Disney is raking its customers over the coals with a 75% price hike for their annual subscription (originally $80.) People wonder why piracy is on the rise.Multiple commenters are saying I'm off base about the 75% price increase. My payment less than a year ago was $79.99. Here's the proof.

  • Tygr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Streaming platforms are all joining in on the enshitification process.

    Soon, people will join one service for one month then switch to the next.

    After that, they will all begin contracts to “lock in the price.” Possibly in bundle agreements with multiple providers.

    That’s when the full transition to $120+ cable costs returns, but in streaming format.

  • Aceticon@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Considering they’re the one who pushed for decades to extend the Copyright period from the original 20 years to “Death of Author + 75 years” (so, around 125+ years), making the entering in our lifetime into the Public Domain of any of the cultural elements we grew up in pretty much de facto impossible, thus breaking the quid-pro-quo of Copyright Legislation, I’m surprised that anybody here sees the Disney Corporation as anything but Evil.

    These people did more damage to freedom in modern society (as Copyright also affects things like Software) than anybody else.

    • Copyright Sceptic@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I’m doing my part in opting out of copyright because fuck capitalism

      I’d be publishing written works in the public domain but I like to be attributed, so copyleft will do for now, it’s catchy

    • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Honestly till death of auther I can at least understand as many creators like to make characters a part of their identity and after death they are dead how are they going to profit from the ip and what about the fans who I’m most cases can no longer enjoy new content and after saying all of that I probably only think that because of the ip culture created by the legal environment created by Disney

      • SuperSpruce@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think it should be a flat number of years like 20 years, giving the author plenty of time to exclusively control his IP and then afterwards they can still profit because they can still make things from the same IP and sell them to people knowing that they were the founder of the IP.

        I feel like the death of the author clause gives a perverse incentive to murder the author so that their IP becomes public domain sooner.

        • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Honestly considering where we are 40 years would probably be a good transition on the way to 20 considering how much corporations today like their 80s ips so making everything made before the 80s public domain could allow a actual proposal like this to not get shot down by corporations like Disney you do bring up a good point with the perverse incentive

  • Vespair@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I’m not defending them, but this was clearly always the plan. It was obvious they intended to enter the market just under competitor prices to establish a foothold and then later charge more and reset the industry standard in doing so.

    Again, I’m not saying it doesn’t suck, because it does, but this was clearly the Disney+ game plan since day 1

  • FUCKRedditMods@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Disney’s desperation is showing—just look at their stock price the past 2 years… down 50%

    I’m honestly surprised they didn’t raise their subscription fees sooner. Unfortunately for them it’s a double edged sword, which will cause a lot of people to cancel and quite possibly harm them in the long run.

    • stewie3128@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      Disney has for the last few decades positioned itself as a premium product at a premium price (think the entry costs for theme parks, cruises, etc.) much the same way Apple has. They clearly think their content is worth the premium, so they’re going for it.

      Also, a lot of their best films are going public domain in the coming years, so they need to maintain and grow their revenue stream somehow.

      Shedding ABC, eliminating physical media, and increasing streaming prices makes total sense if you think the way they do.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Meh, might not hurt them, obviously their suits don’t think so.

      What they’re trying to do is convert or lose low-value customers and make high-value customers and save bandwidth at the same time. Fewer high-value customers also has an impact on support costs.

      I did the same with my little computer support business. Doubled prices and kept the solid customers.

      I straight steal my media, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. Actually, I’m a little stunned that anyone pays for this bullshit in the first place.

      • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I did the same with my little computer support business. Doubled prices and kept the solid customers.

        Who may now seek cheaper alternatives.

        • shalafi@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          And they are free to do so! Why do I want small-time, bitchy customers who won’t, or can’t, pay? Let someone else coming up in the world take them on. I did my time, they can do theirs.

          Pick one:

          • A restaurant that charges $10 per burger, at a cost of $3 per burger.

          • A restaurant that charges $5 per burger, at a cost of $3 per burger.

          Capitalism is common sense!

          CAVEAT: When decoupled from a sense of the greater good. Which is sometimes called morality.

          • No_@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Anyone who calls any customer “bitchy” for not staying after raising prices deserves to jump off a cliff.

            • pivot_root@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              If he meant exactly what you said, I agree. But, there is an alternate interpretation of what the guy was saying:

              You tend to get different kinds of customers with different price ranges. The ones who can afford to spend money generally don’t give a crap about what you’re billing them for, and they just want the work done properly.

