“substantial harm to television program copyright owners,”
Give me a fucking break
Five Men Convicted of Operating Massive, Illegal Streaming Service That Allegedly Had More Content Than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Prime Video Combined
Submitted 4 months ago by TheImpressiveX@lemmy.ml to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
woodenskewer@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Retrograde@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Won’t somebody think of the television program copyright owners??
Brutticus@lemm.ee 4 months ago
I think of them when I dream about them facing a firing squad.
Kolanaki@yiffit.net 4 months ago
They all had to settle for gold plating instead of platinum. 😔
kakes@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Love how they make this sound like some incredible feat. When you aren’t bound to license agreements, turns out it’s actually very easy to have a “massive” content library. Literally the only hurdle is storage space.
Wrench@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I mean, distributing it isn’t a small feat. Plus you need to manage subscriptions, billings, CMS, a front end to navigate the content, etc.
That’s no small amount of work, even if they used out of the box solutions for many layers.
jonne@infosec.pub 4 months ago
All of those things already exist. Typically it’s just a Plex server running on a cloud service.
iopq@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Both Wikipedia and Stack Overflow just have a few dozen fast servers despite being some of the world’s highest trafficked websites
Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Yeah it costs, depending on quality of course.
My 14 TB disks are filling up faster than I expected and I am not close to Netflix’s catalogue.Sabin10@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah, I got a 14tb drive back in February and it’s 90 percent full already. My media collection will always grow to fill the space available.
Snapz@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Nobody gives a shit, you’re not doing enough to punish trump for his obvious, literally filmed and recorded crimes.
This is the equivalent of the cops celebrating after bearing peaceful college protesters while pissing their pants and freezing while the uvalde kids were slaughtered and psychologically tortured.
You’re focusing on the non victory and ignoring the failures. Cowards.
Adalast@lemmy.world 4 months ago
When cops only legal responsibility is to enforce the law, and the laws are written to protect corporate interests, of course they will stand outside the school and arrest protesters. SCOTUS has ruled that way so many times that “to serve and protect” is literally gaslighting.
iknowitwheniseeit@lemmynsfw.com 4 months ago
Police don’t even really have a duty to enforce the law, at least not in the USA:
AHemlocksLie@lemmy.zip 4 months ago
You’re focusing on the non victory and ignoring the failures. Cowards.
That’s not true, they successfully did their job of protecting capital and the owner class. Same reason they don’t go after Trump. He’s in the owner class, so their job is to serve and protect him.
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Say it again, friend.
AlbinoPython@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Nobody gives a shit, you’re not doing enough to punish trump for his obvious, literally filmed and recorded crimes.
This is the equivalent of the cops celebrating after bearing peaceful college protesters while pissing their pants and freezing while the uvalde kids were slaughtered and psychologically tortured.
You’re focusing on the non victory and ignoring the failures. Cowards.
Grippler@feddit.dk 4 months ago
“The group used “sophisticated computer scripts” and software to scour piracy services”
They used the basic tools that most pirates used today like sonarr and radar??
yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
Guessing they used Sonarr, Radarr, qBittorrent, maybe an NZB client…
Would you look at that, I’m sophisticated now.
Damage@feddit.it 4 months ago
Maybe even Jellyseerr
sunzu@kbin.run 4 months ago
redistribution = service?
Why would they work for free?
Not gonna pretend like this aint illegal but i don't cry over some IP owners losing money... EVER, fuck 'em
Grippler@feddit.dk 4 months ago
Oh I don’t care that the IP owner don’t get money.
IDK, I just don’t like the ethics of pirating media for profit, the entire idea is that it should be accessible to everyone, not just those with money. Cover your operational cost? Sure…Making millions in subscriptions? That is an asshole move IMO. If you’re paying, you might as well pay the people who are making the media in the first place instead of some rando that had nothing to do with it.
cmbabul@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yes. Charging money for sharing content like that makes them little better than grifters
AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 4 months ago
Five men convicted by the court of the high seas for being absolute chads
istanbullu@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
It probably also had better user experience than all of them
dan@upvote.au 4 months ago
That’s the thing about all the pirate apps. They’re made by people that actually care, not by companies that are only in it for the money. The user experience is usually a lot better.
DogWater@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Where should I go to learn more about what you’re talking about
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s amazing how I can run a better streaming service from my basement than the ones I pay for.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Start servicing millions of users. Then we’ll talk.
Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The only thing I’m pisseed about is the fact that I was unaware of its existence. Fuck the system
BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You might be overestimating how much content that was. Streaming services try to maintain an illusion of neverending content but last I saw except for prime, the amount of content they offer has been trending down.
Those numbers are fairly accessible for an average person with 3 or 4 large hard drives.
Scrollone@feddit.it 4 months ago
You can always start creating your own personal media server, using apps such as Plex or Jellyfin, and qBittorrent, SABnzbd, etc.
FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’ve been trying to do just that and it’s slow going with qB, if one was looking to avoid dens of sins where you might find a usenet key, where should I stay away from?
creamed_eels@toast.ooo 4 months ago
Same, what a shame
slurpinderpin@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I run a massive streaming service too, which is always way bigger than all the streamers combined. It’s just only distributed over my private home network. Jellyfin for the win!
snapoff@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
You’re under arrest!
Gsus4@programming.dev 4 months ago
Maximum security with this national menace!
shalafi@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Love my Jellyfin server, but I have 2 gripes over just using VLC.
-
Can’t use the scroll wheel for volume. It’s a pain aiming for the volume from across the room on the couch.
-
JF won’t boost volume past 100% like VLC.
Know of any fixes?
Bronzie@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Are you playing directly on your server?
For the first one at least you could solve it by running JF with a Chromecast or similar device.
Feels cleaner than a wireless mouse in the living room too, IMOgeogle@lemmy.world 4 months ago
JF won’t boost volume past 100% like VLC.
For when you need to take it to 11
slurpinderpin@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I don’t watch on my computer, that’s just where it’s hosted. I watch mostly on my AppleTV using Infuse (also great for other Apple products as well)
ripcord@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It’s weird to me that anyone would use a PC hooked up to a TV from a couch in 2024, but I’m sure it (otherwise) works for you.
gdog05@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You can run your Jellyfin connection inside of Kodi which has a ton of configuration options like the volume control.
-
MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
How many PBs you got and how many clients (humans)?
How much traffic across your network in terms of a daily average?
Do you have a local recommendation system running? For example I found a last.fm clone, self-hosted hut I haven’t found much for video
Fedizen@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They’re here doing everyone a service. Why are there resources to prosecute this but not like elon musk’s insider trading?
reksas@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Because our society is profoundly corrupt
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
Jetflicks, which charged $9.99 per month for the streaming service, generated millions of dollars in subscription revenue and caused “substantial harm to television program copyright owners,
The ownership class will tremble before a communist revolution!
LonelyWendigo@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah that competition really did demonstrate what an awful service all those media monopolies provided.
suction@lemmy.world 4 months ago
cringe
GroundedGator@lemmy.world 4 months ago
caused “substantial harm to television program copyright owners,_
Maybe? People willing to copy and distribute this content will always be around and you will never catch them all. People willing to pay a discount or seek not and find said content will always be around. And there will be those who will watch a show or a movie because it is freely available, who would never pay a dime for it.
They will never end piracy and I’d argue it might actually be bad for business if they did.
Tja@programming.dev 4 months ago
Get your communism here! Only $9.99 a month, or just $99.99 for a year!
roguetrick@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You gotta be stupid as shit to run something like this from the US and keep a financial tail of credit card payments to you.
You also gotta be stupid as shit to actually pay 10 bux for this.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It ran functionally uncontested for ten years. And it would hardly have been the first underground streaming service to pivot legit and cash out.
Napster was sold for $85M back in 2002. Justin.tv rebranded as Twitch in 2011.
shortwavesurfer@monero.town 4 months ago
It’s sad that these people got taken down. Maybe the next people to do it will do it for my country that does not have extradition with the United States, so they would be safe.
lemmylommy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
If they had more content on offer than the big legal streaming services combined, should that not tell us something about the quality of legal offers?
krashmo@lemmy.world 4 months ago
What’s there to learn that isn’t already widely known? Existing (copyright) laws are asinine and all corporations eventually become consumed by greed. That’s America in a nutshell.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 months ago
It harmed no one and nothing.
TV and Film are just angry that competition did it for a reasonable price and provided a superior service for it.
thirteene@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I have 0 sympathy for the studios/distributors but they also did not pay the licensing fees.
Etterra@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Farewell heroes. I may not have heard of you before, but I shall mourn your departure nevertheless.
el_abuelo@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
This is despicable. What specific service was this? So I know how to avoid it if it should resurface.
ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Not only does it say that in the first paragraph, it says it here
todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 4 months ago
Honestly pretty funny to call the site “Jetflix” and advertise it as nothing but aviation videos. Nobody would know what you’re up to until they pay you.
How much you wanna bet a aerospace nut subscribed to this because they love Jets, and immediately reported this site to the authorities because he got the avengers movies rather than Airbus maintenance videos or something…
Pretty stupid though to run this site out of the USA. Terrible opsec. They really just seemed to trust that nobody who cares would ever figure out what they were doing. Plenty of similar sites out there that don’t even need to hide what they are because they are well outside of American jurisdiction.
sunbeam60@lemmy.one 4 months ago
“Sophisticated scripts to scour pirate sites”.
I think we’ve just found a new tagline for radarr or sonarr.
digger@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
The group used “sophisticated computer scripts” and software to scour piracy services… for illegal copies of TV episodes, which they then downloaded and hosted on Jetflicks’ servers.
So they used some variant of Sick Beard?
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 4 months ago
If there is no need,such places would not exist
boatsnhos931@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Why didn’t you nerds tell me about this, I’m over here hoofing it with this got damn 2tb ssd
Blackmist@feddit.uk 4 months ago
If five people can maintain a service bigger than all those combined, then the big streamers need to buck their fucking ideas up.
paris@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
The group used “sophisticated computer scripts” and software to scour piracy services (including the Pirate Bay and Torrentz) for illegal copies of TV episodes, which they then downloaded and hosted on Jetflicks’ servers, according to federal prosecutors.
They probably used Sonarr and Radarr and called it a day (or similar off-the-shelf tools available on GitHub). It’s not very sophisticated at all. That combined with Jellyfin and a VPN (or Usenet or a country that doesn’t care about piracy) and you have your own up and running. You could also just use free sites with an ad blocker instead of paying $10/mo like the service this article is about charged.
Unrelated to all of this: rentry.co/megathread
Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah, I’ve got one of those too. Plex is great.
muculent@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Streaming services become required by law like insurance
Wait, why am I required to pay for a streaming service?>
Because it has all of the entertainment electrolytes a human needs>
badbytes@lemmy.world 4 months ago
5 times the content. Where do I sign up?
yamanii@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They solved a problem people had after the fragmentation :)
smb@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
its amazing how good services can be if some just skip the corporation-obligatory adding of enshittification. i remember an article about a downloadable (but not very legal) DVD with an installer for a (worthless but very popular) OS that included heaps of expensive industry software and the installer was point-klick what you want and then all is done in background and fully usable once done. reading that article it seemed to be a better installer than ever produced by any company for any product.
however as that payed streaming service seemingly leaves huge amount of bank records and ran for such a long time, i guess it would have been easy to stop their customers from paying them. it rather might seem that the real intentions of content corporations might not truely be what they officially claim. maybe we learn in 25 years that the content corporations really were behind such services, maybe like “better get money from ALL markets!” or such.
confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Proving Netflix could be replaced by five hard working people.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
ThePantser@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Tja@programming.dev 4 months ago
Things are easier if you can steal stuff. And operate on a small scale.
anlumo@lemmy.world 4 months ago
They didn’t need the army of lawyers to get license deals, so that’s not a fair comparison.
FreudianCafe@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Its almost like its unecessary shit made up in order to keep profits away from working people artificially
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Their scale was also an insignificant fraction of what Netflix has, making the point even more irrelevant.
The best figure I could find on Jetflicks user count was 37k, where as Netflix has 269 million users.
wagoner@infosec.pub 4 months ago
Or fund new content
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 months ago
If we get rid of the licensing we get rid of the lawyers.
confusedbytheBasics@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Precisely. So much added expense for zero, or rather negative, added value.
AshMan85@lemmy.world 4 months ago
The only reason all companies prices go up these days is for CEO pay packages
6gybf@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I think it’s more for major shareholders (which includes CEOs, of course)
werefreeatlast@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Like Boeing’s CEO making 300 million… imagine 300 people who worked their ass off could make million. Or 1500 hard workers could be making 200k. But nah, let’s just drag these huge bags of money into this one asshole’s account. Oh there were a couple of crashes right? 👍 Our thoughts and prayers 🙏. But not our money wagons.
iopq@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Did they make the shows too?
tetris11@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Does Netflix make shows? Or does it slam its name onto filmmakers it pays to make content? If so, one of those things simply requires throwing cash at people, which I think is a skill that most people can learn.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Does Netflix? Or do they pay production companies for content?