wired.com— After mastering the DVD-rental giant's snail-mail queuing system, a loose community of geeks eyes the company's digital delivery service.
Mar 15, 2007View in Crawl 4
Regular people don't have the time or the energy (or the knowhow) to do this. I know how to do it, and I have Netflix, and I still don't bother. The amount of people that do this, compared to the amount of people who pay (a Netflix subscriptions and don't copy) or buy the movies they like, is so minuscule it really doesn't matter. Movie pirating by individuals isn't nearly as much of a problem to the MPAA as it is to the RIAA simply due to the amount of data involved. Which is why we don't hear too much about the MPAA suing people until it gets into the millions and billions of dollars (Viacom vs. YouTube). Not to mention the fact that NetFlix doesn't give a crap what you do with the DVD as long as you send it back.
Typical corporate "security through obscurity" on Netflix part. If this happened in my company I would fire the network consultants and get new ones. Client side security is an oxymoron! How many MMO games have to be hacked to prove that? Server side with a hardened open source backbone is the only way to make things somewhat secure.
"On the other hand, I'll be damned if I let someone tell me what I can do in the comfort of my own home which can't affect anyone."I thought I was clear but I'll try again.If you get a movie from netflix, copy it, and send it back early, you force Netflix to send you more movies/month than they would if you watched the movie, and then returned it. Therefore, your copyright violation cost Netflix money. Netflix is the victim. You are the criminal.Digging me down doesn't change the facts, BTW, just silences the truth.
I do CS for Netflix. Sending in a DVD-R copy of your disc instead of the original on accident is not a good thing. Bad things can happen. So far I've only heard of this issue once, but your account is probably going to get terminated if you're caught.Most of our customers just want to watch movies & view our service as a big time savings over rental stores. I would say the majority do not know how to rip a disc or know what DeCSS is. Actually there are quite a few customers who have a hard time logging into the website. Asking them to rip a DVD would be like asking them to build a rocket to the moon. Needless to say even if they did know how, many customers want to stay on the legal side. The new Borat disc had a wave of people calling in to nervously report that the disc they got was a bootleg and they had nothing to do with it. When I told them that it was packaged that way from the studio, you could hear the rush of relief go through their voice.So to sum it up, a large portion of our customers are people who used rental stores in the past, who already feel like they're getting a "steal" with their Netflix service. I don't think there's a whole lot of motivation or energy to do something that could land them in hot water.
@ KlinkyIf you really work for Netflix's Customer Support, can you tell me one thing? How the hell do I get ahold of you guys? There are no contact numbers/address just a stupid cluster of faqs on your website.
I have a Blockbuster Online Account ... 3 @ a time for $17.99/month i get on average about 15 movies a month delivered to my door. I have tried Netflix and it was slooooooow , so I have stuck with BB for about 2 years now. If there was a Blockbuster video store near me ... it would be EXCELLENT! When i would get a movie on a friday or saturday I could just exchange it at the store and bring it back sunday evening so it will be mailed monday morning which would probably increase my monthly movies by 4-5/month. So if you have a Blockbuster near you I highly recommend using their service above all others.... and I havent even touched on the exchanging movies for games scenario.
@moose_diggsAdmittedly, this is the better deal, but it comes with a price: Blockbuster has edited/censored versions of movies. They're like Wal-Mart: If a movie has too much "offensive" material within, simply threatening to not carry it in their stores will prompt studios to re-edit, censor, and soften their movies. Netflix does not engage in this practice. Netflix funds their own independent films--like "This Film is Not Yet Rated"--which are openly critical of the MPAA and the hollywood industry (they also bankrolled the Zach Galifianakis live DVD). I'll take this independence any day of the week over my rental facility telling me what's offensive and what's not. Of course, Netflix's throttling policies are unethical bulls**t, but that still wouldn't push me to BB.
Delete your que then add the movies you want sent. As long the que list and your account checked-out dvd's are the same you will have a higher priority. Well, used to work.
