thisislife2 7 hours ago

I think this article is jumping the gun ... Give it time ... I hadn't even heard of this show, and so obviously wasn't even looking for it ... And if it is in Swedish, I'll also have to wait for the complete English subtitles before I can watch it. (And personally, I've found that pirated TV shows / movies that are not English are, in general, difficult to find online).

  • deaddodo 6 hours ago

    I literally found it in two seconds on one of the most popular non-legit streaming sites. Checked two others, and it's there as well.

    The article author has no idea what they're talking about.

    • meowster 6 hours ago

      I may be ignorant, but streaming is not the same as torrenting, and The Pirate Bay is known for the latter.

      • tim333 17 minutes ago

        They are technically different. I also found The Pirate Bay on a torrent site straight away (1337x).

        Streaming plays straight away like youtube. Torrents you generally have to download first using bittorrent like software. Though it blurs a bit with software like Popcorn Time.

      • deaddodo 5 hours ago

        Not ignorant. Definitely overpedantic.

        The Pirate Bay is known for its championing piracy, in general. Those streaming sites are piracy. They also usually use the same source videos as those found on torrent sites; if not outright acting as a thin media player on top of torrents, in some cases.

      • colecut 5 hours ago

        you can couple a torrent service with something like put.io and now it's a streaming service =p

    • crtasm 3 hours ago

      The article was published over 5hrs before your comment, do you know when those sites added the episodes?

  • RajT88 an hour ago

    Side question: there is an undocumented and free Google Translate API. Is there a similar one for transcription?

    I have one I made which you feed a video file and uses a paid transcribe/Translate service to spit out subtitles, but I would love a free one, even if crappier...

  • Dylan16807 6 hours ago

    They want to talk about the series so the article isn't really jumping the gun. The title is just their hook.

0x38B 7 hours ago

It’s funny how much better the Russian torrent tracker «Rutracker» is for foreign movies and serials, this show included. I love foreign movies and shows, and sometimes I literally can’t pay to watch it.

  • diggan 7 hours ago

    > sometimes I literally can’t pay to watch it.

    Yup. Top 2 reasons I became a pirate again after not being a pirate since maybe 15 years ago:

    #1 I literally couldn't give someone money to watch/listen to what I wanted

    #2 I was paying someone money to watch/listen to something and then they removed it

    Even popular things like Saturday Night Live are still impossible to acquire legally in my country.

    Edit: Forgot another point that became very annoying, the show is available but not with the subtitles I want and/or need. For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. But if I use Swedish Netflix, it would work, but technically breaking Netflix's ToS. Content rights have completely fucked up the user experience.

    • js2 7 hours ago

      I sometimes pay for things and then pirate them anyway because I can adjust the subtitle position on the pirated version. Or I can rely on being able to play them offline. Or a dozen other reasons where the pirated version offers a better UX.

      • wolrah 6 hours ago

        > I sometimes pay for things and then pirate them anyway because I can adjust the subtitle position on the pirated version. Or I can rely on being able to play them offline. Or a dozen other reasons where the pirated version offers a better UX.

        I've been doing this for years. I have a stack of Blu-Ray discs I've never opened because I send a request to my home server while I'm in line to check out at the store and by the time I get home the exact same content on the disc I just purchased has already landed there exactly as if I had ripped it myself.

        As you note, every element of the user experience is better with the pirated copy and absolutely nothing is worse, even for those who legitimately own it. The only way you compete with free is by being better than the free offering, and the home video industry just refuses to acknowledge that reality.

        • throwup238 4 hours ago

          Not every element: most pirated media lacks the extra content of DVD/BluRay like commentary tracks. It’s relatively rare to find shows with commentary audio tracks alongside the main audio.

          Most people don’t care about that though.

          • miki123211 3 hours ago

            And audio description[1] tracks.

            there are specialized pirate sources that cater to this niche specifically, but most of them only have the AD tracks as MP3 files, without the actual video.

