Google Play Video or things like it

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#1

I thought I would throw this topic out for discussion.

I have bought quite a few TV shows and a couple of Movies on Google Play. And a couple on Amazon.

I would love to keep these backed up locally, but it’s not a feature at this time for most services. I was wondering if anyone has found a workaround for this?

Also, do you buy movies and shows from various services?: If so, do you back them up somehow.

I also wonder about the ethics, of getting copies of stuff I paid for through other not so legal methods. Just so I have a backup copy incase Google ever killed play or somthing of the sort.

Well thats enough babble…looking forward to hearing peoples solutions/methods.

#2

No TV shows, but some remarks about books.

For Kindle I use the remarkable Apprentice Alf’s Tools to remove DRM from the books I buy and keep a local copy. It is unlikely that Kindle will go pear-shaped, but you never know …

I had a few Kobo books, but there was no similar tool that I was aware of.

Spotify, for me, is solely a streaming service. I have all my old CDs ripped to FLAC and backed up on a couple of external hard drives (plus the CDs themselves thrown in a suitcase!) but have never touched them in about 4 years because Spotify is so well done and convenient.

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#3

@palourie I don’t have many issues with music. Both Amazon and Google Play let you download a copy DRM free.

The kindle information is good to know though. Thanks

#4

If you’ve already bought them then I see no moral issue with going onto various torrent sites and downloading a copy of each of them.

I am guessing a more direct way of taking a copy of them is to stream a movie to your PC in real time, run your vga output to some kind of vga to firewire converter and capture the firewire stream and lay to a hard drive as raw DV. You would then need to recompress it with all the subsequent loss of quality (given that the stream was already compressed). You’d also, probably, need a normal monitor running so you could see what was happening).

Personally, I would go down the torrent route.

#5

Now, being a law abiding citizen…where does one goto to find torrents of shows…I honestly have never tried to look. Always paid for them.

#6

TorrentsDB or Kickass torrents would be good places to start. Be aware, though, you might find that your ISP has blocked access to those sites, The way to get round the above is to download TOR anonymous browswer and use that to navigate to the site and download the torrent, Once downloaded, then open a torrent client. Transmission is installed by defualt. But I don’t particulaly rate it. A better one is qbittorrent. You can install that from the software centre.

A typical popular movie of, say, 2 GB size, will take about ten mins to download.

I should also say, using torrent clinet is a very good way to get hold of Linux ISOs. a heck of a lot faster than direct down;oading, as well as saving bandwidth (and therefore money) for the Linux providor.

#7

@stevecook172001 purely hypothetical of course. On a serious note, try not to explicitly recommend using torrents to download copyrighted material. Please consider re-wording your posts.

+1 for torrenting Linux ISOs though, it’s much faster.

#8

Oh yes, goodness me…entirely hypothetical.

Point taken.

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#9

Please remember, that in the EU downloading copyrighted material (even if you own a legal copy) is illegal.

#10

Are you sure about this?

The official UK advice states (in part):

Copyright law has been changed to allow you to make personal copies of media
(ebooks, digital music or video files etc) you have bought, for private purposes
such as format shifting or backup.

The implication is that the copy is made from the source, but I am sure that a good lawyer could knock holes in the advice given.

#11

A personal copy is allowed if you own the original. But downloading copyrighted material from an illegal source is prohibited. Even if you own the original.

It is up to the individual countries how they enforce the law. In the Netherlands it is now illegal to download copyrighted or proprietary materials from an illegal source.

#12

I usually buy films on DVD/Blu-ray from three companies: The Criterion Collection, Eureka! The Masters of Cinema Series, and Arrow Academy. I find streaming services still to be too slow, lacking in quality (not curated enough, poor subtitles, etc.) and if I decide to buy something I like to own a physical copy. A region-free blu-ray player solves DRM issues for me.

We must distinguish between what is legal/illegal and what is legitimate/illegitimate. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it legitimate in ethical terms.