anon9191

Reasons (TV/Movie) piracy is better than any paid service:

* All in one place/App/UI. Be it Plex/Jellyfin/Emby/Kodi/etc, you only have 1 app UI/UX to deal with. No more wondering "What network was that on?", "Wait, it's on 2 services but which one has my watched status?", "What does clicking forward/back do in this App?", "How do I turn on subtitles?", etc

* Local playback. You never have to wait on your internet or deal with lower quality if something goes amiss.

* More features. Ability to download a show/movie to your iPad for travel (Yes, this has improved on the streaming platforms but is not always easy or ubiquitous)

* Access forever. If you hoard at least. You cannot find certain shows online anymore. The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are good examples. I know some people might find watching old episodes of daily news shows to be odd but I find them interesting and still humorous. All you can find is scattered clips online. Also shows that were never super popular can be impossible to find on streaming and often impossible to buy.

* No Ads. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

* Tech/Job improvement Aspect. This is less about piracy directly and the skills you are forced to learn to maintain an *arr+plex+UnRaid/FreeNAS/Debian/etc box.

You are correct that the cost is not cheap, I've probably sunk $5K+ into my servers but I find the process to be both informative and enjoyable.

Lastly, I would happily pay $100-150+ a month for a service that gave me all of the above (aside from server management experience). 1 App, offline/local caching, no ads, all content. But it will never happen. Netflix gave us some golden years where they had almost everything someone would want but then the content providers started to pull back their content to their own "platforms" and now it's a mess. Even things like Amazon Channels, Apple TV (no, not the device, no, not the service, the app :rolleyes:), or now even Plex (with their newest release) that attempt to serve as directory that can either play the content directly or bounce you directly into the app to play are a far cry from what you get from an only-Plex (or insert other media server) setup.

> I'd tell you to speak your mind about this issue during an all hands meeting, and conclude your tirade by "I quit this company", but not everyone can afford to pull off a stunt like this.

Another guy who spoke up and went as far as to create a 1984 + our company name mashup poster got a talking to from the president. I have spoken up and will continue to, however, as much as I hate to admit it I need this job. I am passively looking elsewhere but part of me wants to stay and try to change it for the better. I joined in the first place because I believed in their mission to help re-integrate people into society, I thought I was joining the "good guys". I don't want to be responsible for writing code that prys into these people's lives and I really don't want to be a part of a company that does it at all. I understand we need to track these participants but location tracking is about as far as I feel comfortable with, anything more just feels wrong.

> But she was a "criminal"

I work for a company that provide Electronic Monitoring (EM) services to jurisdictions. This system is used to track participants and make sure they go where they are supposed to go and stay out of where they aren't supposed to go. Recently my company has been in talks to expand our surveillance of participants to monitor/record all their calls (we give them a phone), record their SMS's, record their web and app history, etc.

I am strongly opposed to this as I see it as a huge privacy violation but management sees it as "They are criminals", "The alternative is prison", and "It's our phone, we will do what we want". One senior member even went as far to say (when I brought up my opposition) "Don't worry about the ethics/morality, just do it" which really pisses me off.

I really hate this attitude of anyone convicted of crime being sub-human and not deserving of privacy. This cuts me especially deep because I was told when I signed on that one of the reasons we give them a semi-new android phone is so they can use it for web browsing and apps to help them get back on their feet (find a job/house) and that we want to treat people with dignity. Monitoring everything they do makes that statement a complete lie in my book and I really want nothing to do with it. I will continue to push back but does anyone have any good arguments to the points they are making? I have obtained a copy of the contract participants sign and as it stands right now this extended monitoring is NOT something they consent to (mind you they could just update the contract and get them to sign the updated version).