              The ones who aim to get a “good deal” tend to be less hands-off and more critical about the work done/supplies used and billed for. Frugal customers take extra time and sanity to field questions/suggestions, and sometimes, it’s just not worth dealing with.

              If raising his fee filters out the latter category, it’s hard to blame him. I wouldn’t want to deal with penny-pinchers either, and simply being more expensive than the competition is an effective deterrent.

  • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We canceled our yearly subscription in August. Haven’t missed any of the content. I mean I’ve seen what I wanted to regardless. Just not from there.

    • stolid_agnostic@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      We did that. Got Disney and spent months binging all the Marvell and Star Wars content then cancelled. There was little else to see for us.

      A year later so many new programs came out so we re subscribed but found all the new Star Wars sad. Not sure when we might ever go back.

      • Eldritch@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The Mandalorian had overall been excellent. Really enjoyed that series. Absolutely hated the way they dumped off a good portion of it in the center of book of boba fett. Was not as thrilled with book of boba fett. But it wasn’t horrible. It just didn’t have the hook that the Mandalorian did. Not watched any of the new series yet. But yeah they’re just really wasn’t enough to justify its existence. It could have just as easily been put on hulu. After all they have such a large investment in that too.

        • MrFappy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Do not waste your time watching Kenobi. That show was just awful. Ahsoka was pretty good if you watched rebels, otherwise it was simply meh. And, generally unpopular opinion, Andor was terrible, and took me 2 separate attempts just to get through it. Hell, if you haven’t seen season 3 of mando, even that can honestly be skipped. The Star Wars content overall, hasn’t been awesome beyond Mando S1+2.

            • MrFappy@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Hence why I said it’d be an unpopular take, and knew I’d be downvoted, even though that show was immensely boring. There were cool parts, like the ship battle with the German dude, or the fact that Andy serkis is now officially 2 characters in the Star Wars universe. But overall I felt like the plot was severely lacking a good pace, and the acting was only so so. Plus, they never got me to actually like Andor as a character, so that dragged the show way down for me. But hey, different people can have different opinions. It’s why the Taylor swift movie made 100 million yet I’m not a big fan of hers either.

          • Nouveau_Burnswick@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Ahsoka was pretty good if you watched rebels, otherwise it was simply meh

            I come with a bias of having watched Rebels.

            I still found the Ashoka story to he meh. And I thought that Rosario’s and Natasha’s acting fell short of what I’m used to seeing out of them. They felt restrained, especially when together.

            That aside, the visuals and soundscape (music and effects) were outstanding, I was absolutely blown away. The fight sequences were well coriagraphed and well differentiated between all the different combatants. I also found the acting out of the remainder of the cast was very solid.

            I’m still not sure how I fell about the night sisters getting there lore tired up with the spinners/norns/fates; but perhaps that the trope repeated in so many cultures is what makes it such a good story telling tool.

            • MrFappy@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I support that take. The unique fighting styles were indeed quite awesome, especially between Baylan and Ahsoka. It didn’t help my review that I just saw the Honest trailer for the show, and they hit a lot of points that bugged me. Like Thrawns dad gut that they tried so hard to hide, but failed. The night sisters take was odd, and I feel like they falsely teased that the inquisitor with the mask (Rakan?), or the gold faced stormtrooper were going to be someone special. But that was likely me reading too much into YouTuber theories.

  • snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Hi, I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m changing the annual piracy subscription from nothing to 0 on the 31st of October. If you carry on then you’ll end up exactly where you’re headed. Thanks and have fun.

    • Nahdahar@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      When streaming first came in I finally stopped pirating and felt a little bit better about myself. A couple years passed and I’m back to pirating, even built a Plex media server in the meantime.

  • TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, I’m glad they’ve decided to make it an easy choice to sail the salty seas again!

  • errer@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Your local library has a copy of every kids Disney movie you could possibly want. No need to pay em for access to something your tax dollars pay for. And if you wanna go below board: just rip em and keep em forever.

    • superguy@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      You can also stream all of them for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/

      Just make sure you have uBlock Origin installed.

      Not sure why the top voted comments are always stupid advice like “libraries” or “plex servers.”

      We’ve had the solutions to these problems right in front of us for years. All we need to do is realize them.

      Use your brain, not your wallet.

      • errer@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Cause they aren’t the random shady website you posted and your tax dollars pay for the library, so you might as well use it!

        • superguy@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          A fool is born every minute.

          your tax dollars pay for the library

          Lol, what?

