Lensloking your netflix - new tactics to stop credential sharing

[CarlBar]

1 minute ago, Levent said:

there are private trackers that still seed stuff that was released in 2006. Most of the newer more hip trackers are like that.

 

There's allways going to be people ripping niche stuff as well, but generally on the internet if you want somthing the more sources there are th more likely your going to be able to find it. This is a good rule of thumb actually for everything on the internet. You can find almost anything on it somwhere, but actually digging up anything specific if it's niche enough is a major challenge.

[Trik'Stari]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Same old same old.  “We can make a tiny bit more money if we make our product worse.”

Reality:

[Everyone Disliked That]

[Piracy Has Increased]

[FloRolf]

So you are saying I'm not allowed to actually use the 4 accounts I'm paying for? 

 

I mean, if Netflix was to offer a 4k package with only 1 account for (much) less I'd take that instead. 

[Bombastinator]

53 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

 

 

Even the pirates who are ripping stuff for the challenge for free are generally going to focus on content they think people will be interested in. If there's no demand for somthing they won't bother. And demand is going to be heavily driven by a combination of financial and ease of access pressures. So if entflix makes things harder there will be an upswing in people looking for content from there leading to more availability.

Assumes the problem is a drop in interest rather than an increase in difficulty.  Might be true.  Possibly both at the same time.  Still it’s clear that the media streaming corporation believe they have the upper hand and are beginning to commence the same old same old thing of “we have the market share and have corralled the options of the consumer so we can now commence to squeeze our trapped victims”.  This is going to be a when not whether thing I think.  The way things are supposed to work is a body of the people like a government is supposed to step in and limit the amount of that squeezing, either by allowing multiple options through antitrust, or other regulation.  Those bodies are largely broken now though.

[TetraSky]

"without paying for it"
 

... But it IS being paid though.

Just because it's not used in the same household, doesn't make it an unpaid service.
Take netflix, if you want more users on the account, you need to pay extra, there's no difference between the users being in the same house and being on the go or in a different home, it's still being paid for.

 

These companies are just greedy and want ALL of the money instead of just "some" of it. Ideally, I bet they'd want every single person to pay for their own account, regardless of whether they live in the same house or not.

[Derangel]

The talk of how much money they're "losing" due to password sharing reminds me of the music industry claiming to "lose" more billions of dollars than they make to piracy. Just like that claim, this one is pure BS. The assumption that everyone sharing would buy their own sub is completely false. Cracking down on sharing hardcore is only going to make people cancel. What they should do is create a plan designed for sharing. Its not like Netflix and others don't know when you're sharing, but they foolishly believe everyone will subscribe to them just because.

[BuckGup]

I would actually be more inclined to say this would lead to less revenue and more piracy. They should actually study how humans act and react. Not this made up world of how people act

[Sakkura]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

That’s not quite how it works. You seem to be switching between measurement systems.  Debt requires debt service.  Interest.  If the profit number includes that debt service the amount of debt doesn’t matter.  If it doesn’t the interest on that debt becomes important.

 

there is another way to approximate that number by comparing asset value to debt value.  Their assets are over twice their debt.  At least according to the numbers given.  How good those are I don’t know

https://www.netflixinvestor.com/financials/financial-statements/default.aspx

 

The $26B assets figure is accurate as of the end of 2018; it's up to $31B by the end of September this year.

 

"Debt" is a little more debatable as to what you include. But even total liabilities falls well short of their assets, the difference being equity. $5B at the end of 2018, almost $7B by the end of September. They're making so much money their equity, the amount of money the stockholders own on paper, has gone up over 30% in 9 months.

[PlayStation 2]

My DVD and VHS collection is looking better by the day because of the bullshit ya gotta deal with when it comes to streaming.

[Unixsystem]

This time we're going to stop the piracy. Just you watch. 

[ZacoAttaco]

19 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Same old same old.  “We can make a tiny bit more money if we make our product worse.”

I agree that it's likely making the product worse, no doubt about it. Which sucks, but I doubt it's a 'tiny bit more money'. One firm estimates it at $135 million each month with about 13.7 million 'freeloaders'. That's about 1.62 billion annually. These companies are all about profit in the end.

