This Company and their software

[artsunlimited]

I never really had a use for porn. I have a Wife therefore cannot afford a porn subscription anyway. Why the hell would I watch someone else when I can participate directly? I didn't marry an Ice Queen. I married a Gem. Matter of fact 30 years today. Don't regret a single minute of it either.

Happy Anniversary to you both! That's quite a milestone, it's nice to find a married couple who won't be appearing on AITA on Reddit.

[NewMelle]

I never really had a use for porn. I have a Wife therefore cannot afford a porn subscription anyway. Why the hell would I watch someone else when I can participate directly? I didn't marry an Ice Queen. I married a Gem. Matter of fact 30 years today. Don't regret a single minute of it either.

[Chameleon]

Posted by artsunlimited
which explains why Anystream doesn't have 420 porn modules - the cost would probably be prohibitive.

It's just a guess, but I don't think money has anything to do with why they do not have any porn modules. I just think they have a little more class. If you want porn, you don't have to pay a streamer to get it. (not that I would know)

[artsunlimited]

The case was in federal court. Michael Cukor is listed as Feng Tao's counsel. His bio states "Michael has lead counsel experience in Federal Courts across the country including the District of New Jersey, Northern District of California, the Eastern District of Texas and the District of Delaware." He doesn't list Southern District of New York, but it would be up to the judge there. His partner Vincent McGeary "has lead [sic] large litigation teams in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of California, the District of Delaware, and the District of New Jersey." I think Feng Tao had pretty impressive legal counsel.

Uh no - it's not up to the judge as to whether you can represent your client or not as lead counsel if you're licensed to practice law in that state and there's no conflict of interest involving another party in the litigation. There's also more than one judge in the Southern District as it's part of a federal court system that comprises eight counties. If Cukor hasn't listed the Southern District among his lead counsel experience (which doesn't include any NY federal court districts), it simply means he doesn't have it. McGeary has, though. The real question isn't how many district courts they've represented clients in, but did their "large litigation teams" win their lawsuits?

They worked with what they had, but a default judgment was always going to be the end result as the defendants were never going to appear in federal court, and claiming the plaintiffs hadn't suffered irreparable harm not only wasn't going to fly, but implies that Feng Tao would keep on racking up future violations, which tends to tip things in the plaintiff's behalf when it comes to the court issuing permanent injunctions.

Citing insufficient service here nothing more than a delaying tactic and not one they were ever going to win on. It's considered a "technical defense" because it doesn't actually offer a defense as to the complaint itself, but it's actually a crucial element of due process. The filing of a complaint by the plaintiff stops the statute of limitations from running, but the lawsuit can't proceed until service of process has properly been made on the defendant - only when they've been properly served so they're aware they're now the defendant in a lawsuit does the court get jurisdiction over them to impose an (enforceable) judgment of liability - and in this case - damages. If the plaintiff fails to serve the defendant properly, the lawsuit is dismissed because the court has no jurisdiction - but it's dismissed without prejudice, which means it can be filed again as long as the statute of limitations hasn't expired. Once the plaintiff is informed there's a problem with service, it's their responsibility to correct it, or to show due diligence as to why it can't be corrected - in this case, AACCSLA claimed that their investigators couldn't uncover Feng Tao's physical address in order to serve him, which is why they had to resort to serving him via email. At the end of the day, the fact that Feng Tao was represented by counsel that was arguing he'd been improperly served because the plaintiff hadn't gone through The Hague Convention demonstrated that he did, in fact, have knowledge that he'd been served, which is why the motion was ultimately denied.

[NewMelle]

This is only my guess but if AnyStream can hire developers that can crack Playready and all the other providers except NF, and charge half the price for their program that Fab does, then Fab should be able to do the same. They just don't want to spend the money, our money, that we paid for development.

This would require strategic planning. Strategic planning requires intelligence and foresight. This would have only been possible well more than four months ago when the new DRM was evidently coming. This doesn't even qualify as hindsight.