MackDiesel2010 on 3/15/07 I don't think NetFlix honestly cares about people who rip movies.============================Exactly right. Two reasons:A. Not their problemB. Not a damn thing they can do about it.
crimsonblurMar 15, 2007
Regular people don't have the time or the energy (or the knowhow) to do this. I know how to do it, and I have Netflix, and I still don't bother. The amount of people that do this, compared to the amount of people who pay (a Netflix subscriptions and don't copy) or buy the movies they like, is so minuscule it really doesn't matter. Movie pirating by individuals isn't nearly as much of a problem to the MPAA as it is to the RIAA simply due to the amount of data involved. Which is why we don't hear too much about the MPAA suing people until it gets into the millions and billions of dollars (Viacom vs. YouTube). Not to mention the fact that NetFlix doesn't give a crap what you do with the DVD as long as you send it back.
bigdeliteMar 15, 2007
Typical corporate "security through obscurity" on Netflix part. If this happened in my company I would fire the network consultants and get new ones. Client side security is an oxymoron! How many MMO games have to be hacked to prove that? Server side with a hardened open source backbone is the only way to make things somewhat secure.
r1y23Mar 15, 2007
if he was a real "hacker" he would not have told the world about what he did
geekeeMar 15, 2007
"On the other hand, I'll be damned if I let someone tell me what I can do in the comfort of my own home which can't affect anyone."I thought I was clear but I'll try again.If you get a movie from netflix, copy it, and send it back early, you force Netflix to send you more movies/month than they would if you watched the movie, and then returned it. Therefore, your copyright violation cost Netflix money. Netflix is the victim. You are the criminal.Digging me down doesn't change the facts, BTW, just silences the truth.
klinkyMar 15, 2007
I do CS for Netflix. Sending in a DVD-R copy of your disc instead of the original on accident is not a good thing. Bad things can happen. So far I've only heard of this issue once, but your account is probably going to get terminated if you're caught.Most of our customers just want to watch movies & view our service as a big time savings over rental stores. I would say the majority do not know how to rip a disc or know what DeCSS is. Actually there are quite a few customers who have a hard time logging into the website. Asking them to rip a DVD would be like asking them to build a rocket to the moon. Needless to say even if they did know how, many customers want to stay on the legal side. The new Borat disc had a wave of people calling in to nervously report that the disc they got was a bootleg and they had nothing to do with it. When I told them that it was packaged that way from the studio, you could hear the rush of relief go through their voice.So to sum it up, a large portion of our customers are people who used rental stores in the past, who already feel like they're getting a "steal" with their Netflix service. I don't think there's a whole lot of motivation or energy to do something that could land them in hot water.
rickytanMar 16, 2007
@ KlinkyIf you really work for Netflix's Customer Support, can you tell me one thing? How the hell do I get ahold of you guys? There are no contact numbers/address just a stupid cluster of faqs on your website.
moose_diggsMar 16, 2007
I have a Blockbuster Online Account ... 3 @ a time for $17.99/month i get on average about 15 movies a month delivered to my door. I have tried Netflix and it was slooooooow , so I have stuck with BB for about 2 years now. If there was a Blockbuster video store near me ... it would be EXCELLENT! When i would get a movie on a friday or saturday I could just exchange it at the store and bring it back sunday evening so it will be mailed monday morning which would probably increase my monthly movies by 4-5/month. So if you have a Blockbuster near you I highly recommend using their service above all others.... and I havent even touched on the exchanging movies for games scenario.
himayMar 16, 2007
@moose_diggsAdmittedly, this is the better deal, but it comes with a price: Blockbuster has edited/censored versions of movies. They're like Wal-Mart: If a movie has too much "offensive" material within, simply threatening to not carry it in their stores will prompt studios to re-edit, censor, and soften their movies. Netflix does not engage in this practice. Netflix funds their own independent films--like "This Film is Not Yet Rated"--which are openly critical of the MPAA and the hollywood industry (they also bankrolled the Zach Galifianakis live DVD). I'll take this independence any day of the week over my rental facility telling me what's offensive and what's not. Of course, Netflix's throttling policies are unethical bulls**t, but that still wouldn't push me to BB.
diggdongMar 16, 2007
Delete your que then add the movies you want sent. As long the que list and your account checked-out dvd's are the same you will have a higher priority. Well, used to work.
darph_boboMar 17, 2007
MackDiesel2010 on 3/15/07 I don't think NetFlix honestly cares about people who rip movies.============================Exactly right. Two reasons:A. Not their problemB. Not a damn thing they can do about it.