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Poll: Do hackers mind paying for TV/Movies online because it's easier?

2 points by j45 ↗ HN
With all the SOPA talk going on, especially about piracy being behind it...

I was curious how many hackers who could learn to download and maintain massive libraries of video prefer paying a few reasonable dollars for access to the Netflix, etc., of the world.

For those who don't watch much tv, do you find it easier to pay for netflix/hulu, etc to get great, reliable access to content?

6 comments

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Merrack
I have a Netflix streaming account, and still find myself buying media on iTunes, Amazon, and (very rarely) whatever independent setup a show will be running.

It's trivially easy to get ahold of pretty much any TV shows/movies I want to see, and compared to $100+/month on cable it still comes out cheaper.

j45
I've heard the only thing you miss out on is the news. I'm tempted to go fully off cable now that I'm in a good groove with netflix/online choices.

A few dollars is always cheaper than my time. It's also far more convenient than tv, or having to go through the pain of finding and downloading, and waiting, and hoping it's of good quality. I'm willing to pay to avoid that headache.

27182818284
Watch Instantly essentially killed 99% of video piracy by the people I know (non-technical people). The remaining 1% of piracy is for the items that can't be watched on Hulu or Watch Instantly. There is a lesson there for the distributors, but it is a lesson that many have tried to teach them to no avail.
j45
Yeah, I mean, I don't even mind the Hulu ads when I get to watch it.
sp332
I think getting $20 for a bluray is still more appealing to distributors than getting a small slice of $5/mo for Hulu.
27182818284
> is still more appealing

Sure and I'm sure getting $80 per blu-ray is even more exciting for them, doesn't mean it is going to happen.