Clampdown on TV 'Dodgy Boxes'

Absolutely farcical and blatantly obvious what they're doing, they're like a PR company for Sky at this stage. Little glimpse of the power some hold over our "independent" news media.

Sounds very makey uppy olrite:

- scammers will steal your passwords and cash

- you're going to jail

- wont someone think of the children

- dodgy Steo will give you terrible service, tell you your wifi is bad and keep asking for more money.

is this just more bullsh1t! id imagine some are getting stung as such, but!

Conor Pope is in on the act now. Things are getting serious.

wreckler was on the indo sport podcast a while back saying the stories on dodgy boxes are by far the most popular he writes about.

400,000 dodgyboxes? 400,000 people? That 400K figure looks a bit iffy. It is, of course, in Sky's interests to talk up the numbers and the media always likes free content and press releases. As long as Sky gets a few more subscriptions from people who are scared by all the stuff from the technology journalists, it is a win for Sky. The aim is not to really convince dodgybox users to give up their dodgyboxes but rather to convince people who might be considering using a dodgybox to subscribe to Sky.

Regards…jmcc

Sky and FACT have been at this for a very long time. They use this kind of propaganda complete with technology journalists to give it some credibility because it works. Pay-TV is a very cynical business and this is really just another form of marketing.

Regards…jmcc

Here's the thing. I have a dodgy box, I have sorted my dad with one. I have pointed siblings and friends towards services in the past. I would have no problem whatsoever if the Gardaí go after the suppliers of the service here. And I don't think there would be any sort of negative publicity towards them if that happens (it already has to a small degree I believe).

If they try to go after end users though, they will have no support whatsoever from the wider public and it would be a bad move to make.

Try to shut down the services, try to stop the suppliers - cool. But don't target the public end users. That seems to be their policy and I suspect it'll stay that way, no matter how much complaining sky do.

It's pointless going after end users, they just consume, there's too many to go after.

If someone is serious about this they'll tackle the root cause, main suppliers. Far easier go after them and find €400k in a person's bank account with no way to justify it than tackle Ronan for watching the latest boxing paper per view event who's barely got a pot to piss in.

The cause of piracy is simple - lack of convience and price.

If there was one legitimate service which provided the same level of convience that the dodgy box provides at a affordable price then very few would lean towards the dodgy box.

Sky, netflix etc all complain about piracy when they caused it. Movies/shows split across how many streaming platforms now? Sky charge through the roof simply because of the premier league costs.

As its been pointed out also, the devices used to stream illegally are not illegal themselves so you cannot prohibit the sale of them.

Even if Sky did charge reasonable prices, then that doesn't solve the problem of not having a million other programs/shows/movies that people will want.

A post above gave one reason for not having a dodgy box is being too rich to need one. Your group sounds like they are not short of money.

I think Sky could use this information to place stories in the papers about Gardai breaking the law. You are not the first to reveal that their social circle includes Gardai who openly admit having dodgy boxes. This has the potential to be another Penalty Points type scandal.

It would be counter-productive for Sky and FACT. Try thinking it through.

Dodgyboxe use is, in some senses, a faceless crime. The Penalty Points issue affected people who were known. With dodgyboxes, people may not be too upset if Sky is suffering as it is a kind of large, faceless corporation.

Regards…jmcc

One of their friends in the papers could do an article headlined "Garda Chiefs ignoring widespread lawbreaking in the Force". And use a generalised reference to Boards users who are aware of this activity, including those who go on golf weekends. They are using these sorts of underhand tactics in the press already (the bounders), with stuff about dodgy boxes being malware carriers. They are chipping away at the issue, and all is fair in war.

A friend of mine was saying Vodafone in the UK thought they had done something to lock down their service to dodgy box traffic.

Apparently, within about 5 minutes the dodgy box providers had bypassed it and all was back to normal.

Now, where is that mole to whack…

I don't know why you would think I'm made of money. My round of golf and night away (shared room) costs me a total of €100. If that's the sign of lads rolling in cash these days then I'll hold my hands up...