Adios Netflix!!!

[steveinbsas]

Yesterday I had to perform a factory reset of my Android TV box and after dosing so, the Nexfilx app which is now available is "not compatible" with my device. When I log onto Nexflix using the browser and hit play on any movie, I get redirected to download the app.

If and when my android app is updated to the latest version I imagine I will be able to install the new version of Netflix, but I won't be doing that. I will be cancelling my Netflix (AR) subscription at the end of the month, and here's why:

After downloading the latest version of Mobdro I quickly deleted it and did the same with Tubi.

Then I tried one that had was highly rated in the Google app store...and is free!

moviebox plus – MovieBox Pro

moviebox.online

I download it from GOOGLE PLAY to my android TV box last night and to my moto G6 this morning.

I've been watching movies in HD (790) with very few interruptions (buffering) on the TV and (so far) none on the phone. There are no adds interrupting the movies. You get to chose which movies or TV shows you want to watch and can watch them at any time (not possible using Mobdro).

Every movie I've searched for so far have been available, starting with my favorite movie of all time...which I saw in the theater at the age of seventeen (52 years ago this past August):

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062407/

The original title in English is Two For The Road. It appears in Spanish on the imdb page, but everything on moviebox plus is in English.

Interesting note: The original screenplay was written by Frederic Raphael, who also wrote the screenplay for Eyes Wide Shut.

PS: The 'built in player" is all I've used so far. There hasn't been a lot of buffering but there are other"suggested" players that are supposedly "much faster" (and perhaps come with a cost).

 

[Ries]

You are using an (illegal) torrent site, like the old napster or pirate bay. Its quite common, but you should read this, and other similar info online, to understand what you are doing and what its risks and benefits are.
Personally, I think its safer to stream, rather than download torrents, and there are plenty of sites that allow you to stream movies (also illegally) without the uploading from your device that occurs with moviebox.
But most are not as convenient and one step as downloading an app.
Many people do what you are doing- its just good to understand it.

The Dangers Of Using MovieBox | Internet Anonymity

So you want to play a part in the golden age of digital piracy? Maybe you’re brand new to this world, or maybe you’ve already tried some direct music downloads, or viewed some online streams. Either way, I’m here to talk to you about MovieBox. MovieBox is an awesome app that installs onto your...

internet-anonymity.com

 

[steveinbsas]

You are using an (illegal) torrent site, like the old napster or pirate bay. Its quite common, but you should read this, and other similar info online, to understand what you are doing and what its risks and benefits are.
Personally, I think its safer to stream, rather than download torrents, and there are plenty of sites that allow you to stream movies (also illegally) without the uploading from your device that occurs with moviebox.
But most are not as convenient and one step as downloading an app.
Many people do what you are doing- its just good to understand it.

The Dangers Of Using MovieBox | Internet Anonymity

So you want to play a part in the golden age of digital piracy? Maybe you’re brand new to this world, or maybe you’ve already tried some direct music downloads, or viewed some online streams. Either way, I’m here to talk to you about MovieBox. MovieBox is an awesome app that installs onto your...

internet-anonymity.com

Interesting information, to say the least. I installed the app from the google play store and I was under the impression that it was therefore a legal app. My settings do not allow me to install apps from "unknown" sources.

PS: Just to be safe, I've already uninstalled it Thanks

PS2: if it's an illegal torrent site, what's it doing in the Google Play Store?

 

[Ries]

The app is perfectly legal. Its like buying a pipe- nothing wrong with that- but, depending on what you smoke in the pipe, you may be breaking the law. What the app does is allow you to directly download, from other individual computers, a movie that has been bootlegged. The bootlegging part is the illegal part, where they "taped" the movie, and you are watching their copy. The movie company gets paid by netflix, but not by the crowd of individuals whose versions you are watching. The app makers can easily claim they just provided a tool, its not on them how you use it.

But the danger comes not from the illegality of the copy of the movie, but from the sketchiness of the software, which does this thing called "seeding", where it essentially enlists your computer as another link in the chain.
There are ways to avoid this happening, but it takes a fair amount of computer saavy.

There are streaming sites, which are still showing movies that are not licensed and paid for to the movie studio (illegal) but are much safer to you- that is, you are just receiving, not engaging in an invisible two way conversation with some unknown website. But you still need some degree of adblocking and malware software, and to learn to disengage from spam sites.

Free is never free.

 

[steveinbsas]

Free is never free.

