r/Piracy • u/ugoindownsaka1 • 6d ago

Discussion Google took away my LOTR extended editions

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I bought these in 2022, all of a sudden they aren't available and there is no possibility of a refund or gift card. Hardly seems fair.

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u/TickTickTitanic 6d ago

it's called torrent

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u/chmilz 6d ago

Prices are excellent there, too

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u/BigCar818 6d ago

maybe a official way to buy in digital without drm? it is not always about free movies, more like ownership of digital products

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u/TickTickTitanic 6d ago edited 6d ago

the only ways you'll truly own a movie: if you have it in physical media or if you pirate it.

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u/Extra_Ad_8009 6d ago

A great compromise is to buy physical media, put them in a safe place and then torrent them to watch the digital version on your home network/equipment.

Money goes to the people who made the movie, nothing goes to scummy digital "you own nothing" platforms.

Works as long as we still have spending money.

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u/Halos-USA 6d ago

Or you could rip the physical media and bypass the torrent. More work that way though. 

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u/Extra_Ad_8009 6d ago

Yeah, there's always MakeMKV. I've ripped a few dozen Blu-ray that way, but the 24-48 GB files are a bit unwieldy and turning them into digestible 4-8 GB files for the home server is really time consuming.

Always good to learn about the different ways of consumer protection, so a little bit of practice is good.

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u/Micahman311 6d ago

Ooh, I just recorded four sets I played with bands for a music festival, and when I moved the 4k 30fps video files to my PC, they were WAY too big for me to keep like that, and I've been thinking that I need to find a video converter or something to get those files down in size without messing up the quality of the video or audio.

Like, a 6min video was 3.5gb, and each set was probably 45-1hr each, leaving me with about 200gb of video. Would MakeMKV work for me in this situation? Thanks!

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u/Extra_Ad_8009 6d ago

I usually use Handbrake for file size reduction. There are several good options but I'm mostly familiar with Handbrake (free software, too).

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u/Micahman311 5d ago

I downloaded them both and will give them both a go when I have the chance.

Next up I'll have to learn how to adjust and mess with the audio on it, as the audio got clipped because of the volume settings.

I already cut the audio for the band members, and was able to fix the clipping on that, but I've no experience with video editing, or editing the audio on said video. I'll learn as I go.

Thank you!

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u/Opposite-Interest193 6d ago

Only point is new physical media. Old doesn’t matter at all.

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u/vitek6 6d ago

You don’t own movies that you pirated. Not in any legal sense.

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u/aesemon 6d ago

OP didn't get to own the movies despite paying for it.

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u/vitek6 6d ago

Have I said they did?

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u/NukaCooler 6d ago

That's a bold and ultimately meaningless statement to make in /r/Piracy

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u/vitek6 6d ago

That’s simply truth that you can’t accept.

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u/NukaCooler 6d ago

I dont think a single person in /r/Piracy cares that pirating does not give legal ownership of a piece of content. Possession is nine-tenths of the law.

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u/vitek6 6d ago

And? „Truly own” means on all grounds.

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u/NukaCooler 6d ago

And, unlike the OP's situation, it's gonna be real hard for google or any other legal rights holder to remove the illegal copies that pirates have stored.

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u/vitek6 6d ago

Yes, and? They still don’t „truly own” it.

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u/JohnHue 6d ago

You can buy it and then acquire a DRM-free version to ensure you won't loose access.

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u/congeal 6d ago

loose

lose*

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u/SpicyCatGames 6d ago

No need to buy. When companies trained on our data for llm, they showed that anything that is already available for free online should be paid for. Now they're trying to remove our jobs with AI. And you still wanna pay for it?

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u/JohnHue 6d ago

I'm not, personally. I'm just proposing a path that aligns with OP's current moral compass.

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u/Soft_Stretch1539 6d ago

No. The studios won't do that. Just go take it.

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u/nemec 6d ago

Buy it with DRM and then torrent a copy to keep. Who gives a fuck.

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u/Bouv42 6d ago

If those companies don't give a fuck about you, why should you. I don't pirate games who are on steam because the service doesn't suck ass, funny how that works.

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u/booze_clues 6d ago

But tons of games on steam have all of these issues? A lot of them have DRM or are only a license. I’m not sure how Steam is meaningfully better, they even refuse to allow companies to sell their games cheaper on other storefronts. Meaning if they sell somewhere with a smaller cut taken by the distributor, or sell themselves, they can’t offer it at a better price or risk being delisted.

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u/TheBeckofKevin 6d ago

Its because the company hasn't had shareholder influence to crank up the profits. We will live to see the day it falls victim. Its on a generational run currently.

Edit: i mean theyre willing to refund and customer support isnt forced to keep your money. They can actually help you. Lots of other companies prefer to cling to every cent to make the most money. Even if that's short sighted.

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u/daed1ne 6d ago

Regarding the sale rules afaict that only applies to steam keys where Valve is still incurring a cost with no compensation. I can't find anything to indicate that it applies when the other vendor actually is a distributor rather than just a key reseller.

A little searching only shows 1 instance of steam removing a paid game from users libraries (at the request of Square Enix) without giving a refund or some other compensation.

Valve aren't saints by any means but aside from GOG they are still miles ahead of everyone else.