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.
If there’s still downloads available on mobile it’s probably not licensing. Iirc the downloads were only available in shit quality anyways so as always, pirating is a better experience.
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.
Sure in theory but for all their posturing and obnoxious DRM methods it hasn’t seemed to work at all.
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.:-(
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
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.
This is part of why I like Apple TV+ so much. I watched two episodes of Slow Horses in 1080p HDR on my iPhone while in an airplane. It was fantastic.
I am not certain I know what you mean.
The fact that downloading is still available on Windows is purely bc the update hasn’t rolled out yet.
They think (unproven) that this radical change might be due to the cheaper licensing options if they remove the ability to download. A cost-benefit analysis where Windows users will either take it and like it or else who cares about Windows
mobileusers anyway if they leave. Either way, a victory for licensing companies, or they’ll spin it that way regardless.My worry is that it will embolden them to go still yet further, making it harder on both pirates and paying customers just bc they can get away with doing so.:-(
This isn’t about a Netflix app on Windows Mobile. It’s about Windows, the desktop OS app.
They’re talking about the fact that Netflix isn’t removing the feature from their Android/iOS apps