Clampdown on TV 'Dodgy Boxes'

batistuta9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562741#Comment_123562741

you're too long out of pirating stuff if you think that. be worth your while looking into it again, a lot quality on the streamers is crap compared to it, especially movies or anything released on Blu-ray.

JDxtra

They need to stop rolling out Adrian Weckler in these discussions. Even the host was confused by what he was saying.

BusGuy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562808#Comment_123562808

Fair — if you’re plugged into the right private trackers or Plex setups, the quality can absolutely blow the official streamers out of the water, especially when it comes to full Blu-ray rips with lossless audio and proper bitrates. No compression artifacts, no buffering, no region locks — just pure content.

That said, most people aren’t running their own NAS or curating a local media library with 80TB of storage. For the average user, clicking “play” on Netflix is still easier than managing a scene release collection — even if the quality is miles apart.

So yeah, for the enthusiasts who know what they’re doing? Piracy still offers top-tier A/V. But for everyone else? Convenience usually wins.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562664#Comment_123562664

They could try running this ad again…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TbqBPmInjQ

harryharry25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562800#Comment_123562800

For myself and most of my friends, we have one for the football and that's it

It has every game of football you can possibly watch live in most countries around the world

Having every subscription sky, tnt, premier, dazn etc, wouldn't get you half the games available on IPTV

I support a club in the English Championships and the only way to watch a Sat game at 3pm when they play is illegally

jj880

Must be some shyite IPTV subs / apps about. There was a recent comparison on thread between UHD IPTV and Now TV streams. Not much in it. HDR and Dolby audio on IPTV available also. Movies / box sets from all streaming subs together in 1 app. Favourites, continue watching, new releases, genres etc.

Stephen_Maturin

I see IT currently have 2 articles up on this topic

They’re honestly the biggest bunch of pro establishment Melvins in that place

jj880

Just watched watched Primetime. Pretty weak stuff.

Id say there were street interviews with people stating the vast majority using "dodgy boxes" wouldn't be paying for Sky/clubber etc. anyway. Not included of course.

dxhound2005

The lad from Wexford is in a bit of trouble. Did anyone here ever recommend his services?

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/alleged-dodgy-box-operator-may-have-earned-e450000-per-year-court-told-1775130.html

Reserved for Future

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562887#Comment_123562887

The guy mentioned whatsapp a few times as a way for them to find out who's posting about dodgyboxes, but I thought that's end to end encrypted!

monkeyblues

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562820#Comment_123562820

It takes me roughly less than 5 mins to download a blue ray movie and generally delete it afterwards. Same with box sets and series. No one needs to keep 100TB of stuff.

jj880

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562919#Comment_123562919

Yes they are encrypted. Throwing it in there to scare people. "Possibly WhatsApp" I think he said. Complete chancer.

lee_baby_simms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562887#Comment_123562887

The lack of substance across all the media items about dodgy boxes today tells its own story. Sky simply have no clue how many people are using them let alone what they’re watching on them. No one does.

Meta have never complied with a government request for WhatsApp data so I don’t see that changing.

I assume most of these IPTV streams are hosted behind VPNs that reside in foreign jurisdictions. Sky would need to request the IPs of users they’ve identified through the company running the VPN?

Would they then need to prove that the user has actually watched Sky content through the FireStick? How do they do that?

It’s a technical and legal minefield. Sky are simply trying to frighten people into ditching them. That’s their entire strategy. If they had a feasible way of shutting down the services and identifying those involved they would be doing it and have no need to do a media blitz full of empty threats.

jmcc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562870#Comment_123562870

Conor Pope's article was quite balanced The problem with media coverage of this kind of thing (Technology) is that most technology journalists are not technologists. Their coverage is often superficial and aimed at a non-technical audience. Pope is a consumer rights journalist and a very good one. His article in the IT was one of the better ones that I've seen.

What Sky and FACT are doing is the well known tactic of fighting piracy with press releases. This is intended to deter people from using dodgyboxes. It actually works to some extent. However, the big problem is the price difference between a full Sky subscription and a dodgybox subscription. That's the economic argument that Sky cannot win.

