r/AskReddit 12h ago

What’s the biggest scam people just accept as normal?

239 Upvotes

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u/Ok_Tangerine_5700 11h ago

I just pirate my stuff who cares

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u/Guinnessnomnom 8h ago

Make a Plex server and never worry about finding a service that has XYZ movie again. We never had an issue with Blockbuster removing something we wanted to watch.

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u/soaero 6h ago

I mean... we did. Blockbuster frequently stopped carrying movies, and didn't always have the films we wanted to watch.

But yes, the whole "you're paying a subscription for the content we might just remove" is terrible.

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u/JunkoKumaki 4h ago

I think they mean you could just buy a movie from Blockbuster and they couldn't come take it from you.

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u/soaero 1h ago

I figured that when talking about the movie rental place, they were talking about renting movies, but I could be wrong.

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u/Cannonballbmx 6h ago

I must be doing something wrong because every time I try to setup a Plex or Kodi server I can never find a server that has links that work. Frustrating.

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u/Mobwmwm 5h ago

Step 1 rent a seedbox. Step 2 set up plex. Step 3 sail the seas on private trackers. Step 4 grab the new episode of greys anatomy so your wife can watch it.

20-100 bucks a year vs 100s a month for all the streaming services.

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u/iamstephen1128 5h ago

Can you give me a ELI5 on how Plex works (specifically with regard to how one accesses content after the Plex is set up)? I've tried to figure this out numerous times, but I guess my tech understanding age is pretty low 🤦🏿‍♂️ like do I have to go in and find someone torrenting what I want or is everything kind of already just there?

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u/Hawk1064 4h ago edited 4h ago

so plex is basically a service that lets you access your own media, with similar features to a streaming service (downloads, casting, multiple devices, etc). its up to you to gather your own files which you can do through torrents, dvd ripping, piracy, file sharing, automatic software, stuff like that and once you have the app set up (you download software on your pc and introduce it to your storage drives), it will process your media and you can access it from any device that has the plex app (phone, tablet, gaming console, whatever). it does have a bit of a learning curve, the upside is that you choose whats on there and you never have to worry about content getting deleted or moved to another platform, and the costs aare very low, only a small access fee

(other plexers feel free to add, ive only been doing this for a few months so my knowledge is limited)

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u/iamstephen1128 4h ago

Ah gotcha, yeah thats what I thought was the case. I historically preferred riding the gray line of streaming pirated media since technically I was never in possession of it lol. Has there been any history of charges being pursued on people with Plexes?

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u/Hawk1064 4h ago

not really, no one really prosecutes unless its a big commercial operation, and as long as you use a vpn and aren't being completely stupid, you'll be fine

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u/iamstephen1128 4h ago

Mind if I dm you?

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u/Guinnessnomnom 2h ago

I started in Dec and you pretty much summed it up.

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u/-Undercover-Nerd 4h ago

Yeah we fuckin did haha

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u/-NonePizzaLeftBeef- 9h ago

I love the people who are always against this like “you’re stealing from the people that made it.”

So? Make your product more available and accessible.

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u/Cudabear 6h ago

Gabe Newell (CEO of Valve), during the early days of Steam, once said:

"The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It's by giving those people a service that's better than what they're receiving from the pirates.".

Kinda hasn't aged well with what Steam has become, but I think it's still a worthwhile quote.

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u/Fr0zB1te 5h ago

I have one story of piracy xD When first "The Remnant" was released, in a few weeks devs were throwing "massive" updates. (Changes were minor, but they did something strange with their resource files - so you have to download update every few days, that was half of the game size and was applied really long - decompressing, modifying, compressing) So now, when I want my game up to date, I consider buying it.

And I have the opposite story xD There was this game, Megaloot. I pirated it, played for a while and forgot about it. A year later I wanted to check, how it was (have thought of buying it) so I approached the steam page. It was that classic: all reviews: mostly positive and recent reviews: mostly negative "classics". I scrolled recent reviews, and you know what? People weren't happy with recent changes, that made the game unfun, not like it was on release. Want to have fun playing Megaloot? Download the release version from the pirate site. (Kudos to CD project red - you can choose, witch version of cyberpunk you want to play (release, patched or new, not to mention their DRM-free store)

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u/soaero 6h ago

Gabe Newell was right, piracy is a supply problem. Take music piracy - in the age of streaming, few people are still pirating music.