[ravenshrike]

17 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

Hey, I've got two TV's, 4 iPads, a Samsung and Windows tablet, a few phones, and 3 computers. 

 

I'm a single user and each of those devices are mine and no one else's. If they start pestering me over "guesses", I will cancel my account after a complaint goes unheard. I see this as another example that these schmucks have to be broken up for the sake of competition and the overall economy. 

All of which probably log in from the same ip address, except maybe the phones. Although if you've used the phone wifi to watch Netflix before they know that phone has been at the primary location too. Which means you're a single user/family who accesses it from one location except when you're elsewhere. They are going after people who have never logged in at the main domicile the account's at and have enough people accessing the account that they regularly have to kick off other users in order to watch.

[Bombastinator]

56 minutes ago, ZacoAttaco said:

I agree that it's likely making the product worse, no doubt about it. Which sucks, but I doubt it's a 'tiny bit more money'. One firm estimates it at $135 million each month with about 13.7 million 'freeloaders'. That's about 1.62 billion annually. These companies are all about profit in the end.

“These companies”?  Like this is somehow unusual for large companies.  So highest possible estimate, 100% compliance, 10% revenue increase.  Which means some number less than 10%.  Likely way less.  I stand by my statement.

[Maslofski]

ok, so just make a fingerprint mold ala mr robot and done?

[justpoet]

15 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

My DVD and VHS collection is looking better by the day because of the bullshit ya gotta deal with when it comes to streaming.

If it isn't physical media that I own, it can go fly a kite.  Subscription services are all stupid, even ones that are generally better and lower cost than others.

[ravenshrike]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

“These companies”?  Like this is somehow unusual for large companies.  So highest possible estimate, 100% compliance, 10% revenue increase.  Which means some number less than 10%.  Likely way less.  I stand by my statement.

Except they're not going to go after the people in the same household. Unless you are regularly having to kick someone off who is currently watching something, Netflix is unlikely to try and enforce this. This is for the idiot who shares their password with 8 different people on 8 separate internet connections and has more than 4 people trying to simultaneously watch stuff on a regular basis.

[CTR640]

21 hours ago, TimeOmnivore said:

Also, if Netflix were to start harassing me with text messages asking for me to input codes to keep watching a show or similar such nonsense, I would just cancel and find other ways of consuming the content I want.

Exactly. I have a Netflix subscription with FHD and 2 persons and if Netflix also keeps talking bullshit about this, I will end it and find other ways too. I mean, think about itm they give us options for SD/1persons, FHD/2persons and FHD/4K/4persons and yet they still complain about it? Wtf is wrong with them??

[Helly]

Since the beginning of this whole streaming service thing i've been waiting and seeing what happens. I tried netflix for 2 months and it sucked. Little content i was interested in, and never in the format i wanted (no HD audio, come on.....). So i canceled and went my usual way on the high seas. Which btw is easy, just look beyond the tracker way. Get's even easier if you spend money on it... but for most, that's weird i suppose :P.

As soon as i heard about company's setting up their own streaming service i knew where it would go... i just laughed and facepalmed. These people just never learn and only see $$$.

The solution for consumers would be to be able to buy/rent per show/movie on the service in stead of paying monthly. But for the companies this isn't what they want because that would show exactly how (un)popular they are and it would probably result in less income as they keep releasing shit. Because the more shit you release the more people expect they new thing to be shit so they don't buy/rent anything new. So that's why they will never do this.

I just want all my content accessible in one place/app. But they will never agree on anything to make that happen.

 

On top of this, the fact that switching netflix from my native language to english gives you more content just makes the whole thing even more shit. Means people have more content available then they know and you don't even tell them. Wouldn't be surprised if they all did this.

[CTR640]

33 minutes ago, Helly said:

Since the beginning of this whole streaming service thing i've been waiting and seeing what happens. I tried netflix for 2 months and it sucked. Little content i was interested in, and never in the format i wanted (no HD audio, come on.....). So i canceled and went my usual way on the high seas. Which btw is easy, just look beyond the tracker way. Get's even easier if you spend money on it... but for most, that's weird i suppose :P.