            If you're watching with friends and your audience is a mix of fully sighted and visually impaired people, and you want both AD and video on the screen, you're in for a world of pain.

            [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_description

          • Sakos 4 hours ago

            These exist. I have tons of straight and remuxed Blu-ray rips from certain sites that contain extra content and/or commentary or other tracks. If you know the right sites that specifically cater to people who want this stuff, it's not a problem.

      • zxilly 6 hours ago

        Maybe not related to this topic, but I was thinking about certain games I purchased from Ubisoft. Whenever I open Uplay, it asks me to log back in and enter a 2FA code. So basically all my Ubisoft games are playing pirated versions after purchase. By the way the anti-cheat system Ubisoft uses, EAC, also refuses to work at the same time as GoLand, so I can say that I really don't have a choice.

      • Sakos 4 hours ago

        There are games I own on Steam where I'll prefer the cracked version because of asinine publisher decisions like forcing a third party launcher that often gets an update which breaks it on the Steam Deck.

    • tuna74 6 hours ago

      "Forgot another point that became very annoying, the show is available but not with the subtitles I want and/or need. For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. But if I use Swedish Netflix, it would work, but technically breaking Netflix's ToS. Content rights have completely fucked up the user experience."

      I think you can set which subs (and audio tracks) should be available in you Netflix profile. I can get chinese voice and subs for a lot of stuff in Sweden.

      It is the same for Disney+ as well.

      • deaddodo 5 hours ago

        No, Netflix/Max/Etc literally limit the options available to you. They want to try to dissuade people from purchasing those services at a discount in lower CoL regions, and don't want to deal with multi-region licensing for dubs/specific media/etc.

        The only regions that give you carte blanche (in general) language options are the anglophone countries and some EU regions.

        But they're also geocoded (presumably, for travelers), so if you can get a VPN/tunnel that works, you can use another regions' primary languages. Max, last I checked, is the only one that outright limits usage outside of your region.

      • diggan 6 hours ago

        > I think you can set which subs (and audio tracks) should be available in you Netflix profile. I can get chinese voice and subs for a lot of stuff in Sweden.

        It's a geo-content restriction of some sorts. I'm guessing some of the subtitles Netflix is leasing/renting/whatever, they only lease for specific regions.

        I'm 100% sure I've watched shows in the past on Netflix where if I use a VPN to set my location to Sweden, I could get English or Swedish subtitles, but if I use it without VPN (so Spanish location), it would refuse to allow me the English subtitles and instead allows Spanish or Swedish subtitles.

        I'm sure someone more knowledgeable knows exactly why that is.

      • aniforprez 6 hours ago

        Last I checked, a lot of the time this is entirely dependent on region. For eg. the Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex series on Netflix exclusively has English dubbing and English subtitles everywhere but Japan but changing these settings did not make the Japanese audio available anywhere else that I was able to find out. It's also very annoying that sometimes the only subtitles available are closed captions when I really only want dialog subtitles. It's a real pain that all dialog and subtitle options aren't available out of the gate for everything.

    • crossroadsguy 7 hours ago

      # 3 There was 1 subscription streaming service to pay for, then 2, then 3, then 4… and eventually I decided to stop counting but the number kept on going up.

    • rightbyte 7 hours ago

      A big bullet point for me is that I find it unethical to support most of the studios and media companies.

      • karaterobot 6 hours ago

        As someone who pirates a lot of movies and TV, I think it's hard to justify based on ethical arguments against the industry. At a certain point, it feels like a wobbly justification to say we like using something but refuse to pay for it, and that's actually fighting the good fight. Personally, I don't like some of what these companies do, but I like other parts—like the movies and shows their dark malevolence provides me. I have to admit that the real reason I pirate is because it's more convenient and cheap.

