• @[email protected]
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    1 month ago

    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?

      • @[email protected]
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        121 month ago

        What formula do they use to calculate these losses? Are there guidelines posted by the IRS?

        • @[email protected]
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          1 month ago

          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”.

  • bitwolf
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    1431 month ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      211 month ago

      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      81 month ago

      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.

    • youmaynotknow
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      61 month ago

      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).

    • melroy
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      371 month ago

      The more piracy the better imo. And I don’t need to explain why anymore, that is obvious

  • @[email protected]
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    61 month ago

    following this argument this article is also enabling piracy by giving people good ideas 💡

  • @[email protected]
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    371 month ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      81 month ago

      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.

        • @[email protected]
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          81 month ago

          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.

          • @[email protected]
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            11 month ago
            1. 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.

            2. The discussion about the egregious insultingly 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.

            3. I’m gonna need some sources cited that the main reason the majority of people watch sports is for “the drama”.

            • @[email protected]
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              1 month ago

              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.

              • @[email protected]
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                21 month ago

                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.

                • @[email protected]
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                  41 month ago

                  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.

    • @[email protected]
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      31 month ago

      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      81 month ago

      Why is it ALWAYS the sports companies?

      Because that’s the biggest broadcast rights moneymaker. Cable would be full and truly dead without sports.

  • Bigfoot
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    251 month ago

    You gotta pump those numbers up those are rookie numbers

  • Sixty
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    1 month ago

    Please don’t give Amazon money for a shitty android stick. It’s rather locked down too and the GUI is ad riddled. A lot of playback bugs that I don’t have on a competitor product. There’s many better alternatives with less god awful remote controls as well.

    Just make sure you’re not buying some generic Chinese thing with a compromised linux kernel.