greentreerainfire

Not an answer to your question, but in the 80s/early 90s my grandmother used to tape movies off the tv, I believe she actually copied VCR to VCR so she could make a copy without commercials. She’d then cut out the description from the TV Guide, and scotch tape it to the top of the video cassette tape.

A couple of notes on COBRA, the cost is because you’re (usually) losing the amount your employer pays toward health insurance, plus the administrator charges a percent on top to administer the program. So the cost will definitely depend on which plan you already have and how much the employer pays.

With COBRA you’ll be locked into your current plan, but should have the opportunity to change plans when the employer goes through annual/open enrollment.

Another thing to note is that you’ll keep access to any HSA accounts you have (this is money you and/or your employer has put in an account.). You will lose access to any FSA balance you have, unless you elect it while electing COBRA.

That is basically The Great Filter theory the OP was referring to.

Yeah. My grandfather (former electrician and electrical inspector) had a specific outlet he’d plug a gas generator in to back feed power into the house. This was in the 80s and 90s.

He also pointed out that he turned the main off so it did not back feed into the grid and power lines that a lineman is expecting to not be live.

Unexpected Pink Floyd

Oh we know what is going on already. The court has been stacked in a way that usually favors corporate and authoritarian interests, with justices frequently receiving gifts that aren’t always disclosed.

Yes all those people draining billions every year giving nothing any keeping the money.

You’re taking about corporate welfare too, right?

Like that’s their entire point, the dissemination of information freely.

Yes.

The logical conclusion of libraries is piracy anyway.

Not really. Libraries function within the constraints of licensing. They buy physical copies of materials and license digital copies.

With libraries the content creators (and yes distributors) are still being paid for their works AND information gets to sprees freely.

I’d argue that libraries are superior piracy.

Maybe if the person who’s actions are being protested against are reasonable. When protesters are met by military forces and detained in trumped up charges of terrorism, then they don’t work until there looks to be consequences for the person/group being protested.

As a rule of thumb if you have the military on your side protests get crushed. Look at Egypt for an example of what happens once the military gets involved.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle\_of\_Blair\_Mountain](The Battle of Blair Mountain) is a good example on the US end. Striking US mine workers crushed by the US military on US soil. You could argue that it was one of many events that led to labor protections, but it wasn’t the inviting event and those protections came more than a decade later.

Since this is in nostupidquesrions and not a piracy community I’ll offer a different take:

Try your local library for physical copies. Depending on your library system, it may be free (or low cost) to have copies sent from other branches. Again depending on your system it may be possible to get copies from libraries outside of the system through Inter Library Loans (ILL) if your library participates.

Also library systems may have access to some streaming content, depends on your system. Some large cities, like NYC, offer library cards to everyone in t the state.

Tangentially related, the Internet Archive also hosts tons of material you might not find anywhere else. Probably not what you’re looking for, but I’ve found things like Mister Rogers episodes there that aren’t available on Amazon or DVDs. Quality of content may vary and you’re more likely to find older content there.