  • Ddhuud@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That’s because more than 75% of the people affected keep paying. The results for Disney are Immediate savings on resources (less people streaming) and they still increase profits.

    • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      …and now I’m paying for power, usenet, search, hardware upgrades, and so on.

      I regret nothing - I’m in control now.

      • daed@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m sure it’s cheaper to maintain overall too, not including the one-time costs of hardware. Plus as you said, control is very valuable - and you get privacy, too! Nobody selling your usage data.

        • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          TBH, it would depend on how many services I’m theoretically replacing, and whether you count the people I’ve shared my library with. Before I went down the rabbit hole, cost was the motivation, but I’m long past that.

          Between the usenet subs, paid search engines, power for a 24 bay server running 24x7, and adding a new drive every few months, I can’t really defend it on a cost basis for my own use (though that’s not to say it can’t be done considerably cheaper).

          Similarly, I’m giving my data to a handful of usenet search engines and 2 usenet providers my data (though I trust all of them more than the likes of Disney and Netflix)

          With all that said, I’ve never looked back. It’s a hobby project for me, I have total control, can help out my friends and family, and use the server for other stuff like private cloud hosting, home automation, network ad-blocking, etc…

          • daed@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yep, looking at doing the exact same thing myself, albeit smaller scale to start with. I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the ride despite the cost, because I know I’m headed down the same path, lol. Cheers.

            • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Welcome to the fun!

              If you need any guidance from this idiot, feel free to reach out.

              The best general advice I can give is if you want something reasonably large and flexible is to start with Unraid from the outset - I mucked around with a good number of alternatives, with all the hassle that involves before finding this straightforward, super-flexible solution. Otherwise, maybe look at a synology-type appliance for something smaller-scale and less versatile.

              • daed@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Thanks! If I can be candid, I almost asked for your best piece of advice in my previous comment, so I appreciate it. I’ve heard great things about both - Synology especially people always seem to have good things to say. Still doing the research and deciding the best hardware path for the use case at the moment, so I’ll be sure to keep you in mind and pick your brain sometime!

                • WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  No worries!

                  The upside of synology (and I say this without having used them) is simplicity, and low power usage at the cost of flexibility.

                  On unraid, I can toss in extra drives when I like (or remove them with slightly more hassle), and spin far more up, including VMs.

                  Feel free to check in whenever though.

  • superguy@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Eh. They deserve it.

    Always funny seeing rubes be like “it’s on this streaming service” or “I don’t have that streaming service.”

    You can stream pretty much anything for free here: https://fmoviesz.to/

    All you need is uBlock Origin.

    Seeing the discussion always center around paid streaming services just shows me how stupid the average person is these days. They’re proud to pay more, for less. Lol. I guess that’s why they’re called useful idiots.

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Don’t use streaming services they suck.

      If you’re gonna pirate at least do it properly, by downloading.

      • superguy@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Lol, what?

        For convenience and price, you simply can’t beat free streaming sites.

        • thoughtorgan@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          He’s right, downloading gets you better encodes that prioritize quality over getting the smallest possible file to keep upload totals down.

          But yeah you’re also right, for 99% of people avoiding downloads is the right move.

        • lud@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          The quality and experience is horrible though.

          Torrenting always wins. But maybe you have poor internet and don’t want to wait for a download (although you can watch a movie while downloading it.)

          A Plex server with automatic downloading is way more convenient.

          • EvacuateSoul@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Usenet is even better. I have my *arrs set up to run both and tdarr transcodes everything to h265 10 bit.

          • andy_wijaya_med@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’m scared to do torrent man. I didn’t care about it when I was in Indonesia. Now I live in Germany, and now I’m scared of doing it.

            • lud@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              Just use a good paid VPN and bind the VPN network Interface to your torrent client so that it’s impossible to torrent without the VPN turned on.

      • pomodoro_longbreak@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Never had Disnkey, so this is more about Netflix. Back at the beginning, I didn’t mind paying a fair price for a service that made discovery and streaming easy and convenient. Plus subscriptions going to fund more interesting content? Amazing! Yeah, it’s a bit of platform capitalism, but the fees were reasonable and they spread the wealth in a way I agreed with.

        I’m still not against a service that keeps its fees reasonable for what it’s providing.

    • SamboT@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Let people be stupid. Don’t share the link openly… fm0vi35 is already too good to be true. If people start canceling subscriptions for it, it will be a target to take down.

      • superguy@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Nah. We should be sharing free streaming sites every time someone mentions getting ripped off by a paid service.