I still don’t understand what’s going on with the fire stick though. What are people actually doing to it?
Nothing. What people think and say is jail breaking is actually side loading custom android apps, which is actually already part of android. Amazon IMO made it more difficult than it’s supposed to be. I installed vlc and stremio and use it alongside all the other apps. Nothing groundbreaking nor illegal. That’s not jailbreaking, it’s using Android the way it’s designed to be used.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a TV or stick running stock Android? (Or GoogleTV, which is literally just stock Android with a launcher designed for TVs.)
That’s what I did, and I have no issues side-loading any app I want. If it’s got an APK, it can be installed.
So from my understanding the pirate sticks come preloaded with channels. Is that just streamio? I use torrents for downloading, so I am kind of naive.
Stremio is basically Netflix for torrents. Its interface is similar to the popular steaming apps.
Upon initial install it just looks like another paid steaming app with prices on all the content; the secret is to install plug-ins that allow you to steam torrents (Torrentio). Pair it with a Debrid service (like Real-Debrid) and you don’t even have to wait for seeds. The show/movie starts playing instantly, just like the paid streaming apps. Like a Library of Babel for media, except it’s real.
And the nice part about having a Debrid service is that it works any torrent, not just TV/movies. I have gigabit internet, so I can download literally any game I want in under an hour, even 100+ GB AAA titles.
Is it like Jellyfin? Or Plex?
I admit I don’t really understand what a debrid service does or how it works, or how it’s helpful for privacy… But it sounds interesting
Yes except simpler because you don’t have to build a library of content. The plug-ins do it for you.
A Debrid service downloads torrents and uploads them to various file hosting websites, allowing you to directly download any active torrent at speeds up to 1Gbps. If the torrent you want isn’t in their database (because it’s less popular), then it behaves like a torrent client, except since it’s running on a server you can shut down your PC and go about your day as it downloads in the background. Most torrents with at least a half dozen seeds are usually immediately available for direct download.
It doesn’t really protect your privacy, per se, but it gets your ISP off your back because in most jurisdictions they don’t care how much you download illegally, so long as you’re not distributing the files, like you would with a torrent client. (Sharing pirated files is how they get you.)
The bad news is that these services also hit and run, so by using one you’re not helping the health of the torrent. I wish they didn’t do that, but I’m so used to having any file I want delivered quickly that I’m willing to sell part of my soul to have the convenience.
Fuck yeah they do, I have 3 of them. I use Stremio for watching all kinds of movies (although I also use Amazon Prime) and even my older family members know how to use Stremio that’s how easy it is to use.
Fuck yeah, Stremio is the best. Everything is there. No smart TV owner should go without.
Protip: Install the Trakt.tv plugin to get viewing recommendations based on your viewing habits, and then you can cancel Prime Video. (And all other streaming platforms too.)
I use Amazon Prime for shipping unfortunately, it’s just far too convenient to not use it (doubly so now that I have a knee injury and find it hard to walk), so I just end up getting Prime Video for free
Shut up ars you grass
Same way as an HDMI cable enables piracy?
There is a difference.
Say you buy a used PC or android stick and want to use it for piracy, ok, doable, but you’ll be doing most of the work. Kodi builds can get you there easily.
but compared to firesticks?
Firesticks have a piracy singularity going on. The entire secondary phase of cracking the OS and installing is intended for piracy. It’s an open and shut, easy, one-two punch to get into the ecosystem. All of the hardware is easy to track and maintain. My cousin has a hacked firestick and he can’t even open Microsoft Word. You can buy them pre-hacked with no real input or work needed on your part.
So what kind of software are they running on there ? Is it more than a link to a pirate streaming site ?
Piracy is morally correct, copying from greedy companies that spy on their customers for shady purposes and take advantage of their position to impose unfair terms. If buying no longer means owning something then pirating cannot be considered theft
Piracy has never been theft because nothing is missing. It’s not stealing or theft if someone takes a picture of my shoes and makes their own because I still have shoes.
Yeah, not only that, people who pirate wouldn’t have consumed the product, if pirating weren’t available as an option. They’ve priced cost of living so high, and reduced access to content availability. When Netflix first came out, especially the streaming version, I bet there was a noticible drop in piracy, now they’ve made content access to hard, more piracy. They control the levels of piracy. It’s not a choice to pay for everything we want to watch, or pirate. It’s pirate or don’t watch. And they created that situation, and then try and brainwash / gaslight us into feeling guilty and feeling like it’s our fault. And then add in the moral clause, these companies are committing or contributing to atrocities. Some piracy is an attempt to avoid supporting companies that cause harm to people. If “wrong” is condemned, what about the wrongs that have caused them to be listed on boycott lists. Underpaying employees and writers, who should own the content. I think writers should be as famous, and focused on as the actors. The content being created currently has a heaping of “conform, don’t think” built in, too, I could rant about that, annoyingly, for a bit, too! So many things.
To be frank it’s not Amazon’s problem.
Its the content publishers problem.
And Amazon isn’t enabling this, they’re just making an Android device.
The users are putting software onto the device.
This article sets a dangerous precedent. That if Amazon doesn’t lock the firestick down like Apple that they’re enabling piracy.
Its not Googles nor Microsoft’s responsibilities either. They helped, probably solely for money, but they’re not obligated to continue to update their DRM.
This article should have framed how DRM repeatedly hasn’t worked.
