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More Popcorn Time Users Sued
An anonymous reader writes: The torrent-based video streaming software Popcorn Time has been in the news lately as multiple entities have initiated legal action over its use. Now, 16 Oregon-based Comcast subscribers have been targeted for their torrenting of the movie Survivor. The attorney who filed the lawsuit (PDF) says his client, Survivor Productions Inc., doesn't plan to seek any more than the minimum $750 fine, and that their goal is to "deter infringement." The lawsuit against these Popcorn Time users was accompanied by 12 other lawsuits targeting individuals who acquired copies of the movie using more typical torrenting practices.
First of all if you're torrenting it then it's basically out there for the world to download from your machine - so you're at least enabling infringement. Second, your viewing of any particular media may be subject to other requirements such as submitting to periodic advertising. Shifting media would allow you to skirt around those secondary provisions. We can pretend these things aren't our problem but the final price they're offering factors in all of their rights, licenses, and third-party advertising dealings. They're obliged to honor their contracts and so are we.
Not that this is right, but it's law. The system is set up to throw you just enough peanuts that you won't get pissed off. I gave up on media a long time ago just because it's all crippled crapware these days. Even the adverts are interrupted with adverts. My PC is hobbled to near-uselessness with crapware installed by Lenovo so I just work on Mac.
My PC is hobbled to near-uselessness with crapware installed by Lenovo
We've recently purchased some Lenovo machines, and yes, they came with a metric assload of shitty software that nobody could possibly use or want, and that soaked up RAM and CPU like a drunk in a vineyard. But you do know you're allowed to uninstall all that shovel-ware, right? And if you don't know what to remove or how to uninstall them yourself, a useful tool is the PC Decrapifier, which is so simple anyone can run it.
The Decrapifier is not perfect, though, as the authors seem to be dodging some legal lines by not being particularly aggressive in what they recommend you remove. And it won't get everything. My sister asked me to help her as her machine had slowed to the point of unusability. At some point her machine had become infested by some particularly nasty McAfee "free" malware that required a ludicrous amount of effort to destroy. It took me far too long to discover I had to surf to their site to download a custom uninstall tool. I think I spent almost two hours downloading updates and scrubbing the malware from three machines simultaneously. But once all the crapware was gone, and they had current patches, they actually became some decent machines. (Then I had to go home and take a shower, because that McAfee software made me feel filthy.)
I consider that wasted time as an expense that jacked up the cost of owning the machines by a couple hundred dollars. It would not be worth the investment on a cheap Lenovo, which I would never recommend unless you have the nothing but time to waste, but as I was getting a big SSD, fast CPU, hi res screen, and lots of RAM, I overlooked it. But I'm not forgetting it.
Lenovo, if you're reading this, know that I'm the senior buyer for all computer and electronic equipment purchased by my two extended families, and that $20 in kickbacks you got for installing the shitware on my machine will never recoup the costs of even one of the never-buy-Lenovo recommendations I've been handing out. Multiply that by the thousands of nerds who feel like I do, and that's millions of units you're not selling because of your own stupidity.
John
I am that cameraman.
I'm off with an illness just now, but I'm not being paid the sick pay they're obligated to pay me. They are making a lot of money off me, but refuse to pay what they owe.
Fuck 'em. From my perspective, do what you like: I don't suffer because you pirate. I suffer because the owner is a greedy, selfish cunt.