I have no skin in this game but I think it sounds like they need to change their name from "open subtitles" to "closed captioning"

Edit: stupid STT

Gather all the worlds subtitles under the guise of being “open” and then bait and switch when you’re the largest subtitles database out there.

The free API had a limit of 20 subs/day, you’re not going to tell me those server costs were significant.

Why is it called "OpenSubtitles" if you have to pay for it to use it in any capacity?

REST API docs

Your consumer can query the API on its own, and download 5 subtitles per IP's per 24 hours, but a user must be authenticated to download more. Users will then be able to download as many subtitles as their ranks allows, from 10 as simple signed up user, to 1000 for VIP user.

I think it's reasonable move. They have Legacy API that cost them a lot of manhours to maitain and they decided to cut on costs and replace it with a new thing. Sadly they decresed amount of api calls from 20 to 5 [needs citation]

I think they don't have good PR guy to better communicate the change

well it has been deprecated for a few years, and they're basically asking you to play for continued support.
they have a new REST api, but you still need the old one, pay up because otherwise there's no motivation to keep it around.

So what pisses me off in these cases is this: they didn't contribute with the data. They're a convenient aggregator, I give them that, but the data came from third parties. If you want to start charging for convenient access to the data you should at least make all data before you started charging available in a bulk download for free.

Oh, are chocolate rations up to 60 grams now?

contribute to a greater cause

For the greater good, that is their pockets.

HOLY SHIT! 12 whole dollars a YEAR to keep using the deprecated API they don't want to support anymore. What monsters.

Lol gotta pay for "adfree subtitles"

lol I got that emaik and read that exactly the same.

Someone should hire that author for a large corporation's pr department

What really caught my attention was OpenSubtitles going from a .org to a .com domain.

You should tip them too!

I had issues in the past with opensubtitles serving malware through fake download buttons on the site.

You had like 6 different buttons to download with only one legit.

Sent them an email and they removed them...

I hardly trust this site and really don't appreciate they use open in their name and pull up shit like this.

I wish we had some sort of P2P sub hosting... So we don't have to deal with sites like opensubtitles.

Image Transcription: Email

OpenSubtitles

Dear Redacted,

Exciting news! OpenSubtitles.org is undergoing a transformation, retiring the original API by the end of 2023. Fear not, as this paves the way for the advanced OpenSubtitles.com REST API. We also understand, in some scenarios there is no way to use new API yet, so original API will be avaliable from New Year only for VIP Users.

Change is Good: Introducing the 20% Black Friday Treat!

Celebrate with us! Enjoy a 20% discount on a one-year VIP subscription until November 24th, 2023, so you can use original API. Elevate your VIP experience on both www.opensubtitles.org and www.opensubtitles.com. Instead of 15 USD per year you can get this deal for 12 USD.

VIP Advantage: Unlock Exclusive Benefits

• Usage opensubtitles.org API
• Ad-Free Web Experience
• Direct Download Links
• Higher Download Limits
• Ad-Free Subtitles
• User Profile Visibility
• Contribute to a Greater Cause

Seize this limited-time offer and become a VIP member today. Enhance your subtitle experience - ad-free, seamless, and with higher download limit access.

Site owner and whomever in marketing wrote that. Pure psychopathy, IMO.

Exciting News For People Who Hate You

They should rename the site to PaywalledSubtitles.

A proper REST API sounds like exciting news to me, and I’m sure anyone who needs to interact with their APIs..

Will the new API be free?

Anger is a form of excitement.