As I have zero interest in another module for PooPoo, FeeFee or CaaCaa SF is of little use to me any more.

If the litigation artsunlimited brought to our attention is the catalyst for the transition from direct downloader to screen recorder it is doubtful the DRM will ever be cracked. The only way to get around this, at least until the next lawsuit comes around is dismantle and abandon the company Feng Tao Software and re-emerge as a new entity. Considering the installer is almost a half Gig now it is bordering on bloatware for what it does (or more appropriately what it doesn't). There's flab and then there's flab. This brings some new company names to mind.

I've been toying around with some ideas for the new company slogans/names and or logos. If I posted them I'd probably get the boot.

[JeffDavis]

The case was in federal court. Michael Cukor is listed as Feng Tao's counsel. His bio states "Michael has lead counsel experience in Federal Courts across the country including the District of New Jersey, Northern District of California, the Eastern District of Texas and the District of Delaware." He doesn't list Southern District of New York, but it would be up to the judge there. His partner Vincent McGeary "has lead [sic] large litigation teams in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Eastern District of Texas, the Northern District of California, the District of Delaware, and the District of New Jersey." I think Feng Tao had pretty impressive legal counsel.

[artsunlimited]

This is only my guess but if AnyStream can hire developers that can crack Playready and all the other providers except NF, and charge half the price for their program that Fab does, then Fab should be able to do the same. They just don't want to spend the money, our money, that we paid for development.

EXACTLY. It can't be cheap, paying a team of devs to crack multiple DRMS, which explains why Anystream doesn't have 420 porn modules - the cost would probably be prohibitive. It's always been reasonably priced, and their move from lifetime to 1 to 2 year licenses in January could be because it's just not economically feasible any longer to keep offering a one-time purchase and still pay their devs to keep the product functioning.

SF really got out ahead of their skis by offering SO many modules that they can't hope to maintain, but as they can't refund people, and they don't want to pay to hire competent devs to crack the major platforms, they're ripping off CleverGet and hoping it will placate people who don't know any better.

[artsunlimited]

From their "Contact Us" page: "We have offices in downtown Morristown, New Jersey and Midtown New York City. Our New Jersey office is within walking distance of the Morris County Courthouse and is a short train or car ride from the Federal Courthouses in Newark, NJ and New York City. Cost-effective and with abundant restaurants, hotels and legal support services, Morristown is an ideal location for running a large federal litigation in either the Southern District of New York or the District of New Jersey."

The Morristown Chamber of Commerce must love that plug. My issue was that they're shown on the court docs as being in NY, not representing Feng Tao as NJ lawyers pro hac vice,* which they could easily do- but they don't seem to be listed in the building directory for 1460 Broadway which is supposedly their NY location, which you'd sort of expect for an office of any size. I suppose if they're in a broom closet or renting space in the back of Foot Locker it saves on filing that motion for any other clients, huh?

* Lawyers in good standing in another US state can be admitted pro hac vice - literally, for this occasion - at the discretion of any court in NY to represent their client.

[JeffDavis]

What's weird is that Feng Tao's IP attorneys, McGeary Cukor LLC, aren't located in NY but in Morristown, NJ, so what's up with them being able to represent him in the Southern District of NY?

From their "Contact Us" page: "We have offices in downtown Morristown, New Jersey and Midtown New York City. Our New Jersey office is within walking distance of the Morris County Courthouse and is a short train or car ride from the Federal Courthouses in Newark, NJ and New York City. Cost-effective and with abundant restaurants, hotels and legal support services, Morristown is an ideal location for running a large federal litigation in either the Southern District of New York or the District of New Jersey."

[Chameleon]

This is only my guess but if AnyStream can hire developers that can crack Playready and all the other providers except NF, and charge half the price for their program that Fab does, then Fab should be able to do the same. They just don't want to spend the money, our money, that we paid for development.

