But then it's in DVD quality. Why not just pirate a full quality version?

What software would that happen to be, supposing it's not MakeMKV?

Btw, did you know of Weightless Books and Smashwords?

They may not have as many ebooks as Amazon, but they do offer DRM free ebooks, and may be worth keeping in mind to check before going straight to Amazon.

This is the way.

I just got my automated pirating machine set up!

Here's the wiki for the *arr apps!

• Radarr for movies
• Sonarr for TV shows
• Prowlarr for index management
• Optional Doplarr Discord Bot for requests

Set up your profiles for Radarr/Sonarr to pick the quality of release you want (1080p, min/max file size, etc)

Feed Radarr/Sonarr your qbittorrent info, nzbget & Usenet info

They will automatically search the indexes (I use 1337x for torrents & nzbgeek for Usenet) for the files that fit your parameters, download it, and organize it.

All you have to do is point Plex at the output folders and BAM, automated pirating.

I even took it a step further and set up Doplarr - a Discord bot that handles requests. Now friends/family can ping the bot with their movie/show requests and it'll sync up to Radarr/Sonarr and add their requests!

Oh, the high seas are very, very busy these days. Still a bit difficult for the non technical user, but there is buried treasure out there.

Torrents are still around, lots of sites out there for them.

Word on the street is that reddit's arr slash piracy has a pretty good guide to it in their wiki, including lists of generally trustworthy torrent sources. I of course don't torrent, because I'm terrified of legal consequences–I just browse shady but technically legal websites to stream my anime

New skool is to use automation tools to grab and manage your media. You can still use torrenting but IMO using usenet is more reliable and doesn't flag your ISP. I highly recommend anyone pirating to use 'arrs https://wiki.servarr.com/

I've been pirating since Napster and you're right, it's changed a lot. These days, I usually just stream from third party sites. Takes less room on your PC and is faster than downloading a torrent. Dopebox is where it's at for most stuff. 9anime if you like anime, it's better than the paid alternatives like Crunchy roll or Funamation.

If you want to stick to torrents I've found 1337x to be the best since TPB died.

Content leaving is totally a problem. I’ve lost track of the number of times my spouse and I say, “Oh hey, what about we finally watch xyz that’s been in our queue for ages? Yeah that seems like a good one for Friday pizza night! …oh, it’s vanished from our queue, hooray.”

It’s not my full time job to keep tabs on what’s coming and going from the damn entertainment service that I hope to use in my ever dwindling reserves of free time. Especially when there’s alternative means available that are not too difficult to use.

This is incredibly annoying for series. Crunchyroll dropped Bleach, a series with over 350 episodes, when I was at episode ~100. A few years ago I started to manually keep track of the episodes I watched, since you lose your progress when they drop it (true for crunchyroll, prime and netflix)

You don’t actually need to be aware of it. Because you said you were aware of it, when you clicked Accept on the EULA, and on page 62 of the EULA it said they have the right to disable your printer remotely at any time and for any reason.

Word

But you agreed to it.

When does an agreement become null and void when the knowledge and time needed to understand the terms, and especially whether they even stand in the various jurisdictions, is simply unfeasible for a layperson to be expected to possess?

In a similar vein, if an agreement requires a lawyer on call/retainer to interpret, what court besides a bought court would possibly uphold such a standard?

Fwiw I'm not asking this with the expectation of you personally having the answers, but to further highlight the absurdity of many of these so-called agreements.

I treat my Brother laser like a rented uhaul truck and it just keeps going.

I have one of the complicated brother ones that scans and prints, including double sides, in colour, and it's a tank. Works fine in Linux too. Connected or through the network.

It even does fax, which someone, somewhere probably finds useful.

I use cheap Chinese knockoff toner in my Brother laser

I also heard a rumor about something somewhere, that maybe something might have happened. But I'm not sure. /S

I just installed a Brother printer for my dad, absolutely zero bullshit.

The article said the subscription was for "software updates" which really seems like something they should provide for free anyway so you're really just paying for the privilege to use their precious machine that you already paid for lol

With a loan you actually receive money at the start.

