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Netflix Windows app is set to remove its downloads feature, while introducing ads (www.techradar.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Netflix has managed to annoy a good number of its users with an announcement about an upcoming update to its Windows 11 (and Windows 10) app: support for adverts and live events will be added, but the ability to download content is being taken away.

Netflix must realize that it's a huge frustration for people who relied on offline downloads to watch content without internet access: on planes, trains, and campsites, and anywhere else where Wi-Fi is unavailable or unreliable.

There's a small chance that Netflix will change its mind if it gets enough complaints, but the streaming service seems determined to add as many money-making features as possible, while taking away genuinely useful ones.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Only if the people that pirate the shows are able to obtain those higher quality downloads.

As these platforms become increasingly hostile to users, they're going to be well aware of the subsequent increase in piracy, and implement even more methods of preventing their content from being pirated.

It will always be impossible to stop piracy completely, but you can make it increasingly difficult to obtain best quality.

Keep in mind all of the various things that are starting to be implemented or suggested to ensure device/environment "integrity" in recent years. I promise a day is coming when Netflix and other streaming services will only allow streaming to "approved" browsers and devices, i.e. the ones that allow them to scrutinize every single bit of the stack down to the hardware.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Sure in theory but for all their posturing and obnoxious DRM methods it hasn’t seemed to work at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It probably depends on what "working" means - it won't ever stop piracy but if they can make things more difficult, then that fact alone gives them a woody.

Also people trying to manipulate the corporate ladder - "hey let's maximize our revenue stream by synergizing the... yeah just gimme a raise won't'cha?" (and since they pay themselves, they won't mind if they do... then use all their "initiatives" like this as justification for that fact). End-users aren't the "customers" anymore these days, in giant megalithic corpos - we are the product that is sold, to whoever is willing to pay.:-(

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't really matter if you make piracy more difficult if you don't make it impossible. Only one person has to figure out how to rip it, then everyone else can watch it

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

That's why they will lose... but the authoritarians still keep trying, it's just how they are built. They really aren't intelligent enough to understand any other way, and those few who might seem not to care, being greedy enough to get what they can while they can, letting others deal with the fallout.