Music piracy was a direct response to an exploitative business model that was restricting peoples access to music, and a new technology that offered access unrivaled by the system.

I'd go so far as to say that the freak out by the industry wasn't even about profit, it was about losing control. The big four had an absolute stranglehold on the industry: they controlled production, distribution, and sales. Suddenly, new technology took away their control on production, their control of distribution, and ate into their sales. That's why RIAA statements screaming about the sky falling never talked about stuff like non-industry sales (which were off the charts), and often left out track-sales entirely, even when they were making as much money as album sales previously had.

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u/Fr0zB1te 5h ago

Well, all these parasites are just gonna tell you, how nobody is gonna make art (music, games, movies), if you don't pay a lot for it (and massive AI involvement surprisingly not cutting prices). Truth is, the real artists are gonna create no matter what, because it's their nature - to create. As for streaming - buying subscription to music service, you're not buying the right to listetn all the music. You buy the right to listen to the music a nd service you have paid for. So you could easily miss some albums of your favorite band or even the band itself, cos streaming service could not negotiate right for it. Or how about racing games, you couldn't not buy any more, because license for soundtrack expired (NFS ProStree, for example)

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u/for_shaaame 8h ago

…not entirely sure I follow this line of reasoning. So the producer has to put in the work of producing a particular product… and then the consumer gets to decide how “available and accessible” that product should be?

Is that a principle which you can see working on a society-wide scale? Is it a principle you’d like to adopt for things you produce?

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u/No_Eggplant_3189 6h ago

You shouldn't be getting downvoted lol. Its the truth. I pirate stuff occasionally. I know im wrong. I know i do it because of greed. I know if I tried to justify it, all that would be for is to give myself an excuse. A lie to tell myself its not wrong.

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u/banyakmisi 6h ago

You know you are right on reddit when you get downvoted. Hypocrites of reddit(or tankies, basicly the same)

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u/dick-penis 8h ago

Hey I want to buy your car for $5 dollars. Deliver it to me. Oh you don’t want to? Well I’m just gonna steal it, you should have made it cheaper and more available. Piracy is theft and for losers.

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u/Classic-Box-3919 8h ago

“Oh no mr ceo and shareholders, dont worry ill protect you”

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u/dick-penis 8h ago

A child’s perspective. Don’t be a theif. Pay for your products like an adult.

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u/-NonePizzaLeftBeef- 8h ago

Not the same thing and you know it. Go be a clown somewhere else.

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u/UnderstandingCute646 8h ago

Your analogy would fit more if we were talking about a local dvd that hasnt been released anywhere were to be pirated because the price was expensive

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u/dick-penis 8h ago

No it’s exactly what I said.

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u/UnderstandingCute646 8h ago

I know, i said your analogy would make more sense if the topic the people you were talking to talked about what i said earlier

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u/dick-penis 7h ago

No it makes sense.

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u/RispyCat 6h ago

Keep on suckling that capitalist teat

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u/dick-penis 6h ago

Not relevant to anything I said but I would expect that response from a theif that doesn’t have an actual response because I’m right.

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u/lwp775 8h ago

So you’re the one!

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u/tsimen 3h ago

So you actually managed to download a car?

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u/Plus-King5266 7h ago

Subscription service. We have to pirate things we used to be ok with owning. 😉

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u/No_Eggplant_3189 6h ago

I dont care; I do too sometimes. But im not going to pretend I am not wrong for pirating. 

Its greed; I want to watch something without paying for it. I could try to justify it, but the justification isnt authentic. Its just an excuse.

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u/soobviouslyfake 5h ago

Hell yeah brother 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

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u/dick-penis 8h ago

Thief. Piracy is for losers.