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JustinAiken · 2015-09-07, 21:14

It would be cool if you could setup a list of subtitle "ad" regexes in the advancedsettings, and any sentence matching would be skipped instead of shown.

Because "Advertise your product or brand here contact http://www.OpenSubtitles.org today" is annoying as hell and pulls you out of the movie..

~~Ned Scott~~ · (This post was last modified: 2015-09-08, 03:32 by Ned Scott.)

It would be awesome to strip them out automatically. This seems like a really shitty and sketchy thing for OpenSubtitles to do. We've been talking internally about if we should do anything about it, and nothing has been decided yet, but the response so far has been.. not great.

It's okay for sites to support themselves with ads, and they have to pay the bills somehow, but in my personal opinion, this crosses a line. An online user submitted database of subtitle files is already in a somewhat legally gray area. However, there is often a fair use argument that could be made. For one, subs by themselves have no value, and it allows people who legally own a movie to have improved subtitles (older anime sometimes has horrible official subs, for example).

But selling ads in sub files they don't own, that is basically a community resource, powered by the Internet community? That seems shitty.

</rant>

**jjd-uk** · 2015-09-08, 10:08

I've been to their website to read what's going on.

First from what I gather only subs obtained via the free api will have these ad's, subtitles downloaded direct from the website won't.

Secondly they say they've see an explosion of usage for the free api by all the various media streaming apps and they need to pay for the server costs somehow. If you visit the website you'll see all sorts of ads that have been used to pay for the service, now that api usage is 5x website usage this is apparently not sustainable for them, as ad revenue from the website can no longer support api usage.

un1versal · (This post was last modified: 2015-09-08, 17:08 by un1versal.)

A nice text editor takes care of this., usually its only at beginning or end of files, removing them entries including the timestamps is what whoever gets them in them does before storing.
But mostly we dont get subs from external sites, they are ripped from disk. But if we must download something it usually isn't Opensubtitles we use.

~~Ned Scott~~ · (This post was last modified: 2015-09-08, 19:10 by Ned Scott.)

I don't doubt that they have good intentions with this, and are just trying to pay costs, but this will kill OpenSubtitles for Kodi usage. It would be the same as putting watermark ads on posters and fanart, which have the same issue that OpenSubtitles describes about no ads in the API. Even if that's what they have to do, it will mean people will avoid them from now on out.

**jjd-uk** · 2015-09-08, 19:16

I fear this problem is only going to become worse as media centers and streaming becomes more and more popular and that provision of free metadata will eventually disappear.

un1versal · (This post was last modified: 2015-09-08, 19:26 by un1versal.)

Well, on that note, I remember reading that some copyright holders taken action to shutdown some user provided subtitles website in some EU country not long ago. Im surprised this hasnt caught on everywhere.

And before FUD is cited here is one of the few sources for those news http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/10/swedish...ht-police/

So yea, like napster before type thing wouldnt surprise me at all either way.

JustinAiken · 2015-09-09, 00:00

> A nice text editor takes care of this., usually its only at beginning or end of files

Checking in a few, they're intermixed throughout:

Code:
78

00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:07,074

Advertise your product or brand here

contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today

Or there's also these, that aren't as annoying as ads, but are still a bit annoying:

Code:
00:00:00,555 --> 00:00:06,133

<font color="#ec14bd">Sync & corrections by honeybunny</font>

<font color="#ec14bd">www.addic7ed.com</font>

If there was just a regex filter that blanked out anything w/

Code:
OpenSubtitles|honeybunny|addic7ed.com|

type thing..

**Memphiz** · 2015-09-09, 11:17

(2015-09-09, 00:00)JustinAiken Wrote: Or there's also these, that aren't as annoying as ads, but are still a bit annoying:

Code:
00:00:00,555 --> 00:00:06,133 <font color="#ec14bd">Sync & corrections by honeybunny</font> <font color="#ec14bd">www.addic7ed.com</font>

Thoe are the credits for the people who wrote the subtitles for you in their freetime. No they can't be annoying - you read them as a thank you and for respect man...

Woerd88 · 2015-09-09, 12:39

I don't mind the advertisement at all.
I'm glad these sites existst, and i think it would be insulting to block their ads.

We don't mind the adds ppl put on their android apps when they are free to download right?
Thats what made the play store such a hit.

un1versal · 2015-09-09, 13:48

Has anyone at all, actually ever seen a real advert in there, except for their notices

Code:
Advertise your product or brand here

contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today

And for the discussion sake, who in their right mind would actually spend cash on advertising in there? it isnt a very good platform for any manner of effective advert.

If OpenSubtitles is in this bad a shape then I think this wont help them either.

I think half the problem they have with traffic is due to the never-in-sync-no-matter-what-you-do subtitles which are in my experience 70% of their subs.

Woerd88 · 2015-09-09, 14:11

Yep, i have seen 2. Both url's for the country i live in.

un1versal · 2015-09-09, 14:23

This issue is easily solved https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=re...8&oe=utf-8

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2015-09-09, 19:55

(2015-09-09, 12:39)Woerd88 Wrote: I don't mind the advertisement at all.
I'm glad these sites existst, and i think it would be insulting to block their ads.

We don't mind the adds ppl put on their android apps when they are free to download right?
Thats what made the play store such a hit.

They don't have the legal footing to do this, even if it is to support themselves. It's already a gray area to have the subtitle sites in the first place (subs are copyrighted content), but ads in the subtitles crosses the line/area.

It would be like taking someone else's android app, uploading it yourself, and putting ads in it, all without the original author's permissions. Vs just hosting a free app's APK file on another site.

realityengine · 2016-09-19, 23:07

They have lost their collective tiny minds and I won't be using their service anymore.