Hacker Cinema
Cold Case
2003 · TV series · 44 min episodes · 7 seasons
Created by Meredith Stiehm
The Philadelphia homicide squad's lone female detective finds her calling when she is assigned cases that have never been solved. Detective Lilly Rush combines her natural instincts with the updated technology available today to bring about justice for all the victims she can.
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3 comments on Hacker News
Yeah thats also how I do it.
I have a cool 16 DVD/Bluray ripping rig. Even have scripts that convert ripped images into MKV's with all audio and subtitles, art, etc. Uploads into my Jellyfin.
And yes, I do buy VHS, DVDs, and Blurays. I have probably 3000 movies in physical format, and 10000 audio CDs. I also rip old VHS, which you usually cant find any torrents of. Again, I specialize in rare stuff you cant buy retail or find.
There's also illegal shows, like the old WKRP in Cincinnati. They licensed for TV only multiple songs. Pink Floyd and other artists refuse to license now. Nobody can legally sell them, even if you have the money. Piracy is the only way for the complete show.
There's also a lot more shows that languished in licening hell for decades, or theyre still unobtainable at any price. Some you can get redacted versions, but the originals are illegal no matter what. And as an (well, illegal, but I DGAF) archivist, having shows intentionally lost due to pervasive greed is just... more wrong.
The Wonder Years - finally published in 2021, LOTS of cuts made
China Beach - published in 2013 after clearing hundreds of songs. 17 segments were cut due to licensing fuckery
Northern Exposure - multiple songs redacted on republishing
Pee-wee's Playhouse - multiple songs redacted on republishing
Beavis and Butt-Head - DVD was a hackjob with dozens of songs changed/parodied.
Cold Case - too much licensed content, cant republish
Third Watch - too much licensed content, cant republish
The Drew Carey Show - massive music rights issues, cant republish
Malcolm in the Middle - massive music rights issues, cant republish
Little Monsters (1989) - massive music rights issues, cant republish
Heavy Metal (1981) - tons of rights issues, cant republish
Kids Incorporated / Class of 1999 2 - tons of rights issues, cant republish
Because copyright has enough fair-use bypasses that it actually doesn't impede people that much, and where fair-use doesn't apply (e.g. in music with remixes), there is a relatively working and reasonably fair and accessible system that's been established for many decades. It's not perfect as cases like the TV show "Cold Case" demonstrated that wasn't ever distributed on VHS/DVD due to licensing issues involving the soundtracks [1], but these are rare. And even if you stretch the boundaries of the law too much, unless you're a large-scale commercial infringer, it's a few hundreds to a few thousands of dollars in fines and that's it.
Patents however? There's reports about lawsuits just about every month or two here on HN [2], more than enough cases of small shops getting sued left and right - and even corporate giants like Apple are virtually defenceless in patent courts. Software patents make the issue even worse.
On top of that, patents are useless against China. The only thing Western companies can (and regularly) do is to prevent the sale of infringing stuff in Western markets, but no one in China and many other places of the world gives any fuck about Western patents.
Another issue - particularly in pharmaceuticals - is: even if you patent a molecule, say an insulin derivative, you don't have to patent and thus reveal how you produce the stuff. That means that even after the patent for a specific variety of insulin has expired, a generics competitor still can't readily use that patent because the precise steps of manufacture are still proprietary. Meanwhile, the original manufacturer just makes a tiny variation of the insulin molecule, ceases production of the old one, and charges "new medication" prices from insurances because it's technically not the old medication any more. It worked in the past for simple, chemically synthesizable molecules, but it doesn't work for the more complex stuff that needs GMOs as a production/harvest vector.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Case#Home_media_and_streaming
[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=patent%20lawsuit&sort=byDate&type=story
Ever watched an episode of Cold Case? Public defenders in the US largely seem to be a joke