#piracy is media preservation

[cadyrocks]

We badly need IP law reform on so many levels, but the most obvious is abandonware.

If you aren't going to provide a First-Party source for your software, if you are not publishing that software any more, it is abandonware, and you have no business complaining when people find other ways of getting it.

If you aren't going to provide a first-party source for your hardware, if you are not making that hardware any more, it is abandonware and you have no business complaining when people emulate it.

If you aren't providing crucial security updates for your older software, it is an abandoned version and you have no business complaining when people fix it outside the bounds of your company.

If you are not providing updates or maintaining functionality on certain crucial types of software (say, anything biotech related), you have no business complaining when the state requires you to publish your code as open source.

Obviously you can argue for caveats to this. I'm not an IP lawyer, and even from my pro-piracy stance, I get that it could be a problem if, say, Guitar Pro 6 comes out, Guitar Pro 5 support ends, and as a result GP5 immediately loses IP laws. But the current way things work is, quite frankly, absurd.

IP law exists, as Cory Doctorow would put it, as a way to prevent your customers from acting in ways that benefit them at the cost of your shareholders. At the same time, companies are aggressively attacking attempts at cultural archives in the name of profits for products you can't even buy from them. Companies are sitting on mountains of "intellectual property" they aren't selling or using, often simply to ensure nobody else gets it. This is all totally fucked. And don't get me started on patent trolls.

[prokopetz]

One of my favourite bits of media history trivia is that back in the Elizabethan period, people used to publish unauthorised copies of plays by sending someone who was good with shorthand to discretely write down all of the play's dialogue while they watched it, then reconstructing the play by combining those notes with audience interviews to recover the stage directions; in some cases, these unauthorised copies are the only record of a given play that survives to the present day. It's one of my favourites for two reasons:

It demonstrates that piracy has always lay at the heart of media preservation; and

Imagine being the 1603 equivalent of the guy with the cell phone camera in the movie theatre, furtively scribbling down notes in a little book and hoping Shakespeare himself doesn't catch you.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

Buy physical media and pirate everything that was never released on DVD/Blu Ray.

Stop paying for these dog shit streaming services.

[flanaganfilm]

Mr. Flanagan, I’d like to ask a question and I deeply hope that it does not offend or upset you. I am strongly considering canceling my Netflix subscription due to their new password sharing policy. However, Midnight Mass is one of my favorite shows of all time and I know it isn’t available on DVD, and I’m also profoundly anticipating your take on my favorite Edgar Allen Poe story. So I wanted to ask your take on people accessing your work through, uh, other means. If it’s something that’s offensive to you or will harm you or the other people who work so hard on these shows, I’ll happily keep my Netflix just so that I can keep supporting your work. I respect you far too much as an artist to do otherwise.

Again, I really hope I’m not upsetting you by asking this question. Thank you for everything, and I hope you’re having a great day!

(NOTE 6/4/2024: I'm editing this entry because, well over a year since it was posted, some journalists dug this up and used it to create click-bait headlines that are misleading, out of context and artificially combative. While I was of course disappointed over the years that Netflix opted not to release my work on physical media, I never experienced any hostility or aggression in those discussions, and I sincerely regret the manner in which this post was used in the press this week.)

Hi there - no offense taken whatsoever, in fact I think this is a very interesting and important question.

So. If you asked me this a few years ago, I would have said "I hate piracy and it is hurting creators, especially in the independent space." I used to get in Facebook arguments with fans early in my career when people would post about seeing my work on torrent sites, especially when that work was readily available for rent and purchase on VOD.

Back in 2014, my movie Before I Wake was pirated and leaked prior to any domestic release, and that was devastating to the project. It actually made it harder to find distribution for the film. By the time we were able to get distribution in the US, the film had already been so exposed online that the best we could hope for was a Netflix release. Netflix stepped in and saved that movie, and for that I will always be grateful to them.

However...

Working in streaming for the past few years has made me reconsider my position on piracy.

In the years I worked at Netflix, I tried very hard to get them to release my work on blu-ray and DVD.

It became clear very fast that their priority was subscriptions, and that they were not particularly interested in physical media releases of their originals, with a few exceptions.

While companies like Netflix pride themselves on being disruptors, and have proven that they can affect great change in the industry, they sometimes fail to see the difference between disruption and damage. So much that they can find themselves, intentionally or not, doing harm to the concept of film preservation.

The danger comes when a title is only available on one platform, and then - for whatever reason - is removed.

We have already seen this happen. And it is only going to happen more and more. Titles exclusively available on streaming services have essentially been erased from the world. If those titles existed on the marketplace on physical media, like HBO's Westworld, the loss is somewhat mitigated (though only somewhat.) But when titles do not exist elsewhere, they are potentially gone forever.

