Warning email from Amazon

[0xFeedBeef]

I have an Android box that has an option to set a crazy prefetch number in the buffering settings. In essence, it it possible to prefetch the entire show before actually watching it. If the prefetch is high enough and the file size of the program small enough, it often times doesn't count as "watched."

<snip>

I very much suspect it has to do with revenue deprivation that would be out of the ordinary "conduct," so things like buy/rent then download then "cancel" the purchase/lease, or sub to a channel (non trial period) then download then cancel the sub for a refund.

From the purely pragmatic perspective, if I were running this kind of anomaly detection system, I'd not care if people downloaded things once-off (after all, people tend to watch the same cr*p over and over, and in the long run it actually saves on bandwidth), and only flag things that are taking the Michael when it comes to depriving of revenue; but that's me being pragmatic

[jpp72]

As many of you know, i download a ton from Amazon US and Canada.



I do 100 episodes a day on a regular basis. If this is a thing, I'll be the first one to get an email...

I'll post if/when I get the email...

P.S. If they do threaten to ban me, it's their loss... I sub to 12 channels in Canada and 5 in the US. I also order more than most since i get packages delivered every single week and sometimes multiple days a week.

The "Take my money" Futurama meme should feature me and not Philip

[simchris]

Since none of us has received one yet, the whole thing is actually uninteresting.

This

[Sebastian001]

Since none of us has received one yet, the whole thing is actually uninteresting.

[Stan001]

I was, at first, a bit concerned. But I know I myself don't use the 100 downloads per day anymore on Amazon.
I am not going to change what I do or don't download. From what's said, you get the warning email before they do anything, and if it did get to that point I get a warning, then I will become more concerned. I just know Amazon is one of the most used, again because of offering subscriptions to many other providers like Paramount+ and many more.
I don't even see myself having money to buy subscriptions to many other providers. It's all I can do to be part of Prime, and initially it was for the free and sometime faster shipping.
I then took an interest in the movies and shows. They took my interest away from watching on a streaming device due to their stupid additional charge to remove ads when initially there were never ads.
They may find that some people would stop downloading if they removed the ads. But it seems most providers feel they need that extra money, and we all know Amazon surely is not in need of the extra money.
I sadly have to deal with ads on Peacock unless I use streamfab to download, the Netflix I have access to is the ad-free version.
So, if/when I stream, the first provider I go to is Netflix because of no ads. When I did watch Peacock, the ads did not seem like there were a huge amount, like if you watch the movie from a standard TV channel. As well as most standard channels, edit/cut the movies to fit to certain so-called time restraints, etc. You're even better watching on Tubi or Pluto, etc., as they don't seem to edit/cut the movies, although some have more ads than it would seem they need. I liked Nosey app when I first heard of it, as I was a fan of certain shows they had. Nosey had its times, there were ads like almost every 10 minutes, if not more. Nosey has expanded and has even more stuff. Finally, they seemed to have cut back on ads. And there were 1 or 2 ways to download, even from Nosey (with no ads). And they seem to have put more on YouTube, and SF can download, than from YouTube.

For those concerned or really received these notices, and if they are real, all you can do is take breaks. Everyone thinks they need to download terabytes of programs and movies in as short of time as possible, and many providers keep stuff for months before it goes away. And yes, also if it's real, it will just make more turn to torrents and other means and skip SF altogether. Look in the right places, and you can most likely get at least 96% to 98% via other means.(Sadly, I don't see the Netflix 4K as much as I used to, but there was a time they were available) I still try to stay away from torrents as much as possible, even though I have access to VPN's because in the US, they snag you fast for torrenting popular movies or TV shows.

And YES Amazon lets you download with their app, there is even an app in Microsoft's Store on Windows 11, but it saves it, of course encrypted, I surely hope they are not focusing on those people who do it that way. I never tried from the website to the computer.

And you probably guessed I am not a fan of many ads or commercials. When watching TV shows on cable, I use their DVR to record and can then skip past the commercials.

[MrGrackle]

A few quick thoughts- AWS "knows" when you request each title, if you have the regular account (with ads) it might be triggering no ads watched tripwire, also, they might have a trigger to see if you "got the title" but Amazon's player doesn't register the title as "watched"

The short of it is: it's naïve to assume that someone at amazon hasn't worked out what the difference between genuine player and what SF does (even just going off the ads, recall it's an avenue stream that SF deprives of the corporation that's posting billions in net profit)

I have an Android box that has an option to set a crazy prefetch number in the buffering settings. In essence, it it possible to prefetch the entire show before actually watching it. If the prefetch is high enough and the file size of the program small enough, it often times doesn't count as "watched."

As I recall though, Disney+ was detecting something at one point and temp banning IPs.

If this truly is happening, what it could mean is a different method to obtain the content. To actually send it through a 'player' but then do what the program normally does with the raw data. So a 45 minute program would take, 45+ minutes to download.

Even on a set top player, you can fast forward the show to the end and get credit for watching it. There are always other methods.

And they do have an actual "download" button on a lot of content on their site too --- what would it take to decode that downloaded content?


Keep in mind other streamers use AWS to host their data as well. So one has got to wonder what triggered such a thing.