A loan usually comes with full support and warranty service for the duration of the loan. With a subscription I bet you get to pay without receiving these benefits in return.

Yes

I would think it plays an ad on the screen and you have to touch it to start so it knows you're there and doesn't print until the ad is finished.

I can picture it, if you don't want ads printed at the bottom of every page you have to subscribe.

Oh god, imagine your printer waking you up at 3 am as it spits out an ad for Arby's. But hey, ink at half price!

Please drink a verification can

I can't imagine why it wouldn't. The companies that make printers have always been scamming people with their printers and all the shitty things the printers do.

They're designed to be shitty and expensive on purpose so that you have to call the guy to fix it and pay an enormous amount of money every time the printer stops working by design.

Dymo has done that a year ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzSDJRC0F6c

Even better!

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

Looks like pirating is back on the menu, boys!

Giving HP money. Protection money. Because you know, it'd be a shame if for some unfortunate and unrelated reason you couldn't print on your printer anymore. Accidents just happen. Every day.

Because fuck you, that's why. -HP

Ink cartridges. Instead of paying up front, they send you cartridges for 'free' and automatically dispatch replacements whenever they get low (or if you have a problem like they get so gummed up the head clean can't fix them) If you don't want the subscription, you have to buy your own carts retail, then it's just like a 'traditional' printer.

The sub itself isn't (in my opinion) scummy just a value proposition. What is a bit scummy is that the carts that come with the printer are yours, but you can enroll them in the sub service. You can do that the day you buy it or right before they run out. In theory they're supposed to revert to 'owned' if the sub is cancelled, but I've heard there can be hoops to jump through. The carts that come with the printer are tiny compared to either retail or rental so won't last long either way.

It looks like this subscription may be for their "smart" printers. So the subscription would be for the connection to phone service. Why you'd need a smart printer is beyond me but they apparently think there is a market for it.

Yeah I looked into it, some models require the HP+ subscription to work. That's only on some of their loss leader models but still misleading, so that's still shitty

They come with a cartridge and "six months free ink" if you register.

But if you register and then six months later realize you never use it and you cancel...

They lock the cartridge

Yeah no thanks on ink subscription. Also, my printer still works great... but HP forgot how to write software apparently so now I use a 3rd party android print app. Ugh. I'm kind of fed up with the HP experience lately.

Yes. Co-worker got a super cheap printer, and then tried to cancel the ink subscription. turns out he couldn't just buy ink from them, and his printer was useless.

It was .12 gauge triple ought buckshot Office Space.

I would never buy another HP printer, except for target practice.

When I last did a TCO analysis of printers brothers came out on top by a big margin.

Apparently the device setup wizard can only be ran with the special low volume cartridges that come with it. And if they did still have those, the wouldn’t have worked since they were out of ink. Total scam setup to extract money out of un knowing consumers.

Additional hot take: get a laser printer for your normal documents and just get photos printed somewhere else. The money you'd spend buying 4x6 photos on someone else's ink and paper would probably be less than you'll pay for color ink unless you're an absolute photo printing maniac. And a laser printer toner cartridge will last you like 1,000+ pages.

Yep, I bought a Brother laser printer for $120 a few years ago. I don't use it super often, but it's been reliable and easy to use whenever I need it. I've never had to replace the toner. It just works.

Needed something to print the occasional document for bureaucracy stuff, and I also got a Brother printer a while ago. Used, laser (very important for good value imo), 100 bucks. An older model, black-and-white but with wifi support. Didn't need to register my license, create a cloud account or whatever other shit companies come up with these days, I could just turn it on and it worked.

They're incredibly reliable. I've had the same Brother laser printer for a good 15 years now. Possibly longer. Old enough that there's no wifi or bluetooth options, but it's a network printer because it has ethernet.

A lot of my printing happens when parents visit. They love to print everything. I'm much more likely to use the scanner on my Brother printer than actually print.