The list of titles that have been removed from streaming services is growing.

I still believe that where we put our dollars matters. Renting or buying a piece of work that you like is essential. It is casting a vote, encouraging studios - who only speak the language of money - to invest more effort into similar work. If we show up to support distinct, unique, exciting work, it encourages them to make more of it. It's as simple as that. If we don't show up, or if they can't hear our voice because we are casing our vote "silently" through torrent sites or other means - it makes it unlikely that they will take a chance to create that kind of work again.

Which is why I typically suggest that if you like a movie you've seen through - uh - other means, throw a few dollars at that title on a legitimate platform. Rent it. Purchase it. Support it.

But if some studios offer no avenue for that kind of support, and can (and will) remove content from their platform forever... frankly, I think that changes the rules.

Netflix will likely never release the work I created for them on physical media, though I'll always hold out hope.

Some of you may say "wait, aren't The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor available on blu-ray and DVD?" Yes, they are, because they were co-produced with Paramount, and I'm grateful that Paramount was able to release and protect those titles. (I'm also grateful that those releases include extended cuts, deleted scenes, and commentary tracks. There are a number of fantastic benefits to physical media releases.)

But a lot of the other work I did there are Netflix originals, without any other studio involvement. Those titles - like Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and the upcoming Fall of the House of Usher - along with my Netflix exclusive and/or original movies Before I Wake and Gerald's Game - have no such protections. The physical media releases of those titles are entirely at Netflix's discretion, and don't appear to be priority for the studio at this time.

At the moment, Netflix seems content to leave Before I Wake, Gerald's Game, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club on the service, where they still draw audiences. I don't think there is a plan to remove any of them anytime soon. But plans change, the industry changes.

The point is things change, and each of those titles - should they be removed from the service for any reason - are not available anywhere else. If that day comes - if Netflix's servers are destroyed, if a meteor hits the building, if they are bought out by a competitor and their library is liquidated - I don't know what the circumstances might be, I just know that if that day comes, some of the work that means the most to me in the world would be entirely erased.

Or, what if we aren't so catastrophic in our thinking? What if it the change isn't so total? What if Netflix simply bumps into an issue with the license they paid for music (like the Neil Diamond songs that play such a crucial role in Midnight Mass), and decide to leave the show up but replace the songs?

This has happened before as well - fans of Northern Exposure can get the show on DVD and blu-ray, but the music they heard when the series aired has been replaced due to the licensing issues. And the replacements - chosen for their low cost, not for creative reasons - are not improvements. What if the shows are just changed, and not by creatives, but by business affairs executives?

All to say that physical media is critically important. Having redundancy in the marketplace is critically important. The more platforms a piece of work is available on, the more likely it is to survive and grow its audience.

As for Netflix, I hope sincerely that their thinking on this issue evolves, and that they value the content they spend so much money creating enough to protect it for posterity. That's up to them, it's their studio, it's their rules. But I like to think they may see that light eventually, and realize that exclusivity in a certain window is very cool... but exclusivity in perpetuity could potentially limit the audience and endanger the work itself.

[ghost-in-a-cup]

hey guys, maybe before you pirate LEARN SOME ETIQUETTE

why are these important? well, if you openly share the sites, they wil get shut down. corporations are willing to copyright strike anything. you are only going to make accessing these resources harder.

remember: LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS

if you want to share resources, don't post them on public forums like tumblr, twitter,instagram or any popular site. remember how zlibrary shut down? yall want that to happen to more sites? do you?

also like if they get shut down, people who can't access these otherwise because they don't have the means for it or its banned in their country are losing access.

Don't post links online. Only share in private conversations.

try and avoid linking the sites directly. a workaround is sharing the downloaded files via other file hosting sites similar to google drive and drop box

DON'T SHARE ON PUBLIC FORUMS. EVER. PLEASE

Use a VPN. i personally like proton vpn, it is a freemium model but the free version works fine.

These are just the basics, there are others but please keep these in mind.

[amazinglyspicy]

PIRATE SAFELY!! But pirate ;)

Hello! I’ve gotten a flood of new followers thanks to an addition I made about NOT torrenting from the Pirate Bay, so I want to address it better.

If you’ve come to check my blog for more piracy resources, advice, guides, etc, then check out some of the links in this pinned!

First and Foremost, Do not do Anything without an adblocker. Ublock Origin is the best.

Resources/Wikis: 🌟Top recommendation is the Free Media Heck Yeah Wiki, frequently updated, maintained, and transparent, as well as has a welcoming community behind it if you have questions. The rest are for redundancy's sake and for anything not found in FMHY, though most Wikis on this topic tend to repeat the same info. 🌟

VPN Comparison Chart - General Rule of Thumb, DO NOT use any VPN recommended by Youtubers, influencers, or any other shill with a profit motive. Large marketing budget does not equal good privacy practices. Do your own research.