As soon as i heard about company's setting up their own streaming service i knew where it would go... i just laughed and facepalmed. These people just never learn and only see $$$.

The solution for consumers would be to be able to buy/rent per show/movie on the service in stead of paying monthly. But for the companies this isn't what they want because that would show exactly how (un)popular they are and it would probably result in less income as they keep releasing shit. Because the more shit you release the more people expect they new thing to be shit so they don't buy/rent anything new. So that's why they will never do this.

I just want all my content accessible in one place/app. But they will never agree on anything to make that happen.

 

On top of this, the fact that switching netflix from my native language to english gives you more content just makes the whole thing even more shit. Means people have more content available then they know and you don't even tell them. Wouldn't be surprised if they all did this.

Agreed on all points. And now Disney+ is trying to get a piece of poop too. And guess what? They don't even support all LG tv's! Yeah right, I like to watch movies/series on my oled tv instead of on my phone and my tv is not supported.

 

And about the language thing, geebus fcking diabeetus, Netflix is really out of their fucking mind about this whole language thing!!!!!!!!!!!!

In my language which it's Dutch and we still get English movies/series. But if I set it on English, there is more English content. HELLOOOOO?! Seriously, this is a weird logic! Clearly Netflix is run by deadbrain morons.

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, ravenshrike said:

Except they're not going to go after the people in the same household. Unless you are regularly having to kick someone off who is currently watching something, Netflix is unlikely to try and enforce this. This is for the idiot who shares their password with 8 different people on 8 separate internet connections and has more than 4 people trying to simultaneously watch stuff on a regular basis.

Which is a different point.  Also makes the numbers even worse.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 11/10/2019 at 10:19 AM, williamcll said:

 

Spoiler

 

 

That graph is pure gold

A full time series based on one point, which is itself made-up (they don't have a decent estimate of how much revenue they lost to piracy and password sharing - probably just the quick and dirty calculation of "estimated # of pirates X my price", which is easy (except for the # of pirates part) but misleading. The rest is a projection of a projection. They could just make a "green bar taller than red bar" graph at that point

 

 

On 11/10/2019 at 12:01 PM, paddy-stone said:

Serious question. If netflix bought a rival streaming service, or IP, or content, would that come out of their operating costs too? Hence the "profit" be a much lower, or even minus amount for the profit calculation?

No, at the very least not in the case of buying a rival service. "Buying" a company isn't buying goods and service to run your business. From an accounting perspective, mergers and acquisitions don't go to your income and expenses accounts; instead, it's a change in assets (e.g., subtract cash, add company bought) or in assets and liabilities (add debt on the liabilities side, add the company bought).
Then, depending on the actual operation taking place, you can compute the profits of the resulting firm, or the profits of each company separately, and then the consolidated results for the group.

 

On 11/10/2019 at 12:01 PM, paddy-stone said:

I know for sure that has happened in the UK, where company X made millions in profit, but bought stuff to make that number significantly lower to pay less taxes.

Probably what you read is not that they bought a company, but that they bought a company making losses, so the consolidated profit is taxed less, if at all.

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

I forgot this one - another gem:

 

Quote

“I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall,” Tom Rutledge, the chief executive officer of Charter Communications Inc., said during an earnings call last month. “It’s just too easy to get the product without paying for it.”

 

Solution: make it less easy to use the legal service...

[vorticalbox]

On 11/10/2019 at 3:49 PM, Bombastinator said:

Assumes availability of pirated content.  That is getting very very hard to find in my experience.

YIFY! SOMEONE didn't look very hard.

[Bombastinator]

11 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

YIFY! SOMEONE didn't look very hard.

Or did it badly.  Or something.  Once upon a time I used any of a pile of sites but they were all shut down and I couldn’t find more.  I quit looking some time ago.  Perhaps things have changed.

[amdorintel]

On 11/10/2019 at 8:47 AM, Bombastinator said:

taxation systems in specific places.  In general in the US

they know how to pay less taxes and funnel money