Poll of the Day > How is this legal?

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I recently found about this app on the Play Store called Streamio. At first glance it looks like a simple catalog of various shows and movies and what services they're on, but through installing certain addons from within the app (I won't go into detail just in case the mods don't like this topic), you can stream literally any show or movie from any streaming provider, and it only costs 32/year for the full catalog. I mean, just look at this shit:

https://youtu.be/ANHh_uZDLFw

It's all there, commercial-free, mostly in 4K. And it's fast too. Anything I want to watch is there, streaming to my TV within seconds. And I really do mean anything, even older stuff that isn't available on any platform. There hasn't been a single show or movie I could think of that wasn't available to stream instantly.

I don't get how this works. Where is the content coming from? Why hasn't the server(s) that host it been shut down years ago over copyright violations? Why is it so much faster than torrents? What loophole is being exploited, here?

Somebody please explain.

It's been asked on reddit, but basically Streamio is legal in the sense that "viewing" copyrighted content is not illegal and they aren't distributing anything to you, only streaming.

But yes, their entire database IS torrents and pirated...

Lokarin posted...

It's been asked on reddit, but basically Streamio is legal in the sense that "viewing" copyrighted content is not illegal and they aren't distributing anything to you, only streaming.

But yes, their entire database IS torrents and pirated...

That makes sense I suppose, but what I don't understand is where the content is coming from. They're clearly torrents, yes, but even dead torrents still get streamed instantly, so clearly the files are being hosted on some server(s) somewhere, outside of P2P, then streamed directly to your TV. What I don't understand is how that/those server(s) doesn't get raided and shut down. The 32/year service I'm paying for is obviously hosting the files somewhere. I don't understand how they've managed to stay in business for over a decade without the FBI showing up.

Psythik posted...

The 32/year service I'm paying for is obviously hosting the files somewhere. I don't understand how they've managed to stay in business for over a decade without the FBI showing up.

The FBI doesn't have jurisdiction in every other country, and even then they do manage to shut down a lot of hosts...

But it's kinda, like, impossible to stop them all... it takes like 2 seconds to copy a yottabyte these days

I only said "FBI" cause it was the first three letter agency that came to mind. It could be INTERPOL, or whatever agency is in the local jurisdiction that hosts the files.

Regardless, if what you're saying is true, then I don't understand why anyone would pay for Netflix and the likes when they could just use Streamio instead. If it's not illegal to stream -- no matter where the content is sourced from -- then why pay more than you have to? Why isn't everyone using this app? Why aren't the Streamio devs running any advertising campaigns? They should have ads on TV and YouTube saying something like "stop paying for multiple providers", just use this. It's legal.

Lokarin posted...

It's been asked on reddit, but basically Streamio is legal in the sense that "viewing" copyrighted content is not illegal and they aren't distributing anything to you, only streaming.

I feel like that can't possibly be right.

Lokarin posted...

The FBI doesn't have jurisdiction in every other country, and even then they do manage to shut down a lot of hosts...

But it's kinda, like, impossible to stop them all... it takes like 2 seconds to copy a yottabyte these days

There are international agreements involving copyrights. It's not "the FBI"

^ See, that's what I'm saying! Something is off.

This stuff is a hydra. Kill one, two pop up.

ya, you are viewing illegal content... which inandof itself isn't illegal

Lokarin posted...

ya, you are viewing illegal content... which inandof itself isn't illegal

Providing the content is illegal. The fact that it's in a streaming format doesn't change the fact it's illegal. Not to mention there are literally warnings about illegal viewings at the start of films.

Count_Drachma posted...

Providing the content is illegal. The fact that it's in a streaming format doesn't change the fact it's illegal. Not to mention there are literally warnings about illegal viewings at the start of films.

I'm not going to defend streamio further, I just gave the top reddit result...

I have a similar thing for anime and I dont understand it either. Everything I can think of, High quality, constantly updated, instantly available.

I dont know how it works, and Im sure its sourced illegally, but its the only way to watch some things. At the very least it seems like a logistical nightmare to make sure all these videos are kept up on their servers.

MrMelodramatic posted...