[jpp72]

I never totally bought into Jack's GitHub/Discord theory of solving the cracking, but that was just my personal opinion and who's to say what was right. We were always left in the dark as to what was actually going on programmingwise.

My reasoning behind this was that at least twice, i asked about enabling H265 for other streamers as i started to see scene releases in H265 and was provided a Github link showing that it should be possible. I remember clearly once was for Peacock but can't remember the other one.

[artsunlimited]

I have to go along with Jack on this. There really wasn't a large amount of conversation released to us in private in our capacity as moderators and "influencers". But what we did get was always of the "we think we have it fixed" or "watch for the next release" type, soon followed by a message saying that it was going to take a bit longer. I never got the feeling that they were trying to pull one over on us, and that they never had any interest in cracking the DRM. I, personally, told Wilson several times to fire the Developer and hire either post-graduate Computer Science majors or cryptographically knowledgeable forum users from VideoHelp.com. So, it was my thought that they simply had a Developer that wasn't experienced or knowledgeable enough to do the job that he needed to do. I never totally bought into Jack's GitHub/Discord theory of solving the cracking, but that was just my personal opinion and who's to say what was right. We were always left in the dark as to what was actually going on programmingwise.

You mentioned this before, and it makes perfect sense - it's a reasonable solution and the fact that they obviously haven't done it after a solid four months is utterly baffling to me. After all this time, you'd think they'd really have to accept that whoever they have working on it simply isn't capable of getting the job done. It's kind of like like putting milk that you know is sour back in the fridge and saying "Maybe it'll be fresh tomorrow!"

[Exxar]

I also gave up on StreamFab and went and purchased AnyStream+, it works great for all my primary download sites. The only thing I come back periodically (rarely) and use StreamFab for is something only available freely on Pluto! or Roku. I even stopped using DVDFab in favor of MakeMKV. I'm just not interested in supporting this company anymore.

So did I.

And I even left a review of StreamFab on trustpilot and sourceforge.


If I would treat my customers the same way StreamFab/DvdFab does, they would burn the store with everyone in it.

[Cats4U]

To everyone, please read carefully: I am not defending them or making excuses. I am simply stating that i don't think they don't want to crack the DRM. They just don't have the expertise to do it.

I have to go along with Jack on this. There really wasn't a large amount of conversation released to us in private in our capacity as moderators and "influencers". But what we did get was always of the "we think we have it fixed" or "watch for the next release" type, soon followed by a message saying that it was going to take a bit longer. I never got the feeling that they were trying to pull one over on us, and that they never had any interest in cracking the DRM. I, personally, told Wilson several times to fire the Developer and hire either post-graduate Computer Science majors or cryptographically knowledgeable forum users from VideoHelp.com. So, it was my thought that they simply had a Developer that wasn't experienced or knowledgeable enough to do the job that he needed to do. I never totally bought into Jack's GitHub/Discord theory of solving the cracking, but that was just my personal opinion and who's to say what was right. We were always left in the dark as to what was actually going on programmingwise.

[hizbf]

LOL, a heckuva lot, since it is just that simple. They don't advertise, they don't sell ersatz versions of their software under other names, they don't add a streaming platform at the expense of maintaining what they already have, and their forum is the ne plus ultra of consumer/tech help communications. Even so, I liked SF an awful lot for its little differences, as well as for the platforms that AS didn't provide, so it's sad that it's devolved into the hot mess that it is right now - especially when they have a successful example of what to do right, right in front of them.

StreamFab and AnyStream Plus are the two giants of Windows downloaders, AnyStream Plus supports fewer websites, but repairs quickly; StreamFab supports many websites, but repairs are slow, StreamFab has DRM M3U8 Downloader and DRM MPD Downloader, which other Windows downloaders do not have, If StreamFab goes bankrupt one day, I can only buy a Mac computer and download videos using Downie, but Mac computers are much more expensive than Windows computers!