On Android, you can get ZXTune, an app that directly browses and plays online demo scene chiptune databases like scene.org. It’s really great.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.zxtune

Honestly, this is the best time to snapshot it, because even with the slop already there, the exponential increase that’s about to happen will absolutely dwarf what’s there now.

This is the correct list, having lived through it. BBS services in the mid-1980s were the start of Razor1911, Paradox and other distro and cracker groups. I’d edit 2 to include FTP which is what BBS evolved into with secret dropsites for new releases.

IRC is 2.5 on this list. You can group that alongside the pre-web internet services, like AOL which had slightly IRC-like chat rooms dedicated to serving warez and videos in the same way (requesting a list from a chatbot, and then requesting sequential files).

Some light history here, though like all warez-related scholarship, there’s a ton missing that you had to have seen to know:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez_scene

https://archive.org/details/b904a8eb-9c98-4bb1-bf25-3cb9d075b157/

I don’t know if this meme is fully ironic, but kind of strange to think “torrenting” is considered the OG piracy method now.

Very interesting. I followed BD circumvention on the doom9 forums from that link decades ago, but it looks like the VUK database method is more reliable now.

Is there some version of Handbrake or workaround for BD copy protection? This is the excerpt from the site, and matches my understanding that it isn’t a circumvention tool:

Supported Input Sources:

Handbrake can process most common multimedia files and any DVD or BluRay sources that do not contain any kind of copy protection.

Yeah, this 100% only works (but I think does work) with a reliable physical chain of trust, since we’re not yet in an age where you can Mission Impossible mask social engineer trust face-to-face. Not a great plan if this isn’t a USB drive handed directly to them, though.

You could always package them with everything they need to watch, like VLC (which should be able to read most formats anyway). Not clear if they are all on Windows, but perhaps you could include the portable VLC version that doesn’t require an install and make an obvious-named VLC playlist file for them to open.

Do you reverse proxy, Tailscale, etc to authenticate or circumvent the need for a secure connection? Every time I come close to planning a switch, that part paralyzes me, it feels so unintuitive.

Do you remote stream (off your server network)? If so, how’s the experience?

Tech bro startups.

“Pie fights”

Sorry, I thought the joke was implicit in your question, but the analog to “Lemmites” is “Piefites” which I think is just fine because say it out loud.

To be honest, the poster is “SPU,” so this is probably 90% to promote the site. (Not that I really care that much in this case, I like South Park and think episodes that have Muhammad in them should still be available despite religious extremists being upset.)

Yeah, this post started as a reassurance that Tailscale wouldn’t enshittify. But it turned out to just be an argument about how to avoid enshittification that boiled down to two principles:

1. You shouldn’t make your product worse because it’ll eventually harm the company; and
2. Founders are magic and need to never turn over control of the company to others (be it new CEOs or VC) to resist enshittification.

Both are partially right and partially wrong.

For #1: Yes, making your product worse eventually harms the company. No, you can’t expect CEOs to accept that as a reason to not make their product worse because even if it harms the company, short-term incentives that lead to enshittification are eventually going to become irresistible. His comment about reaching “zen” with leveled growth and profit will never stop VCs from calling in demands and favors.

For #2: Yes, founders typically “get it” more than their VC- or failure-initiated replacements. No, that doesn’t mean founders are uniquely resistant to enshittification. This is your point too, and it’s why I don’t believe this person - they lose credibility here because they don’t acknowledge they aren’t special. Every tech bro out there thinks they’ve cracked the code to permanent tech hegemony. That exceptionalist thinking turns into enshittification, since the product-worsening or overcharging is easier to justify as temporary/necessary/not-a-big-deal (until it isn’t).

And all of this doesn’t explain why Tailscale specifically gets immunity if the principles are true.

So interesting post, and a lot more self-awareness than most founders which is still a little reassuring, but a lot of warning signs too.

Edit: clarity

Any thoughts on what is the best alternative site that does the same thing (saves/accesses paywalled articles)?

The entire reason why there is a thriving global market for manga is that these off-books sites have existed for decades, and have raised a generation that treats manga as core culture. So they’re strangling their continued relevance in a blind enforcement frenzy.

The other big problem of publishers acting this way is that if we start buying more manga after this, the message publishers get is that this works, and to do it again and again. They’ve created an incentive for manga fans to therefore not buy more manga for now. Which is exactly the opposite incentive publishers wish for.

It’s important that you get a certified certificate of death. Many hospitals won’t certify your certificate of death, which from a privacy perspective is so worthless you may even die of embarrassment - which of course, apart from you being fully dead, wouldn’t even be certified.

The IA doesn’t have funds to pay what they’re demanding, so if there’s a settlement, it’ll be other concessions.

They’re going to burn down part of the IA library, aren’t they.

Senator Thune will receive an Industry Champion Award for his work on policies that encourage innovation and competitive choice for customers. We’re not aware of any pioneering copyright policy the Senate leader was involved in, but he did extensively advocate for consumer freedom, including the Filter Bubble Transparency Act.

The MPA hasn’t mentioned Thune in any communications on its website before, aside from the fact that MPA’s Senior Vice President of Federal Government Affairs worked for him previously. That said, the award shows that the movie industry group values his work and achievements.

“Here’s an award!”

“What for?”

“For what you’re going to do!”