I have a similar thing for anime and I dont understand it either. Everything I can think of, High quality, constantly updated, instantly available.

I dont know how it works, and Im sure its sourced illegally, but its the only way to watch some things. At the very least it seems like a logistical nightmare to make sure all these videos are kept up on their servers.

There's a plugin for anime on Streamio too.

And yeah; so far no one seems to be able to provide a satisfactory answer for why I can find literally anything and everything, in high quality, when even torrents don't have this much of a selection instantly available at the push of a button. Usually it's a nightmare and a half to find what I want, the quality is trash, and it gets taken down quickly. Not the case with Streamio.

Psythik posted...

Why isn't everyone using this app?

• Because they don't know about it
• Because getting away from sketchy piratey sorts of streaming sites was one of the major reasons official streaming platforms took off the way they did, since people are generally much more comfortable with services that are obviously above board and that they can readily trust won't give them viruses (regardless of what the actual risk is; optics play a huge role in popularity)

Psythik posted...

Why aren't the Streamio devs running any advertising campaigns? They should have ads on TV and YouTube saying something like "stop paying for multiple providers", just use this. It's legal.

Presumably because attracting more attention to themselves risks attracting attention to less-than-legal happenings behind the scenes, potentially interfering with their content delivery. They could make more money in a shorter period of time if they didn't try to fly under the radar, but they stand to last longer by not getting greedy and establishing themselves as an actual competitor.

Can you add certain content to Stremio?
Sorry, we provide no content ourselves, but the more Stremio addons you have installed, the more content you will be able to find.

I would imagine this is the cornerstone of their defense. Essentially their app does nothing out of the box and relies on '3rd party addons' to provide content.

Based on what you're describing it's probably not legal, but operates in enough of a grey area that taking them to court would not be a simple endeavor.

Just because it's legal, that won't stop your isp from giving you strikes, they can't tell if it's being downloaded to your hard drive or not.

Don't use it without a vpn, this is the fastest way to get your isp shutting off your service. I know this from experience. 3 strikes in one week.

Also note that a lot of torrent clients ignore vpns by default.

funkyfritter posted...

Based on what you're describing it's probably not legal, but operates in enough of a grey area that taking them to court would not be a simple endeavor.

Which is part of why they don't advertise particularly heavily. If they're small, taking them to court over the slice they take out of streaming services' revenue isn't worth the hassle. If they're taking a larger slice, it becomes worthwhile, and they know they ultimately won't win if it comes to that, so they aim to collect what they can while flying under the radar.

Yellow posted...

Just because it's legal, that won't stop your isp from giving you strikes, they can't tell if it's being downloaded to your hard drive or not.

Don't use it without a vpn, this is the fastest way to get your isp shutting off your service. I know this from experience. 3 strikes in one week.

Also note that a lot of torrent clients ignore vpns by default.

I've already looked into it and this isn't necessary since I'm not torrenting anything. The video files are direct downloads. The service I'm paying the 32/year for torrents the file on my behalf, and then I can download it at 100 megabytes a second. I have a gigabit connection and it's using all of it. Entire AAA games can be downloaded in mere minutes. My ISP literally doesn't care so long as I'm not redistributing the files (which is what torrenting does).

That's why I don't understand how this is legal. Nobody is going after said "service". They've been around for over a decade now.

Psythik posted...

That's why I don't understand how this is legal. Nobody is going after said "service". They've been around for over a decade now.

funkyfritter posted...

it's probably not legal, but operates in enough of a grey area that taking them to court would not be a simple endeavor.

adjl posted...

If they're small, taking them to court over the slice they take out of streaming services' revenue isn't worth the hassle.

Given what's happening to streaming as a whole these days (excessive fragmentation, fee increases, inconsistent libraries, ads...), I expect them to increase in popularity over the next couple years while streaming services lose subscribers. That will probably catalyze aggressive takedown efforts, similar to what happened to Napster when iTunes entered the market and Napster constituted a clear threat to them. That will generally be a matter of missing the point (that is, that streaming services are losing subscribers because their quality of service is dropping and this less-than-legal alternative can do the job so much better), but such is the nature of anti-piracy efforts.