Sky's subscription model dates from the 1980s. That's when Video Cassette Recorders were beginning to become big business. VCRs allowed people to tape programmes and watch them later (asyncrhronous viewing). Previously, people had to watch programmes as they were broadcast (synchronous viewing).

Sky's subscription model was adequate for a viewing public that largely watched live and perhaps recorded a few programmes. Things changed since then. The public has become used to asynchronous viewing of what they want, when they want to watch it. The broadcasters like Sky added their own streaming services in a bid to adapt. Sky's biggest problem is the economic argument and that, and few other things, creates a market for dodgyboxes.

I think that few technology journalists really understand Conditional Access and the Pay TV business. The piracy aspect of the business has been going on for a very long time. Dodgyboxes are just the latest iteration.

Regards…jmcc

NIMAN

Its still headline news today on the Indo website. You wouldn't think there was 2 wars going on, a cost of living crisis, a housing crisis, a hospital crisis........

Akrasia

I resisted the 'dodgy' box path for years thinking that it was more ethical to support the producers of the content and pay a reasonable fee

I subscribed to netflix, and then i had to also subscribe to Prime cause Netflix was missing so many films, then i had to subscribe to Shudder, and a few month passes to Now TV, and i still found myself paying 4.99 to watch the films i actually wanted to see several times a week

And a few weeks ago I wanted to watch 28 days later but it wasn't available anywhere so i said

Feck that

and now i have easy instant access to every film and tv series i ever want for 5 euros a month

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562887#Comment_123562887

Yes, this is why it's too hard to go after dodgy box users, no way to prove that they'd pay for it if the dodgy service wasn't there

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123560924#Comment_123560924

Not sure if GDPR protects the user who is illegally streaming something but I suspect you are correct

Same Adrian Weckler bought a car and then consistently moaned that it wasn't getting the advertised range so he's probably not the most clued-in person in the world

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123563272#Comment_123563272

You can find all that plenty of other places if you want it. Indo front page 20 June.

NIMAN

What WhatsApp chats are they going to trawl?

A sky agent has no access to my chats, or your chats. They only have access to their own chats, so not really sure what this headline even means?

I think it's just another scare tactic to try to convince those less savvy about tech that they will have their WhatsApp chats investigated. No surprise that it's WhatsApp that is mentioned, since it is so popular and nearly everyone uses it now. I'd expect them to say also that their FB, Instagram and X accounts are being monitored.

CR 7

The only thing I can think of is that they're planning on getting their agents to pose as sellers of the boxes and message people through WhatsApp.

Then step 2: ???

Step 3: 20 years in Prison

con747

I think it means Sky are going to message providers who provide a WhatsApp number to entrap them. Wow, great thinking Sky…

ArrBee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562653#Comment_123562653

In trouble with who?
The law, or the accommodation provider?

If the hotel "bans IPTV", then what sort of trouble are you talking about? extra charges I guess….

ArrBee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562728#Comment_123562728

I read that the courts granted the PL and UEFA an injunction to compel a few ISPs to target known streaming servers during matches.

ISPs were the "big ones" Eir, VM, Vodafone, someone else.

That might explain why

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123563382#Comment_123563382

The wording of the headline doesnt make it sound like that.

It makes it sound like they are just going to search random WhatsApp chats to look for talk of "dodgy boxes", which is impossible for them to do.

Again, just a scare tactic.

ArrBee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123562741#Comment_123562741

There are other ways to "consume" torrents these days without the need to go through all the hoops you describe.
It can be on a par with using Netflix if set up right….

Montage of Feck

My mother is on to me to get her a dodgy box now after watching prime time!

lee_baby_simms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123563425#Comment_123563425

😆 Sky falling foul of the Streisand effect.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123563419#Comment_123563419

Ways with words sell newspapers. No way they can search private chats without court orders which leaves them one option.

seanin4711

i would be more concerned with a private company getting access to personal data- and only using it to catch dodgy geezers- yeah right, heard that one before!