-Since both Mullvad VPN and IVPN are planned to now suspend port forwarding support, the next best choices for torrenting though a VPN seem to be AirVPN and ProtonVPN.

HOWEVER, AirVPN has no evidence of a no logging policy (aka there’s a chance they keep records of what you do on their service) and ProtonVPN has no method of anonymously signing up and use a subscription model instead of a preferable pay-as-you-go model. So take that as you will.

(NOTE: You do not need to pay for a VPN if you are only directly downloading from a server or streaming off of websites! But it’s probably a good idea for privacy reasons anyways.)

A very good Comprehensive Torrenting Guide! -eye strain warning

And another one!

-If you torrent you need a VPN depending on how strict your government is on copyright laws. This works on a case by case basis, so I recommend looking up your own country's laws on the matter. Generally speaking, use a VPN to torrent if your country falls under The 14 Eyes Surveillance Alliance. More info on what that is Here.

A Note about Antivirus: - If you're using trusted websites, and not clicking on any ad links/fake download ads (Should be blocked by ublock), then you don't necessarily need any antivirus. Common Sense and Windows Defender should be enough to get you by. If you would like to be certain on what you are downloading is legitimate, then run your file through a virus scanner like VirusTotal. Keep in mind that when scanning cracked software some scans may flag “false positives” as the injectors used to crack the software look like malware to these scanners. Once again, the best way to avoid malware is to use trusted sites listed here and use an adblocker at all times.

If you have any questions on anything posted, need help finding things, or just need some clarification on any terms used, shoot me an ask or message! I've got a few years experience with not paying for anything I want, and LOVE to help others with this kind of stuff. But if you don't trust me, since I am a random stranger on the internet, that's fine (I wont be offended promise)! Do your own research!

INFORMATION SHOULD BE FREE!

Last updated: February 16th 2024

[hogmilked]

IT TOOK LONG ENOUGH BUT HERE IT IS

HOW TO BURN YOUR OWN CDS AT HOME

It’s a PDF so it should be easy to read. Please let me know if there’s anything i can change or fix!!

[magentas-dystopia]

Something I really lament is the move towards digital media. Slowly we start to never own the things we like. Even if we "buy" a digital game, or movie or show. It's locked behind a certain platform or service. Once it shuts down we lose it forever.

(me when big booby anime girl explosion Is taken off of Netflix)

I also feel like there's a certain charm to owning physical media, like things you can hold and the satisfaction from pressing a clicky button or putting a disc or cassette in and seeing it work.

(oooh so classy so retro so.. expensive in the modern day)

More people should try to make copies of what they own digitally, or try to buy physical media before it's lost from streaming services and digital storefronts forever. Like the case with certain games like Godzilla 2014 and Transformers War for Cybertron. They don't exist digitally anymore. Only hard copies exist outside of emulation and at insane resell prices like... INSANE ones for a mediocre Godzilla game

So yea. Buy some more CDs of those albums you have on replay! Buy a DVD of that niche obscure anime you like! And most importantly PLEASE PLEASE START MAKING HARD BACKUPS OF SHOWS YOU LIKE THAT YOU PIRATE!!! media preservation is important!

(me downloading every episode of Daredevil onto my hard drive to burn to a DVD later so I can give it to all my friends)

This is now going to be a Comprehensive guide on how to rip a CD

POLL TIME!

Burning and Ripping Disc's❤️❤️💕💕🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

STEP ONE:

BUY A CHEAP BLU-RAY/DVD DRIVE FOR YOUR WINDOWS COMPUTER

here are some I recommend!!!

i personally use this pioneer one :)))

DVD drives in general are relatively cheap from 30-20 smackeroos, but Blu-ray drives are around 80-100 bucks depending on the manufacturer but offer better support for copying HD video such as on a Blu-ray.

STEP TWO:

FIND A PIECE OF MEDIA YOU ENJOY.

in this case its gonna be a CD!!

i really enjoy Vespertine by Bjork, but i wanna have it on my computer just in case anything happens to my CD. SO. ill open Windows Media Player

(she hasn't changed since 2011 <3333 be urself girl)

NEXT

ill insert the disc into the player. and it'll start playing!