They should just remove the DRM from all streaming services. The fact that new TV shows can be downloaded within minutes of airing is a good indicator that it doesn’t work for its intended purpose. It just makes me find another source since I can’t watch them using my preferred browser and operating system.
The more piracy the better imo. And I don’t need to explain why anymore, that is obvious
Amazon is already locking down the fire stick. A few years ago you could easily modify the software via adb, deactivate the updater, uninstall the menu. In the meantime they made it much harder, luckily I modified mine in time.
I do the exact same thing in my Chromecast w/GTV (yes, and also a firestick 4K).
These are android devices, and that’s how android works and competes with Crapple (full disclosure, I also hate Google).
Why is it ALWAYS the sports companies? Who cares about somebody illegally watching grown men try to prove they’re better than other grown men that much 🙄
Why is it ALWAYS the sports companies?
Because that’s the biggest broadcast rights moneymaker. Cable would be full and truly dead without sports.
It’s one half of ‘bread and circuses’.
Quite a reductive view of sport.
But not inaccurate
I guess, but at the highest level it is a well paying job. You wouldn’t say that actors show up to work to prove that they’re the best. They’re doing something they are good at and getting paid for their time, and so are high level athletes. They’re both part of productions that entertain people. Yes, sports are a competition, but by and large people are watching for the drama.
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That’s a completely false equivalency, since the entire point of movie production is NOT a competition. Sports, however, is literally all about competition through feats of athletics and strategy.
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The discussion about the
egregiousinsultingly high salaries both of the highest-paid actors and sportballers is one that we can have, but I do not think that one will go well for your cause. -
I’m gonna need some sources cited that the main reason the majority of people watch sports is for “the drama”.
What is the point of this comment? What “cause” do you think I have? My point is simply that sports are a form of entertainment like any other. There is expression, there is drama, there is tension, etc. Those who look down on people who enjoy watching sports are at best immature, and likely to be hypocrites as well.
Edit: To address #3, I have been watching sports for 25 years and the growing focus on drama is actually part of why I watch sports much less now than I used to. You can see it when discussion about a game starts on the topic of x participant wanting to get revenge on y participant rather than anything involving strategy. You can see it when every Chiefs broadcast mentions Taylor Swift multiple times. You can see it when guys like Pat McAfee and Stephen A Smith get paid the big bucks to talk about sports rather than people with a deeper understanding of the game. As this shift has happened, sports have only gotten more popular and more profitable. I don’t think less of anyone who enjoys the above things, it is just not for me.
Forgive me for not having a source for my comment on an internet forum, the growing focus on drama is a common gripe of sports fans on reddit so from my perspective it is more of a fact of life than a contested claim.
Thank you for the edit! That edit was very helpful for me to read.
The “cause” appeared to be appealing to the idea that piracy from sports companies hurts the poor players, who are just there to get paid, because whatever would the world do if Josh Allen made a few dollars less off of his $55 million per year deal?
However, given your clarification, I take less issue with your premise. I maintain that it was a bad comparison to actors, and that the companies within the oligopoly over sports broadcasting are all, universally and without equivocation, awful, the players are insultingly overpaid, the entire system needs to be dismantled, and that any action taken to undercut them is an axiomatic good.
I see, I do agree that players are overpaid relative to people who do more useful things for society, but I don’t think the situation is really any worse than other big entertainment industries. I have no issue with anyone that pirates anything, the people at the top of any industry already make more money than they need.
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I mean if I’m at already someone’s house who’s got the game on I’ll watch the sweaty dudes in tights, just not for the game.
All pirates drink water. What is water doing to stop piracy?
Well my Fire TV has a Jellyfin app that’s letting me watch shows not in streaming services or is impossible to get in my home country due to copyright.
Anyone else know the other apps that help make Amazon the ire of copyright?
Wolf Launcher, if you don’t want to deal with the shitty stock launcher.
CloudStream is good if you watch anime.
The folks on r/piracy seem to like an app called Stremio, but I haven’t got that one set up yet.
I have a Jellyfin client.
SmartTube Next is an ad free Youtube client for the firestick.
And then I also have Kanopy and Hoopla which let me access media via my public library card.
Stremio is almost like “piracy, the streaming service.”
It sequentially downloads torrents, on demand, in such a way that you can stream the content without ever having downloaded it.
It’s available on most app stores (though the iOS offering doesn’t have streaming, because Apple.)
Edit: I mean the file doesn’t get saved, it just pulls down the data it needs, uses it, then deletes it. When you’re done, the torrent data isn’t actually on disk.
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You gotta pump those numbers up those are rookie numbers
Yes focus on Amazon, the only known way to pirate…
Lately Ars Technica seems quite intent on losing any quality they had.
What kind of boot licking, inaccurate, non-news shit is this?
The only potential reason for this article is farming engagement bait clicks from people who don’t know shit about fire sticks, and from people like us stunned at the stupidity.
Or because they are a media company with a media owner/parent company that has an interest in directing public opinion that piracy bad mkay.
If Big Media is losing all this money, why aren’t they claiming these losses on their taxes?
Is it because they haven’t lost a dime?
They do
What formula do they use to calculate these losses? Are there guidelines posted by the IRS?
I’m sure they do what all huge corporations do.
Make shit up and then say “oops, sorry, here’s a tiny fraction of the profits we made keeping that money for so long as a fine teehee”.
Publishers under the impression that they somehow deserve “billion of dollars” more money than they already get for checks notes being a middleman.
Bro… Have you thought about the “artist and the creatove”?!
