I have mixed views on this.

On one hand I agree with you, especially when it comes to dealing with Palantir or really any company that can be influenced by the US, but on the other hand there are legitimate uses for such technologies in the sphere of national security and even public security.

I would argue it’s the citizens’ responsibility to make sure that the usage of such technologies is done in a framework of checks and balances (i.e. in a responsible manner).

I don’t believe in rhetoric about “the state infinitely expands surveillance capabilities”. The state is a reflection of the voters and there is no laws of physics or chemistry that guarantees such expansion via Brownian motion or what have you. If you do have institutions going overboard (be it the state or corporations), the root cause are the citizens (examples like NK or Eritrea notwithstanding).

Incredible that they’re still contracting an American company (one that is known to be controlled by particularly corrupt oligarchs) instead of building out their own capabilities.

The best you can do is help them install uBlock Origin and FB/Insta Lite (not great options, but better than the mainline apps).

HBO Max isn’t really a thing in my country. Although I was surprised to find out that they do allow you to sign up; Shudder which I would be willing to pay money for gives me a page with following text:

Sorry, we are not available in your country

That’s the whole page. Well, I will continue to use alternative sources for procuring your 1st party content if you don’t want to take my money.

From what I remember, downloading, installing and logging in worked, but we couldn’t play any videos. Logging in worked on the WebUI too. That’s why initially thought this was some sort of technical issue specific to my setup or perhaps even a bunk unit (even though it could play multiple containers/codecs from the NAS).

I was honestly shocked to discover that Netflix requires per device licensing. I can sort of understanding quality restrictions on some devices, even though the DRM is broken albeit the crack is not fully public (you can easily find even 4K WEB-DL copies on the internet), but per device licensing for playback is ridiculous. They don’t even allow WebUI usage!

Who do they think they are? This is clearly an example of oligopoly corruption, on par with the russian oligarchy that de facto operates in the technology services sphere with state management (even though from my experience, the US commoner would strongly disagree with such a characterization).

Check out the linked thread asking for Reddit alternatives.

I am talking about the population of people interested in alternative platforms, so maybe like 1-2% of the Reddit’s MAUs at most. I was pretty clear about this:

…among users who are looking for alternatives to American oligarchic technology services

…

…is a massive turn off for the exact target market of the Fediverse

The market for Fedi is clearly not the total unique MAU count of American social services.

I feel like I should make a joke about not reading an article and just commenting about the headline. :)

I’ve seen that being used. It works fine for more technical users, but it’s just an extra pain point.

• If you make links, you need to apply the service
• Different UI from whatever instance/client/platform that you are using.

I much prefer Piefed’s soon to be released link substitution feature.

For DV it’s understandable. IMO Dolby and DTS are kinda of a scam (e.g. their lossless codecs). They are welcome to make authoring tools, but the standards should always be open and not subject to unaccountable entities that operate in a unreliable jurisdiction.

The reason I am asking about Netflix is because we got a relatively powerful Chinese Android set-top box (that is supported by a local distributor) and it couldn’t play videos in the Netflix Android app or even when logging in via web browser. The distributor said that Netflix support requires a license. After doing some research, this seems to be true for many non-American brands.

We cancelled Netflix and we are not buying any new subscriptions from American firms. I am just curious about the whole license issue.

ugoos am6b+ works great and can playback basically anything but av1 natively if you flash Coreelec, the android side can still run streaming apps if you insist or iptv apps like tv mate since iptv support in kodi/jellyfin suuuucks

Not Netflix though, right?

We cancelled our Netflix subscription earlier this year, but I am just curious. To my understanding to install Netflix you have to use trash tier HTPC devices.

So you’d have to either raise prices or accept a lower profit margin.

Isn’t that the point and the main benefit of competitive markets?

Agreed, regarding barriers to entry though. They need to be addressed.

How do you discover good peertube channels?

I only have two subscriptions, a gaming channel that uploads to both peertube and YT and the Piefed channel.

I believe I2P is more for things like torrents.

I’ve been meaning to test it out (I seem to remember that it’s possible to run it side by side), but haven’t got a chance yet.

This is how we know that the overwhelming majority of “anti woke” posturing in American society is mostly about theatrics and subservience to oligarchs.

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