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    First 200 dodgy-box owners targeted by Sky legal letters
    Ireland

    First 200 dodgy-box owners targeted by Sky legal letters

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    38 Comments

    3. garcia1723 on

      I wonder how they can track it? And how are sky allowed to take legal action? If I allegedly watch Netflix only films on a dodgy stick are they going to target me?

    7. rmp266 on

      “I only watch Filipino Fishing Channels 3 and 4, I dont watch any Sky content, thanks”

    9. SeanB2003 on

      Notable that sky got the details for these people following a prosecution of a provider in the same area in which most of those receiving these letters live.

      Being paid for through revolut. In telegram/whatsapp groups with their real phone number and full name.

      Anyone taking even the most basic of measures that you’d expect to take while buying an illegal service will have nothing to fear from this.

    11. Specialist-Flow3015 on

      This is so bought and paid for, the Independent should put #ad on it. The point is to scare people away from firesticks and push them back towards paying €80 a month for Sky.

      If Sky had proof of illegal activity, they’d go to the Gardai, not turn vigilante and send out “settlements”.

    13. HighDeltaVee on

      >Warning states that failure to sign the settlement could mean Sky treat the matter as unresolved, potentially issuing a legal claim for breach of copyright

      That’s the most mealy-mouthed “we would very much like to imply that we have power here” sentence I’ve read in quite some time.

    14. heshtios on

      I will always be on the side of piracy in these cases. Sky already has more money than they know what to do with. Hopefully they can’t find everyone, or there’s a legal loophole against them.

    15. Alarming-Anywhere-14 on

      What if you have sky and a dodgy box?! Does that make it better?!😂😂😂

    16. Zig-Zag47 on

      I call BS. Sky paid Media to run these ads. They can resolve the problem very easily, stop ripping people off.
      Have their own box that’s 20 euro a month all in but they won’t because they’re too greedy.
      Now they are losing thousands of people every month.

      If the providers servers are in China or Russia they can’t do fuck all about it.

    18. irishgorey on

      Id be interested in what the legal letters say. Is it ” stop using them” etc.

    19. Will_Iis on

      Ah yes Sky. Company of the people for the people.

      I cancelled with them a few years ago because the sky box hadn’t been switched on in over a year and in the last week before the account ended they rang 3 times.

      1st call offered 40% off the old bill

      2nd call offered 60% off

      Last call offered 85/90% and that really pissed me off. It was so cheap even if I wasn’t watching it would have been cheap enough to have on standby for just incase.

      If they offered the last price to everyone there wouldn’t be a house in the country without their services but they’re a bunch of greedy Aholes.

    21. PalladianPorches on

      i’m not even going to bother clicking this monthly paid clickbait, but i’ll wager this:

      not one person was charged with owning a dodgy box, using a dodgy box provider or any copyright related infringement.

      instead, sky (or some FACT related entity), have misused PPI information obtained in a money laundering conviction to threaten individuals over using their revolut accounts to send money to a convicted money laundering (who sells subscription services).

      it’s funny how it’s never RTE or VM paying for these adverts, even though these are overwhelmingly the most watched dodgy box streams in ireland.

    22. jumpbutton23 on

      People need to get back into good old fashioned piracy, which is to say; watching the match on your laptop like it’s 10 years ago.

      I’ve never had a dodgy box because to me the idea of paying someone to do my piracy for me is completely insane; and that just gets even more insane when there is now a legal precedent set for dodgy box distributors handing over payment details to IP holders.

      The juice is just not worth the squeeze imo.

      Grab a VPN and a browser with decent adblock capabilities, and watch one of the many many many websites streaming every sport under the sun for free – like we used to do in the olden days.

      It seems to me the appeal of these boxes is watching the match on ‘the big telly’ and without having to faff around looking for new sites but… is it really worth paying money for something you’re legally stealing anyway? And when the person providing the service to you is some lad in Kildare with DIRECT ties to you, personally, rather than some guy in eastern europe who runs a mini data centre out of his gaff lol

    23. FatherFintanFay on

      Fuck protesting about fuel prices, we should be out on the streets for this

    24. J-zus on

      Oh no, a LETTER, consider my timbers thoroughly shivered.

      I also love how this propaganda piece says “first” 200 dodgy-box owners got a letter, implying that there will be more

    25. lazymanschair1701 on

      Presumably these people were cut off from their original box supplier, so if it’s a warning letter from Sky, it only relates to something they are no longer engaged with.

      In reality they’ve likely already moved on to another provider so unless SKY is their broadband I’m not sure how they could track their usage further.

      I notice Now TV bundles HBO MAX and other streaming, so they must be feeling the pinch, at least it’s making them more competitive on price if nothing else

    27. ThoseAreMyFeet on

      Surely they’d have to prove that content was watched illegally, rather than someone had a dodgy box and ‘had access’ to illegal content. 

      By that logic having Internet access means you’d have a heap of potential legal issues.

    28. Livid-Schedule-634 on

      I don’t own a dodgy box, I own a fully functional Amazon fire stick.

    29. FearTeas on

      You’re asking for trouble if you’re paying someone to setup a way of pirating media instead of just doing it yourself.

      You’re just so much more exposed and the media companies are going to be way motivated to go after you than someone who pirates their own media.

      Not to mention, you have no idea what the installer is setting up. It’s not hard to cover your tracks if you’re pirating yourself, but I doubt people you’re paying take equivalent precautions. Not to mention, it’s clear some of these installers weren’t very careful about customer data either.

    30. Henry_Bigbigging on

      I don’t have a dodgy box. I’ve never had one.

      I want one now.

      Fuck Sky.

    32. FriendshipIll1681 on

      Kind of amusing that the image doesn’t have any Sky on it, Premier Sports and Clubber 😃

    33. GasMysterious3386 on

      Madness! The dodgy box service provider must’ve cracked under pressure!

    34. smashedspuds on

      No such thing as a dodgy box. Dodgy apps yes, but last time I checked it’s not illegal to have a usb streaming stick

    35. s2003r on

      I can’t get my head around this… owning the box does not make you “provider” you are a “consumer”, will sky prosecute anyone using Google? Or will they prosecute Google for sharing links that they find illegal…

    36. Bright-Jelly8768 on

      From years of working in IP and copyright, I can confidently say that no one has ever been successfully emailed into Jail.

    37. newclassic1989 on

      Good thing my provider is in the UK and has about 10 different names and PayPal accounts 🫠

    38. Digger2228 on

      I know someone who has one they pay cash every year never did trust revolut it seems it’s not just dodgy boxes revolut is sharing information with the government with I’ve heard other examples and it’s not pretty about your privacy rights with this company