Without seeing the full message, it could be a phishing attempt. I get them all the time (from "Netflix") on my cell phone. Nowhere in the messages do they state who I am, very generic. And the tinyurl you would click on says netflx, conveniently missing the "i".

[october262]

Over on the Discord, any discussion on download habits? For example, people that got warned/banned were doing X, while people who didn't get anything did X?

no mention of download habbits, amazon knows what accounts are being used to download stuff.

[MrMayor]

it's being talked about over here on discord, their banning accounts of people that rip stuff from Amazon.

Over on the Discord, any discussion on download habits? For example, people that got warned/banned were doing X, while people who didn't get anything did X?

[Sebastian001]

Who says the email is really from Amazon? I get emails every day from banks, insurance companies, and parcel services. They all tell me to do something, otherwise this will happen... It's all a rip-off.

Once a year, I get an email from RTL+ with statistics on what I've watched most. It never includes anything I've downloaded, so they don't see it at all.

I don't know if Amazon sees it...

[october262]

Over on the Discord, any discussion on download habits? For example, people that got warned/banned were doing X, while people who didn't get anything did X?

doesn't really say what they were doing, althougth one thread mentions being detected during the license request.

[MrMayor]

it's being talked about over here on discord, their banning accounts of people that rip stuff from Amazon.

Over on the Discord, any discussion on download habits? For example, people that got warned/banned were doing X, while people who didn't get anything did X?

[simchris]

I think some common sense would come into play too, if the VPN use itself is not the trigger. If all you do is rip, and never actually watch shows on your Prime Video account, that would trigger me if it were my service. I try to watch shows on my Prime account quite a bit via my Apple TV and I have the full upgraded Prime subscription, as well as couple of addon channels. Sorry if that was 'captain obvious' comment, but I'm actually in midst of downloading some stuff for my new movie box in living room, some to replace ancient dvd isos of discs I purchased, as my movie box gets confused by mult-disc sets per season, so the ripped versions (e.g., Invader Zim, etc.) is way more practical. Keeping eye on this topic since top of mind. Kinda been going nuts on Amazon downloads as it was a way to get many of my Apple legit purchases as downloads for my new movie box which cannot use the Apple 'app' at all.

[Stan001]

Reddit had several people; in fact, one thread was deleted.
I don't know what is setting this in motion. I haven't seen anyone post about it here in the forum till now.
In the other deleted thread, it was from Amazon uk. Not sure if there is just an issue with the UK version, or it's something that will spread out over all of Amazon, including Amazon.com.
I suppose in a way, they may have found something they are trying and focusing on; many I know do 100 max downloads a day. I know there were times when I did 100 per day for several days in a row.
Some are wondering why just getting the email now; it could be that they just started to implement it. Now I don't have the demand to do 100 per day. I do still see where it can be hard. We talked before about an increase to 200 or more for Amazon because people are buying Paramount and many other providers through Amazon. If you have 3 other providers and count Amazon as well, that's 4, divide 100 by 4 that gives you 25 downloads per provider per day.
All that can be done is watch the situation, and if you need 100, maybe try to spread it out at 10 to 25, then take a break and repeat.

In the end, they can possibly lose money if they keep letting people download, but no matter what, it will continue, and to ban or block paying people from watching or using Prime for watching movies or shows really can cause a loss of money as well. Amazon, the last thing they need to worry about is losing money. And the added money to remove ads when Prime never had them since its inception is just that, BS.

Another interesting point is that many claim most other programs record, although I know 2 that surely go out of their way to make it look as though they are downloading and not recording, but you wonder if they will cause this problem to trigger if they do either download or record.

I am not even sure Amazon has a way to reply or contact them, but I feel that if I got the letter, I would want more details.

Because we don't know if these people are purchasing trials and then canceling, or what else they may be doing, even maybe sharing their accounts.

And people may need to stop VPN use, as that's one of the easiest things for websites to detect.
Try it and check it out on reliable bank sites, etc. OR check Proxy & VPN Detection API | proxycheck.io

[0xFeedBeef]

Amazons loss.
Since they started the ripoff £1.99 to remove ads in addition to the Prime Video sub we are forced to pay even if we only want quick deliveries I cancel my Prime every month. I used to let it roll but now I cancel then renew as and when I need it. Sometimes weeks sometimes days but they lose out. If they stopped us being able to download stuff I would not bother. Although I don't currently have Netflix or Paramount subs if they did block downloading I wouldn't bother with them at all

I've long been saying all this nonsense from the vendors actually enables the scene and download sites get rich at the expense of amazon

[0xFeedBeef]

This is not how it works. You can download an encrypted file without an Amazon account, just follow the link from the MPD. SF gets the decryption key and does not play the file, as recordings programs do. then, using the key, decryption module and muxer, the user receives his file. An Amazon account is required to access the MPD file and receive the key.

Suspicion often arises when people often buy a TV series or a movie and after some time (for which you can download what you bought using SF) cancel the purchase, as if they bought it by mistake. many people indulge in this

You are free to believe whatever you like, or you can set up an injector between SF and AWS and find out yourself by pushing random errors that claim to be
from AWS toward SF

And in the case of a latter (purchased, downloaded, cancelled), AWS registers "access" but no corresponding "play," the "play" would prevent cancellation, but the cancellation happened, hence you get a discrepancy triggered