this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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I may have missed it, but does he (or anyone else) have recommendations for options to simply pay for content and get high quality DRM free files (edit: I mean legally)?
And how much of a pain in the ass is it to buy DVD box sets and rip them? Presumably that’s legal for personal use? Is that the only way? :(
I have some additional frustrations with Netflix:
I believe ripping your DVDs is technically illegal because breaking CSS is a violation of the DMCA. It is quite easy to do though. MakeMKV is great.
There is actually a DMCA exemption (1201) for ripping DVD's and bypassing the DRM for copyright that falls under fair-use otherwise. The Librarian of Congress has the power to grant these exemptions to the DMCA and grants quite a few other things. Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies
These exemptions are good until October 2024 but just like previously, the same exemptions and perhaps even more will likely continue.
Sure. Scroll down.
Huh, I guess I'm not the bad-boy who plays by his own set of rules that I kept telling myself I was.
Thanks for the correction.
Some vinyl comes with a download card for lossless files.
Companies need to make it clear which and I would personally pay full price. As it is I only buy on sale and the cards are a bonus.
Ripping discs sucks but it's a one time thing.
Some of the end credits on netflix are longer than the show. I would kill for auto skip in jellyfin.
Ah, I actually have bought a few music CDs a while ago, and they were actually fairly easy to rip myself. I can't complain about that at all. If ripping DVDs was that easy then I would probably enthusiastically buy a few DVD boxsets. But I don't really want to buy dedicated hardware just to read DVDs on my PC to do a cumbersome ripping process, and also probably lug that hardware (or the entire PC) to my TV now and then to watch a movie.
I've been interested in vinyl for a while, does it really sound better?
Vinyl is just a way to be intentional about listening and actually owning your media.
The dirty secret about vinyl is that everything since the 80s was recorded digitally anyway. a CD will always have better audio fidelity and record collectors hate this fact.
also if you don't have a legacy record collection it's probably not worth any nostalgia points so I'd stay away from it honestly
For audiobooks I recently discovered libro.fm and it works great. You can use their app to listen to it like any other service, but you can also just download the plain drm-free mp3s. For music there is bandcamp if the artist is on there, but for movies and series I'm not aware of any vendors like that. DVDs I don't see as an option because their file size limit is too low, the quality on a modern TV looks really bad. And Blurays are a whole other level of DRM hell.
I don't know about the value of libro.fm... Seems to me that the monthly subscription is the price of a physical book and you only get one per month?
I get a much better deal with my city's library which offers a large catalogue of audio books for free. It's not owning, it's borrowing like you would from a library but at least it doesn't cost anything.
I think the pricing of their subscription is roughly the same as audible's, but you get your books DRM-free. They also have some great books on sale sometimes that you don't need a subscription for, and you can choose a local bookstore to share revenue with. That said, city libraries are an amazing option as well.
Awesome, thanks for sharing this! I haven't gotten into audiobooks yet, but it's good to know that there are user friendly options out there.
Vaguely related: it's also possible to listen to audio books through local libraries in some cases. I think the app is not as friendly, and does a lot to prevent you from getting DRM free mp3s, but at least there's no charge.
Thanks for this! I'm so glad to see an audible alternative.
EDIT: I signed up for a free trial and will give it a go. Bummed to see they have a much smaller selection but I guess that's expected with Amazon's muscle.
There WAS bandcamp...
I know it got sold twice and I am worried about the future but I believe they still have the same purchase and download options for now.
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In the US, you can make an archival copy of software for yourself.
However, you can't legally sell it, give it away or use someone else's archival copy for something you do have already.
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EDIT: Sorry, I replied to the wrong reply here. However, if you're interested in these exemptions, you can read through them.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/10/28/2021-23311/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control
/EDIT
Audiovisual works fall under Section III (1) of the exemptions, including video.
Computer Programs fall under Section III (5 - 12).
Explicitly software isn't even mentioned until Section III (6) though E-Books falls under Section III (1D) which is obviously software.
Under PROPOSED CLASS 1: AUDIOVISUAL WORKS---CRITICISM AND COMMENT, DVD CCA, screen captures and viewing the media in a classroom as part of the concerns of those that were against the exemption in Section III (1) specifically.
These exemptions definitely do not just encompass software only.
The DMCA and copyright law does not allow any of this without the exemptions. These are exemptions to those laws and what is contained in them is legally allowed.
If you are torrenting anything, you're seeding that data, period. So therefore you're uploading. It's just the nature of the beast. It's why you may end up with a letter from your ISP if you raw dog it with no VPN. This may differ depending on what country you reside in.
That being said, best thing I ever did was set up a NAS a couple years ago. I seed all day long and build ratio on private trackers. I watch whatever I want in the quality I want via Plex.
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Yeah you can set up an auto-stop ratio at 0 and it stops without uploading anything. I should probably VPN too but I haven't cared enough for like 8+ years and nothing's happened yet
Autoplay next episode is what many people want.
But Netflix or platform should let users make their own choice and put autoplay in the option/setting.
On Netflix, it is in the Profile settings. (Manage Profiles -> Edit Profile.)
Lmao. Heard of geoblocking? My Jellyfin instance has no geoblocking tho. 🙆
Ah, good point. I had briefly heard of this and was shocked: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code
For anyone who hasn't heard:
This definitely furthers the original post's point. And he may have even mentioned it.
It's infuriating that you can pay for something and then move, and lose your collection. This comes to mind: https://xkcd.com/488/
This is way the piracy is the only way to enjoy content without any bullshit.
It can be a pain at first when you figure out a schema, look for software etc., then just a matter of inserting a disc and pressing a button. DVDs are easy to rip, there are fully open source programs to do it, for example libcss from VLC team. And DVDs don't require using leaked decryption keys like BluRays.
It is legal depending on the country. In US it's in gray area as you strip down DRM. In country I live in (Poland) from my research there are no such measures and copyright works differently. In Poland the movie/music is untied from medium you bought it on, so copying is legal but selling or giving those copies without destroying other copies you have is illegal.
My advice is that for first dozens of movies don't play with Jellyfin and storing them. DVD player on USB is the best and rip just to have movies for a trip or on a phone. Just out of simplicity, why spend time managing backups, storage shares and additional machines when there is only a few titles to manage.
Thanks, this is somewhat reassuring. Maybe some day I'll try it. I used to like tinkering with things, but lately I haven't had as much patience or free time.
Even assuming ripping is legal (it usually isn't ,though it should be), the effort required is significantly higher, the cost is significantly higher, and at least for TV shows, you usually suffer from huge delays as you wait for the season box set to be released. This is even assuming they bother to release a bluray in 4k with HDR.
Netflix and other services (assuming it even has the content you want) have fixed these issues, with the massive downside of no 4k, lower bitrate, and no ownership at the end of it.
Piracy, while more illegal, has the content you want, at 4k, usually a higher bitrate, with minimal effort, no cost, and no delays. Now that I'm employed, I don't pirate music or games anymore, because the services offered are good enough that piracy isn't worth the effort. But for movies & TV shows, the services offered are simply terrible.
Ripping your locally purchased content for ripping is a fun hobby and can be addicting to getting everything to look just right in your media player of choice. Also, ripping gives you control over codecs as you can reencode as needed for different clients. This works for music, movies, and TV shows. I will say that ripping TV shows is a chore, so start with movies and music first.
stremio solves most of that