It can be hard to find a site that isn’t shareware spam. Try this list, find a freeware you like that hopefully uses FFMPEG, and bookmark the site for next time you need a pre-vetted list of good tools:

https://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/all-in-one-video-converters

This is the way.

Is there a better filesystem that is Mac and PC compatible? I’ve used ExFAT for that reason alone, but it’s a big one.

My good faith response to your good faith question: because having a DRM-free copy on your own server or hard drive is the only way to be sure you will be able to play it tomorrow.

Streaming services are a complex collection of licensing deals that are by design temporary. You may not hear beforehand when your favorite artist’s label’s parent company’s conglomerate’s CEO decides to pull their content because they’re going to start their own streaming service, or another service gave them a lucrative exclusive deal.

And while you’re never going to have a hard time finding Taylor Swift, that one 70s esoteric album may become instantly impossible to find once it drops off a streamer.

In the end there are no promises with a streaming service. On the other hand, you put in a small amount of work to grab MP3s or FLACs, set up your own Plex server (or Emby, etc), and you’re good for pretty much forever.

Similarly, support artists by buying their direct merch, going to shows, and so on, but they are barely seeing any Spotify money. Between Spotify and the labels, they are cleaning the plate and artists are getting whatever crumbs fall off the table (unless you’re Taylor Swift or another global artist).

Honestly? Just use YouTube and ublock. There’s pretty much always a better karaoke selection.

Huh… That’s really not nice.

Maybe the command line version is consistent, but day to day I prefer not to do command line. I’ve tried like 5 different GUIs and they all have failed downloads, incorrect formats, and other issues just doing test downloads. I don’t know why, but it’s been a problem every time for me.

You should listen to all the yt-dlp comments, but I’ve always had trouble getting all the yt-dl variants to just download the best version and subtitles consistently.

I use 4K Video Downloader, and it’s easier to use. It has a 30 video per day limit is all, which is more than I need.

Yeah, I’m sure Finamp and the rest of the Jellyfin options people are recommending do the trick for most people, but I’m really happy with PlexAmp.

It also has Chromecast capability and is to my knowledge the only self-hosted option that does so. Really handy for casting to speaker systems, though I’m guessing many people just use Bluetooth for most off-device playback.

It’s whether the OS has hardware to make the platform “trusted.” Android does by default with Widevine, Windows does by default with TPM and Widevine, Linux does not by default.

“Trusted” here of course means, trusted by the company, not by the user. If it’s a trusted platform, it has a cryptographic key exchange space that the user does not have access to. This prevents a spoofed DRM certificate or other interception of the HD stream, which in theory prevents a stream from leaking.

“In theory” of course, because every piece of content is ripped and available DRM-free as soon as it’s released.

The headline is misleading, but the article reports it correctly.

In copyright law in the US, there is a 3-year statute of limitations. However, some jurisdictions follow the “discovery rule.” This is a court-made doctrine that allows a lawsuit to be filed beyond 3 years if the plaintiff can show they only discovered the infringement after the statute of limitations ran out, with some other extenuating factors. However, there is also the issue of damages. Under a sister legal doctrine, damages that are more than 3 years old have been barred regardless of whether the discovery rule allows a lawsuit. Effectively negating the discovery rule.

The Supreme Court in this situation held that damages follow the discovery rule. Meaning, if the discovery rule applies, then damages can be sought. The Court explicitly said it wasn’t ruling on whether the discovery rule applied.

The decision doesn’t expand or create the discovery rule that allows lawsuits beyond 3 years. That already existed.

Interestingly, this is a rare time when I agree with Gorsuch on the dissent. He basically said, “The damages is moot because the discovery rule is made up and shouldn’t even apply, so the majority is wasting its time even entertaining that damages can be sought.”

Old is a state of mind, and these execs are OLD.

From what we have seen from Zaslav, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re going to claim another creative tax write-off for the non-depreciated value of the assets.

Under US law (I see someone else posted about EU law):

Physical property has a long tradition of legal rights that are a part of ownership. There’s a thing called “right of first sale” that means you have the right to sell an object that you own. This legal framework falls under property law, even if the media on the disc is also governed by copyright law. In this case, property law is inviolate - it trumps copyright law.

Digital files are instead governed only by copyright law. Further, media companies could not modify copyright law fast enough to keep up with the digital revolution, so more than copyright, digital files are controlled by digital rights management (DRM) code, and contract law (the long TOS when you access a service or site).

The contract law in the TOS, and code in the DRM, do two things: they force a digital file owner to treat it as a “license,” and give media company the ability to severely restrict use after the purchase.

So basically, when you buy a disc, you are simply getting a lot more rights to use that content. You literally own the copy.

This is why media companies are doing everything that they can to switch customers over to streaming services and stop selling physical content. It’s also why it’s a literal lie when you are told you can “buy” digital copies that have DRM, because those companies will simultaneously charge you the higher “purchase” price and deny you ownership rights as if you bought a disc.

Bypass Paywall Clean D extension

https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean

This is the project and what I use for Chrome. I’m not sure what the benefits of “Clean D” is, but this works.

I didn’t know about this, thanks for sharing. Can I get a source?

The court heard that Kurtaj had been violent while in custody with dozens of reports of injury or property damage.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67663128

Copying information is a nonrivalrous activity. To steal inherently requires the owner to be deprived of a thing, and copying does not deprive an owner of a thing. Copying therefore cannot really in “stealing.”

I built my last computer during the pandemic, and put in a blu-ray writer (obviously DVD and CD backwards compatible) just for legacy purposes. It was actually hard to find a case with a 5.25" front bay. In two years I haven’t used it once.

It’s a shame - digital media DRM is going to escalate quickly once there is no physical media sold, since all our PCs have TPM chips now, so this may not turn out well for us - but I’ve accepted it’s inevitable at this point.

Interesting, but FileCR is on the list of sites it pulls from.

This particular law is not meant to discourage piracy. But actually, for an authoritarian state, it’s better if everyone is both breaking the law and if they can easily track those people doing so. That means they can simply arrest anyone under the pretense of legitimate law enforcement.