        • freedomben 5 hours ago

          I would naturally tend to agree with you, and when it comes to DRM-free things (like most music) I totally agree, but I genuinely think financially supporting companies using DRM is unethical. I used to buy (and still would buy) a ton of ebooks and a fair amount of movies/shows, but at this point I refuse to. The only exception is Audible. I still buy a ton of audiobooks from Audible (unless I can find them on Downpour or another DRM-free site) because I think they've gotten to a reasonably happy medium on the DRM. I would rather they drop the DRM, but it's at least not a giant pain in the ass to strip for people like me who really care about that.

          I strongly want to pay people for good content, and I think they deserve to make some money for their work, but as soon as they slap DRM on it to limit my ability to back it up, consume it on whatever device I want, etc, the scales are tipped and I think piracy is actually more ethical than supporting such shit financially.

          • themadturk 3 hours ago

            Are you familiar with libro.fm?

            • freedomben an hour ago

              Ah yes, I should have mentioned them! I did have a really good experience there, and I appreciated being able to download an m4b file. Thanks!

        • rightbyte an hour ago

          Ye it could just be a rationalization, I have to admit.

      • bazoom42 7 hours ago

        How about just not consume their products then?

        • rightbyte 2 hours ago

          That would be a more principled stand, ye. But the conglomerates capture so much culture, such that it would be kinda peaty culture wise to skip mainstream content.

        • bena 6 hours ago

          Right? "I don't like what you stand for or your views on certain topics, but I do want to enjoy the product you make, so I feel justified in not compensating you for partaking in the services you provide."

          Can I stiff my Uber driver if I don't agree with their politics? If I don't like their car? Can my boss not pay me for developing software if I didn't laugh enough at his jokes?

          We find it easy to say "no" in those cases. But because media piracy is pretty easy to do and pretty difficult to punish, we simply stop caring.

          • amtc80 3 hours ago

            > Can I stiff my Uber driver if I don't agree with their politics?

            That would be an example of the opposite. Uber is pretty much a tracker (peer-to-peer platform) for unlicensed taxis.

          • averageRoyalty 5 hours ago

            I agree with your core concept, but I don't think those analogies are fair.

            TV and movies are part of pop culture and depending on your circle can be critical to have knowledge on for social reasons. If something is unavailable to you due to means outside of your control (licensing, internet speed, accessibility of UI, etc) then there's more justification to that than not paying your Uber driver based on politics.

            • gruez 4 hours ago

              >TV and movies are part of pop culture and depending on your circle can be critical to have knowledge on for social reasons. If something is unavailable to you due to means outside of your control (licensing, internet speed, accessibility of UI, etc) then there's more justification to that than not paying your Uber driver based on politics.

              TV and movies are "critical" because... you want to partake in watercooler banter? I'm not sure how that's more convincing than uber being "critical" because you need it to get to work on time, or to get home safely after drinking.

      • __MatrixMan__ 6 hours ago

        Agreed.

        I'd love a better way to pay the artists of the content I end up torrenting--just so long as it actually gets to the people who made the content and not the people turning the world into a pile of telescreens.

    • Suppafly 6 hours ago

      >#1 I literally couldn't give someone money to watch/listen to what I wanted

      This, I'm constantly seeing reels and clips of shows and then searching for "where to stream x" on google and finding out that not only is the show not available on any of the 5 or so paid services that I have access to, it's not available for streaming at all, or if it is, it's by paying $3 per episode.

      • karaterobot 6 hours ago

        In case you don't use this resource, try justwatch.com for figuring out who streams what.

        • Suppafly 6 hours ago

          thanks I always forget the name of that site, just searching on google works so-so, sometimes the AI thing that structures the results now pops up a useful list and sometimes you just links to sketchier versions of justwatch.

          • karaterobot 3 hours ago

            It's not a great name. I always have to look up what it's called by going into Letterboxd and seeing the co-branding mark on a specific page. But, a neat service nonetheless!

