Question from watching too much youtube: I’ve noticed that VPN ads have shifted from security¹ to talking about how British Netflix has different shows.

I assume the regional differences are due to license agreements with the rights holders. How long until streaming services are compelled to take better steps to confirm their client location, or until “choose your server country” VPNs are targeted as a means of subverting restrictions or something?

I love all the replies saying if you block this piracy they’ll do more explicit piracy.

Well they’re not paying for the content, they’re paying for different content, deciding what they think they should be paying for, and gaining access by force.

The streaming service probably does better overall from a larger effective library, but I can’t imagine rights holders are happy to be paid for one thing while providing another.

You can choose what to buy and not buy, or instead choose something not for sale (on alternative platforms, individual sale, rental, etc). There are arguments about pirating things not available for legitimate sale and whether the region based licensing makes sense, but given the situation I don’t think blocking misuse is improper.

A better way to go about this could be to bind location to account and limit how often it can change, idk why they don’t.

To respond to “not actively providing anything”, they (studios) have an up front cost to produce a piece of media, which in exchange they get copyright to the product. Maybe they want to sell to Netflix in the UK, but can get a good deal in the US with a particular TV channel. Netflix pays less than a worldwide license, (while the content is still available worldwide through VPNs), so the rights holder gets less money, even assuming the US market is still fully available.

The actual financial relationships are weird, it’s like “can this company continue to fund this studio under the assumption that they can produce products that on average over their lifetime can produce a profit?”, lots of lag time and middlemen involved.

In the scenario I described, someone is willing to pay a premium rate, but only in a certain region; that’s the US TV channel operating in a single country that wants an exclusive show to compete with regional and global channels and services. The buyer (Netflix) doesn’t want a worldwide license because of language and broadcast regulations and transmission licenses and budget and marketing scale or any number of possibilities, but the seller still wants to access other regions that don’t interfere.

idk how the separate netflixes and all work, I would assume they’re all a single interest, but as long as there are regional players in the market, I can imagine regional contracts making sense.

In the case where there is a legitimate alternative delivery, you are circumventing that.

In my example the TV channel gets less than they paid for and Netflix gets more.

The rights holder gets the same for completed sales but loses trust in future deals.

Also think about it: where do the average ratings come from? :P

I mean, they come from past statistics. By changing present statistics, you change future averages.

It’s another point of lag, but the effect still happens eventually.

The next season comes around, and the US TV channel can’t trust the studio’s exclusivity contract not to be circumvented by VPN users and made worthless, advertisers can’t expect the old amount of impressions, the parent company of the studio (if one exists) can’t expect licenses of future products to be as valuable.

I don’t really like artificial exclusivity of media in general, but going around it seems to just concentrate success in the streaming services that have the weakest detection.

Circumvention doesn’t feel like a functional way of influencing the change you actually want, just a short term financial imbalance until streaming services change or stop getting sold.

Yeah if we’re just going moral as a consumer, there’s also a stance that you can steal from any big company doing well 😜. Most of my Disney lately has been basically pirated, thinking about it but I’ve also watched a lot less since that habit started, and I probably would watch new stuff in theaters if the situation was right.

“What are your crimes? comment below with your full name and address”

:ooooo

As an “Anonymized Corporate Shill”; feel free, but I have no research or numbers or anything behind this, it’s just a logical sequence that I think would exist and explain what we see.

heck yeah

Also fun piracy regionality subject I see frequently: arcade games

Lots of stuff is not even sold, individuals may not have operators in their local area, and versions/games may go out of date and no longer have legitimate purchase options for that exact product. It’s a breeding ground for illegal piracy.

Oh yeah they’re also full of licensed content lmao I still never figured out how that works

Like, Konami networking is by special contract with R1² (and D&B³ to a lesser extent), and on a technical level may work as an extension of Japan or its own region.

There’s also the question that I think often gets ignored about loss of arcade machine sales. Maybe Pop’n Music 4 isn’t run because of newer versions existing, or Museca being shut down entirely, but there are other experiences like them.

If you weren’t playing Chuni⁴ on data, at home, for free, whenever you wanted, you might be making choices between steam offerings and local arcade options, or even the new home game versions from Konami.

The standard for an “old” game in the community tends to be between 6 months and a year, with game data being released when fairly similar games are still being sold and operated.

TODO: reword the following: This common commitment to “n-1”, i.e. releasing full unlock updates for versions at least 1 behind current may work for those who want the latest features now, but honestly getting game updates with full 3rd party server support and bonus features on a 6 month delay is insane.

Wacca is still live for a bit to my knowledge, but the community is already deep into making a version compiling all versions, custom chart maker, etc.

This is really confusing because we again have this studio/provider/consumer structure like with the video content but also there’s custom physical hardware, there are live service elements, the consumer payment is pay per view and revshared between publisher and operator. Konami actually charges the arcade 15¢ per credit or something, I think Sega sells it up front but it’s the same model.

I think there is also a monthly fee for the live service and updates.

Yeah so online features are a big thing, some games refuse to boot without a server connection, others have limited features and severely limited song selection as well as no access to unlocks and player save data. Operating legitimately during the life of the live service is poor if not impossible. At end of life, I think offline patches/kits are common, but these often are not the sum of everything that has been, taking away licensed pop music and whatever else they decide.

