Lensloking your netflix - new tactics to stop credential sharing

[Bombastinator]

21 minutes ago, amdorintel said:

they know how to pay less taxes and funnel money

Several “they”s available, but yes.  It’s something of a world wide phenomena I understand.  It does seem to me to be particularly bad in the US.  I lack perspective though, so it’s hard for me to know. Wealthy individuals and companys not infrequently dont pay any taxes at all.  They get tax breaks on the promise of future taxes that don’t materialize because the company moves or something happens, or whatnot.

[amdorintel]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

Several “they”s available

ok everyone who is half decently smart

ok every company that is half decently smart

 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, amdorintel said:

ok everyone who is half decently smart

ok every company that is half decently smart

 

It’s not a question of smart, it’s a question of possible.  “Smart” and “unethical” are not the same thing.  There seems to be a confusion about that atm in the US.

[amdorintel]

smart is saving your money from being wasted, forcing the wasters to be more wise. the only way for that is through pain and suffering

[Thaldor]

27 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Several “they”s available, but yes.  It’s something of a world wide phenomena I understand.  It does seem to me to be particularly bad in the US.  I lack perspective though, so it’s hard for me to know. Wealthy individuals and companys not infrequently dont pay any taxes at all.  They get tax breaks on the promise of future taxes that don’t materialize because the company moves or something happens, or whatnot.

What they do is that they basicly "loan" money from some sister/daughter company that resides in a country with extremely low business taxation. When the yearly time comes to see the profits by what the taxes are paid, the company just happens to pay back that "loan" and they make 0 profit, so they don't need to pay any taxes because they didn't make any profits. Also companies move their incomes to these "tax paradise" companies to minimize their profits and to make headroom for future "profits", as in Google Finland runs one of the biggest serverhalls in Finland and handles the marketing of Googles services, but when you pay for Google Ads, you pay them to Google Ireland and so for years Google Finland has had 0€ profits (more or less they have made huge losses and wanna know what company has given them loan money, you guessed correctly, Google Ireland) and paid taxes 0€. In EU that country where companies keep their "headquarters" is Ireland, in international level that has always been Panama and there's probably couple more that I now don't remember.

That's in short and hastly explaned what "creative accounting" is.

 

E: Also this is why you can see company like Netflix being unprofitable, because what they don't pay out to investors, they usual pay out to pay for their loans which may or may not be for a companies that are within the same investor circle. Like Google probably doesn't do any profit and if it would it is in immense debt to Alphabet and they would pay off that debt while Alphabet resides in some less taxed country and does immense amounts of profits.

[suicidalfranco]

1 hour ago, Caroline said:

 

 

so this?

[Bombastinator]

33 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

What they do is that they basicly "loan" money from some sister/daughter company that resides in a country with extremely low business taxation. When the yearly time comes to see the profits by what the taxes are paid, the company just happens to pay back that "loan" and they make 0 profit, so they don't need to pay any taxes because they didn't make any profits. Also companies move their incomes to these "tax paradise" companies to minimize their profits and to make headroom for future "profits", as in Google Finland runs one of the biggest serverhalls in Finland and handles the marketing of Googles services, but when you pay for Google Ads, you pay them to Google Ireland and so for years Google Finland has had 0€ profits (more or less they have made huge losses and wanna know what company has given them loan money, you guessed correctly, Google Ireland) and paid taxes 0€. In EU that country where companies keep their "headquarters" is Ireland, in international level that has always been Panama and there's probably couple more that I now don't remember.

That's in short and hastly explaned what "creative accounting" is.

 

E: Also this is why you can see company like Netflix being unprofitable, because what they don't pay out to investors, they usual pay out to pay for their loans which may or may not be for a companies that are within the same investor circle. Like Google probably doesn't do any profit and if it would it is in immense debt to Alphabet and they would pay off that debt while Alphabet resides in some less taxed country and does immense amounts of profits.

Tax sheltering is an opaque and ever changing thing.  I know little to nothing about how it works.

[RejZoR]

I'm on basic single user SD quality anyway. Because Netflix's shit policy of only getting 720p in browsers (and frankly it looks more like 576p) even though you're forced to use stupid Widevine and you're actually paying for 1080p, but not getting it unless you use clumsy Win10 app.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, amdorintel said:

smart is saving your money from being wasted, forcing the wasters to be more wise. the only way for that is through pain and suffering

“Waste”. That used to be a traditional cry of the US far right from the 1980’s.   That’s how we got “ketchup is a vegetable”.  It didn’t prove to be true.  “Waste” was something that didn’t benefit them personally in a way they could conveniently measure.  They were more than willing to waste.  It’s how we got tax and spend vs. borrow and spend.

[amdorintel]

well either way, need to know how to take advantage of whatever in place to benefit from

[Roswell]

5 hours ago, RejZoR said:

I'm on basic single user SD quality anyway. Because Netflix's shit policy of only getting 720p in browsers (and frankly it looks more like 576p) even though you're forced to use stupid Widevine and you're actually paying for 1080p, but not getting it unless you use clumsy Win10 app.

What's wrong with the app?

[jagdtigger]

5 hours ago, Vitamanic said:

What's wrong with the app?

Cant use it outside crapware10, ios, and android(<- not if rooted, part of the reason why i ditched them)? And when you use lets say firefox on linux the max is 720p because they think it isnt secure enough and pirates would get full quality rips easily...  Its both scummy and ineffective.

[RejZoR]

5 hours ago, Vitamanic said:

What's wrong with the app?

It's slow and clumsy to use.

[MadDuke]

I really wonder how they will go about it considering GDPR in EU. 

No, you don't need to have IP information for anything other than historical records. So no, for You multiple IPs simply mean that a person has 4 different ISPs at home for all intents and purposes. 

And for many places with crappy connection people actually use 4G flat rate modems to access the internet so you don't have the distinction between a phone or a land locked ISP and all the ISPs (at least all those with 90%+ of market dominance) offer that service

 

Also. I know many who if they couldn't have account sharing would simply switch to illegal content because no one wants to pay 16€ per month for 4K Netflix access with a seriously run down library.  And they watch content (because of that library) as much as a single person would in the US anyway. 

 

Not to mention that with CBS-All Access, HBO, Disney, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon...  Ain't nobody gonna pay for all that

 

[Bombastinator]

Netflix is likely feeling the heat also from the explosion of new streaming competitors like Disney+ and DC Universe, and a host of others.

 

this seems like a move that would benefit competitors more than itself to me.  Maybe they’ve done testing and the testing is accurate.  Maybe it’s not. Maybe this is the testing.

[EldritchMoose]

On 11/10/2019 at 2:58 PM, TimeOmnivore said:

This sounds like they're either pulling numbers out of their ass or assuming people who pirate and/or use their family/friends' accounts would pay for those services themselves, which is an idiotic assumption to make. Such a nonsensical claim.

You know what this sounds like? It sounds like the way the RIAA is convinced that they have lost more money due to illegal downloading than exists on the planet. It'll be some bullshit number that only works on the assumption that anyone who watched something on Netflix would have also signed up if they were forced to.

 

I stopped downloading when legally obtaining media became accessible and affordable, but that doesn't mean that I consume as much media now than I did when I was still in college. If I feel like watching something like Blade 2 and it's not on any of the services I'm subscribed to, I'm not going to buy the DVD or subscribe to Netflix just to get that incidental viewing in. I'll just have to watch something else while waiting for a chance to come up.