Pause the disc and go into Rip settings

NEXT!! select the format!

if you want to conserve space and don't mind sacrificing audio quality select MP3! if you want to hear the same level of audio quality as preserved on the CD, select a format labelled LOSSLESS. I recommend .WAV files as they'll work with most devices including an android phone or iTunes on PC (more on that later ;3 )

NEXT!

create a folder on whatever u wanna save ur music to! (u can call it whatever u want the world is your oyster bestie)

THEN!!! FINALLY

go into more options on the Rip Settings menu!

select ur folder and press Rip CD!!!!

the fun thing of this now, is that you can pull these files on your computer and put it onto your Android device so you can listen to your hearts content without lugging around your CD in a player at high quality without any subscription service with free reign of who you can give your download to!

But Magenta! what if i have an iPhone?

ohohoo fear not bestie because iTunes on PC has an even EASIER way to do it

because simply putting in a disc with iTunes downloaded prompts THIS

(oooo so new age)

and if you have apple music on your iPhone this will sync to your phone if you logged into iTunes on PC!!

thank you for coming to my TED talk

[robotpussy]

me when I'm a billion dollar corporation that figures out there is a possible way out of paying the artists, writers and actors involved in the shows on my streaming platform any residuals:

"Disney Removes Dozens Of Series From Disney+ & Hulu, Including ‘Big Shot’, ‘Willow’, ‘Y’ & ‘Dollface’"

i don't believe any of the shows removed or being removed got any physical releases either so they're gone forever. after the hbo max events and now the current WGA strikes (and potentially the SAG strike too) this is definitely going to be a common occurrence now I believe.

Disney claims it's for "content curation" but there is a very big chance this may also be happening because if a streaming service removes a show or film that was a streaming exclusive and never got a physical release or was available on another platform, residuals do not have to be paid. anyways the rise of piracy shall come again

(obligatory "you guys weren't pirating corporate media before?" comment. I mean, I was! but I know many people weren't!)

[hollowtones]

just pirate it lol

I have been using the internet since the 90s and I am very well aware that you can pirate or otherwise download software through other means. If I wanted to play the video game I would have done that instead of making a post that says "I will not be playing this game".

[prokopetz]

I think a lot of the disagreements regarding how acceptable it is to be public about media piracy channels boil down to different experiences based on what exactly you're trying to pirate.

Some folks are like "it doesn't matter whether you publicly discuss piracy sites because the publishers 100% already know about them, and if they get taken down an identical replacement will be up and running a week later", and sure, that's absolutely true – if the media you're interested in pirating is relatively mainstream.

On the flip side, if the shit you want to torrent lives at the intersection between "of interest only to a limited audience" and "currently owned by a notably litigious publisher that isn't an all-knowing global megacorp" – and this is where a great deal of fringe media lives – greater caution may be warranted, because there's no guarantee when, or even if, a given piece of media will become available again when wherever it's currently on offer eats a takedown notice.

That's kind of the paradox of trying to preserve and distribute media which appeals only to a limited audience. On the one hand, obviously an archive or repository that nobody knows about doesn't do anyone any good; on the other hand, if a given piece of media has only ever been made publicly available outside of commercial venues via one particular channel, and that channel gets overpublicised and subsequently taken down, it's often far from clear whether anyone will be willing and able to fill the void.

[thowawayuntilfurthernotice]

If someone asks me why I have a shit load of external hard drives that are filled with pirated copies of various movies and TV shows, this is why.

Corporations don’t value art or creativity.

Pirate all your favorite media while you still have the chance.

[steakout-05]

hi after the Internet Archive and Vimm's Lair takedowns i conclude that copyright laws are legitimately a plague upon humanity's history, media that isn't being sold anymore should be free for all, and copyright enforcers should be held at the same standards as landlords (scum)

[justanothercinemaniac]

Piracy is sometimes the only way to champion film and television preservation, but it'll never be equivalent to officially licensed releases for at least one reason: accessibility.

Closed captions and audio description are not usually included in a piece of pirated media, but they are usually included in official releases. For that and other reasons, piracy is a band-aid when it comes to media preservation. Unfortunately, it's not the solution.

[rosew1ther]

I don't think people realize just how important re-upload pages, catalogues, and piracy sites are to the preservation of art. Entire pieces will be lost to history without them simply because a company decides they no longer want to market them as a flagship. Websites can close just because they feel like it thus removing entire legacies of artists. Preserve your art, preserve others' art.

[cryptid-catnip]

piracy (especially of games) is cool and based because under late capitalism you don't really own anything

all the steam games you buy for instance are not actual copies of the game, just a revocable license to play it

which is why I find it unfathomably based when developers like dennis whedon and jonaton soderstrom (creators of hotline miami) and ville kallio (creator of cruelty squad) say "yeah you can pirate hotline miami/cruelty sqaud idfc"

Hell, dennaton went out of their way to put hotline miami on pirate bay after learning that the version being circulated was pretty shitty and buggy

moral of the story? piracy is based, you should do it