Yes on the Libraries! Libraries are often incredibly cheap for printing, and most of them have an online uploading tool so you can print things from your home computer or phone without any hassle. Plus, at least at the library I work at, we have incredibly high quality printers and your docs / photos will come out a lot better than how they would if you were at home, as well as a scanner that can give you a 600dpi TIFF file

Just please try not to hand us a twenty for something that costs 1/100th of that - we often don't have enough small bills to make change. (Or do and put it on your account for later, if that's an offered option, or better yet donate the remainder 😉)

In Germany there are a lot of stores that let you use their printer for 10ct per page. Is this not the case in the US (or wherever you live)?

From my experience, printer support on Linux is often better than on Windows because all the drivers are included in the kernel and you don't have to go driver hunting on obscure websites.

The new brothers also work fine with chrome os.

I just got around to setting up my Brother MFC-2750DW in OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I was prepared for a long process, but Brother publish Linux drivers for it and the whole setup took about 5 minutes. Works perfectly over wifi. Easiest Linux printer setup I've ever done. And it's happy with third-party cartridges too.

The HP you mention still exists today as Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, a separate company from HP Inc, which is the consumer-facing brand. It's very similar to what Motorola did in splitting into enterprise and consumer companies.

...until Microsoft decides to disable this obviously hacked Office

people always say this, but 95% of what i print is index and reference cards that need colour :( I would love to get a B&W printer, but i need the colours.

I have an ecotank too. No BS subscription shenanigans, painless to get it working. What impresses me is the lack of it breaking if it sits even months between uses, usually not even needing to be cleaned.

Epson are ok as long as you remember they're descended from Tamagochis. Leave them alone for a month and they'll sometimes clog up for ever.

OK, but what printer does your brother use?

I had a terrible experience with epson

If you get a Brother, it’s best to go with laser, as the toner will last ages. If you’re on a budget, the Brother inkejet I have gives zero shits what cartridges I put in there, as long as they’re the right shape. I usually have to clean the contacts on top of the cartridges before inserting like it’s an NES, though.

If you print regularly, HP's 6 cent per page, 100 pages per month plan is about the same price as a small black and white laser's drum and toner.

But you can plan full page photos on photo paper with it for that 6 cent too, not just BW documents. I like it, a full year costs about the same as 1 set of XL OfficeJet ink and you never have to try to save money by going BW / draft mode. Just print whatever. Clean the head whenever needed. It's all included.

Yes it is a subscription, but this one is actually useful. And it gets cheaper the more you print, up to small office volumes. We have it at multiple offices on a 300/700 pages plan.

If you sign up for the subscription, the printer is "adjusted" to disallow store bought cartridges while it is enrolled

The big hoopla is that in some cases they disable your printer so you can't buy your ink independently. That's the part I suspect is illegal in EU. Obviously subscriptions aren't illegal.

Exactly. We've had our color laser for about 14 years, and it still runs on the original toner cartridges!

Good points on the ink jet. I'm not sure laser printers are really toxic. Yes 30-40 years ago there were problems with ozone for heavy printing environments, or if you sat right next to the printer. But AFAIK the ozone levels have been reduced, and for small printers it's not a problem. While ozone is toxic, it is also naturally occurring, and we can tolerate low levels of it.

Regarding chemicals in the toner, it was a problem way way back, because in high volume environments that shit sometimes would be all over the place. Because containers weren't tight enough. I don't recall seeing toner in or around laser printers for home office for the past 2 decades. I'm guessing production environments have improved similarly too, but I haven't been much in contact with those lately.

There are clear work environment regulations in most (western) countries, that date back to the early 80's and even earlier. As a minimum those regulations must be met. So yes there are actually health and safety laws around laser printers. And AFAIK they are completely safe unless you are doing something illegal or incredibly stupid.

Ford is doing this as well.

apple used to be my go to but decided to deplatform from them. All of the iTunes music, videos, and tv shows I bought over the years have been pirated or ripped to my media server.

All personal files and media is backed up on my personal cloud/server with redundant backups to another server that I own.