For example, Chunithm went through a cabinet change to become Chunithm NEW, with the old cabinets getting stuck on an offline patch of the latest version pre-NEW, Paradise Lost. For R1 Japan, these cabinets have very low value, especially if they’re getting the new ones, so they shipped them to America where Chunithm was not previously operated by them. The song library is severely gutted, and especially with the lack of save data, no enthusiast plays it.

This could create a pressure to acquire the new cabinets where there is demand, or push players to the games that are available, but emulation is an option. You can actually skip the cabinet part altogether and use a third party controller to play on data.

Off the drive mainly, but third party servers are made too. The game program is modified to add back in songs whose licenses lapsed, subvert online checks, etc.

There are a lot of capital costs, secondary markets, tertiary markets, and copyright that make everything complex and slow moving. However, I would assert that emulation and modification has set up a condition that would make a legitimate entry to the US market less successful. Like, maybe people will be moral and stop the frequent dumps if access were expanded, and additional interest will have been generated, but it just seems like too much uncertainty for the publisher to deal with.

Oh boy you have no idea: the encryption, the VPN routers, the multiple types of security dongles, it’s clear that they have responded to activity multiple times lol

Yeah, and especially if someone bought a controller instead of going to a public cab if you got the new $400 chuni controller (probably expensive to ship too), and then NEW came out 5 minutes from you, would you _really_ ditch your home device and pay$1/play?

Also! There are simulators, free clones of games that don’t even require an arcade machine or any hacking.

I don’t know much about Clone Hero, Stepmania, and all the JP rhythm ones but they seem more if not completely legal and then you can have community features where people transcribe the stuff that comes out in the original game.

https://youtu.be/xXN9adKkmQE hey look DrumMania licensed song and level data from the latest version available in DTXMania

I’d actually argue in favor of the chart videos generally, I feel like they’re not a replacement and encourage exploration, interest, habit forming the dancerush charts are taken from direct video output on legitimate cabs.

But when it’s something playable on a sim that gives feedback and score… and then from a rights perspective too, is the level design data copyrightable?

I would think so too, but apparently like board game rules aren’t. Rules text may be, “mechanics” might be the word I heard.

You too can clone monopoly with unique art assets!

But yeah, you get this weird place where all the parts are mostly copied, but by different people with different scales and distribution methods. DTX⁵ is especially funny to me because the charts are usually very dependant on the song, driven by the composition of the music. There is some room for originality, but it’s totally possible that someone could make a chart for an anime song that’s exactly the same as what Konami makes when they get to licensing it.

So is Konami the one that has the copyright there? Is it different if we assume it was copied/inspired rather than derived from the original source?

https://youtu.be/dwcb0YasK68 side note I enjoyed this one a good bit; note the distribution method of the video being unlicensed music working over YouTube’s special agreements :P

I remember Twitch and Facebook Live released music things at similar times

Twitch had a whole thing where they made deals with tons of indie publishers and added an integrated player and tried to create an environment that could supply music with rights acquired like. It seems like a lot of effort and mone, but people hated it because you couldn’t broadcast whatever pop music they already wanted to listen to, also DMCA strikes.

Meanwhile I think Facebook managed a YouTube-style deal with all the major labels for their live platform, idk if there’s revshare or flat cuts or pay per play or view or what but it’s like YouTube’s thing to me, sounds impossible, probably nearly is, completely changes copyright in practice in a single space, but the space is really big it kinda feels like there’s reform that was needed to match a culture, but a private company got it done first, and thus lowered the pressure people talk about adoption and economies of scale with youtube competitors, but their rights agreements seem like a big part of what let’s you just kinda upload whatever and have it usually be fine.

just on the vods tho?

Classic

And another example, it’s not like it cuts music sales, people don’t go to his stream for free Katy Perry. But also, he definitely doesn’t have the rights, is aiming to entertain thousands for commercial gain, and presumably if he’s playing it it enhances the show and thus makes him money

Yeah, compared to mass piracy using your platform and delayed takedown notices you might pass to users and compelled moderation it’s just done like it’s still annoying and abused often, but you don’t have to be careful in order to actually do things perfectly, and you don’t get usually hit with stuff later, and the ads/link offer a middle ground solution with no custom (expensive?) negotiation needed for every individual case.

This has trailed off a lot lol but yeah, arts economics and rights are weird.

Oh I trailed down plenty of my own rabbit holes too

I’m sure though even with other structures besides Capitalism, valuing art is a hard thing to do

I feel like when you see those government arts funds, they tend to have a specific cultural goal in mind, and competition for their money. This couldmove art out of the true culture and put value on presentation rather than substance.

Man of culture screenshot 🤣

The market system does this too I guess, but it’s more random because the people with the money aren’t all together :P

I’m pretty sure there’s at least two groups, one of them is Disney, I’ll get back to you on the other.

Excited to buy my internet plan that comes bundled with cable tv, Disney+, ESPN+, and whatever the third thing that’s still Disney is. I love choice.

IT’S HULU?! c’mon man…

I think it’s a comarketing thing, not a firm corporate structure relationship

I do not have the rights to host this audio luckily I’m not please buy terraria and the terraria soundtrack

TikTok seems to viral for anything to be stopped; Discord seems to big to be convinced to check