan wrote:
             | > they might send an email to your ISP and then you'll have
             | to pay
             | 
             | I've probably downloaded/uploaded 10s of TBs at this point,
             | in the two European countries I lived in since like two
             | decades ago, and never received a single letter or had to
             | pay anything. I'm sure there are more countries like these
             | two.
        
         | veggieWHITES wrote:
         | Been downloading literally whatever I feel like in Canada here
         | for the past few decades with nothing more than an email
         | forwarded to me from my ISP with some "threats" from the
         | original copyright owners :P
        
       | I_am_tiberius wrote:
       | The casting is absolutely amazing.
        
       | belorn wrote:
       | People may be unware of it, but yt-dlp has support for svtplay
       | and thus can access/download the show directly. It may be geo-ip
       | blocked however.
        
       | conradfr wrote:
       | Before reading the article I thought it would be because of the
       | name, like when it was hard to find the (great) album "The Music"
       | by the band "The Music" in the early 2000s.
        
         | changing1999 wrote:
         | Reminds me of the joke from Peep show about naming their band
         | "Various Artists".
        
       | NelsonMinar wrote:
       | FWIW I don't see any copies yet on nzbgeek.info, a popular Usenet
       | NZB tracker. Almost no releases at all from OLLONBORRE ever, for
       | that matter, that's the scene group the article discusses.
        
       | lake_trade wrote:
       | Has anyone here seen/remember Welcome to the Scene series on
       | YouTube? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC2FCB2871C396459
       | 
       | I found it to be quite nice, there is a second season as well
       | something related to ammunitions smuggling.
        
       | GinsengJar wrote:
       | People speculated From Software named the player's horse mount in
       | Eldrin Ring Torrent for the same reason.
        
       | palata wrote:
       | The intro says:
       | 
       | "[...] made its debut [...] earlier today. International viewers
       | are left waiting until other services pick it up. In the
       | meantime, [...] finding a pirated copy is proving surprisingly
       | difficult."
       | 
       | I don't see the irony there: if it is so new that it is hard to
       | find through legit channels, it makes total sense to me that it
       | may be hard to torrent. I wouldn't make any conclusion on the day
       | of the launch.
        
       | deadlypointer wrote:
       | The TPB Afk is a really good documentary about this IMO, not sure
       | how this series will compare to that.
        
       | bastloing wrote:
       | I can't wait until I can just copy and paste the description or
       | plot into an AI and have it generate the whole series or movie.
       | Lionsgate and Runway teaming up should make that possible.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2024-11-08 23:01 UTC)