    • lukan 5 hours ago

      "For example, watching a Swedish TV show on Spanish Netflix doesn't let me have English subtitles for example. "

      This is so weird, why are they doing this? That the localized audio might have stupid local licenses ok, (or not ok) - but even the subtitles?

    • yieldcrv 7 hours ago

      #3 it ultimately got more inconvenient than pirating, just like 20 years ago. the streaming apps simply matched parity with the early 2000s piracy experience and then surpassed it, but then the content licensing system made it lose its advantages

  • kelvinjps10 5 hours ago

    For language learning (immersion based) piracy is the way, Netflix doesn't allow me to watch most of foreign tv shows and a bunch of tools like susbsr2, mpv and other work with the local file

    • 0x38B 3 hours ago

      As someone who learns really well by listening - things I hear tend to stick - audiobooks have been the most enjoyable and immersive way to learn Russian and Ukrainian.

      Returning to my favorite books is a concentrated dose of spaced repetition; e.g. an Andy Weir book will have a lot of scientific language, classics like the Lord of the Rings are rich with literary language and description.

  • changing1999 5 hours ago

    There is a huge number of TV shows (e.g. old British comedy shows) and movies (e.g. big releases from Trier) that are not available to stream on any streaming service in the US. There is no other option than to pirate. An astoundingly ridiculous situation.

  • Yeul 5 hours ago

    Russian authorities don't cooperate with take downs. The US government forces the world to comply.

  • redmajor12 3 hours ago

    Christ, don't mention that tracker here!

belorn 6 hours ago

People may be unware of it, but yt-dlp has support for svtplay and thus can access/download the show directly. It may be geo-ip blocked however.

palata 4 hours ago

The intro says:

"[...] made its debut [...] earlier today. International viewers are left waiting until other services pick it up. In the meantime, [...] finding a pirated copy is proving surprisingly difficult."

I don't see the irony there: if it is so new that it is hard to find through legit channels, it makes total sense to me that it may be hard to torrent. I wouldn't make any conclusion on the day of the launch.

conradfr 6 hours ago

Before reading the article I thought it would be because of the name, like when it was hard to find the (great) album "The Music" by the band "The Music" in the early 2000s.

  • changing1999 5 hours ago

    Reminds me of the joke from Peep show about naming their band "Various Artists".

NelsonMinar 5 hours ago

FWIW I don't see any copies yet on nzbgeek.info, a popular Usenet NZB tracker. Almost no releases at all from OLLONBORRE ever, for that matter, that's the scene group the article discusses.

deadlypointer 4 hours ago

The TPB Afk is a really good documentary about this IMO, not sure how this series will compare to that.

GinsengJar 5 hours ago

People speculated From Software named the player's horse mount in Eldrin Ring Torrent for the same reason.

drproteus 6 hours ago

Never use public trackers (unless you're downloading Linux ISOs of course).

  • veggieWHITES 5 hours ago

    Been downloading literally whatever I feel like in Canada here for the past few decades with nothing more than an email forwarded to me from my ISP with some "threats" from the original copyright owners :P

  • diggan 6 hours ago

    > Never use public trackers

    ... if you live in a country where the police don't have better things to do.

    There are plenty of countries where literally nothing happen no matter how much you download/upload, even when using public trackers. Police there tend to focus on people do the initial uploading, if anything.

    • zxilly 6 hours ago

      Mostly the police don't care about this, it's the owners of the copyrights who care , they might send an email to your ISP and then you'll have to pay.

      • diggan 6 hours ago

        > they might send an email to your ISP and then you'll have to pay

        I've probably downloaded/uploaded 10s of TBs at this point, in the two European countries I lived in since like two decades ago, and never received a single letter or had to pay anything. I'm sure there are more countries like these two.

bastloing 3 hours ago

I can't wait until I can just copy and paste the description or plot into an AI and have it generate the whole series or movie. Lionsgate and Runway teaming up should make that possible.

dscottboggs 7 hours ago

AI generated bullshit slop it just hasn't made it to public trackers yet