So true.

I was expecting the "hidden cost" to be a charge to use a faster player...when, as one user reported in a review, was necessary as increased buffering quickly made the "free" version unwatchable.

I'll just have to stick with Netflix til the grid goes down. I don't want to be connected with any unknown websites for any reason, especially if they have access to my computer in an invisible two way conversation.

 

[Steve K]

Ries is correct. The app is legal, but the ultimate content is probably not. Torrents are certainly not legal, and streams have an ironic loophole that the uploader of what is streamed breaks the copyright law but the streamer (you) technically remains "legal." It's a gray area. Using a good VPN or premium sources from a debrid site (like real-debrid) will conceal your user identity from all but the most determined aggressors. I recommend Vypr VPN which is run by a Swiss company with the service, performance, and security that you might expect. Lots of cheaper ones out there, but Vypr is particularly aggressive at breaking down barriers (like China's firewall) and protecting their users and their service.

 

[Pierre Smith]

Am I missing something? Why would you expect to be pursued in Argentina by whoever it might be for illegally torrenting? Has there ever been an Argentine brought to the dock for this? It would amaze me. Especially considering Argentina's reputation as a haven for pirates. I mean, look at this, there's just nobody who has ever been contacted even, no campaign, nothing.

Even in the US, it's super rare that it even gets to the demand letter stage.

The logistics for getting caught are that:
(1) they must nail your IP address - which is unlikely in your case Steve, because if you're watching Audrey Hepburn or whatever, that's just not a priority, ie. they won't pay for people to actively hunt you unless it serves a deterrent effect, and that means the newest and/or most popular stuff, not the classic sort of stuff;
(2) they must have a law on the books that makes a civil action (or even a criminal penalty) possible, AND they (content rights holder) must also have some way under the law of forcing the ISP to cooperate and rat you out, but in Argentina you have neither;
(3) additionally, they must have some leverage over you but, in Argentina, getting a $50,000 judgment will be, in almost all cases, uncollectable, which means they don't even bother, both practically and actually speaking; and finally
(4) their focus now has shifted away from torrents to z-day/cam and stream (but sometimes torrent), or basically people selling/sharing films still in the cinemas - pirating has become too diffuse to effectively penalize in anything but an exemplary fashion, so they focus on what costs them the most money, which is recordings of the films still in cinema.

Conclusion: The chance that you would ever be popped for sharing is infinitesimally small, like small to the point that I just wrote all this out from a sense of amazement at the others' advice. If you have a moral position about paying for content, that's one thing. If you're worried you'll be nailed for piracy, you should file that thought in your fear drawer somewhere below 'plane crash,' and maybe at the same level as 'sudden, inexplicable late in life desire for a sex change that I worry I'll feel uncontrollably compelled to follow.'

 

[Steve K]

For streaming VPN is useful in places like the USA and UK where the governments require the internet providers to monitor and report people who are using services not approved. My neighbor in the USA received a number of threat letters from their provider, and some harassment phone calls. When she finally told them if it was not possible to use their service for the things she wished to do, they can just cancel it - then things changed comically. They did not want to cancel, and confessed that they were required to harass her. But if she made a written request to them, they could leave her alone. But she was still reported to the government regulators.

For torrent services one should be careful, as malware can often be embedded in the torrents. Using a debrid service and only their premium (not free) torrents reduces this risk.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

It's not that torrent technology is bad/streaming good both/either/neither it's more down to how trustworthy is the source - and for that matter, how trustworthy is one as the recipient (think about it).

Nearly everybody uses torrent technology whether they know it or not: how do you suppose Microsoft get all those billions of Win 10 updates out there so quickly?

 

[Ries]

I was merely informing Steve of the reality of what he was using- not telling him he will be arrested. More concerning to me is the amount of unwanted crap that often is included in torrents and torrent servers. I just stream movies and tv, without a VPN, and have done so for many years on numerous different computers- but I am somewhat saavy about adblockers, maleware, and cleanup software- and, I suppose, lucky.

There is always somebody trying to download stuff you dont want on your computer- some of it you will never escape- but it just makes sense to be aware of the actual nature of the software you are installing and using.

Obviously, aside from a few ridiculous cases in the USA, most people are in no legal danger from viewing the new Avengers movie, either as a torrent or a stream.

this kind of stuff happened a bit- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/sep/11/minnesota-woman-songs-illegally-downloaded
but it is mostly PR, in the USA.