Originally Posted by supremus
In the case of people who pay the minimum subscription, and particularly if they take phone and broadband as well, Virgin are actually making more money than they're losing, which is negligible. Some people will claim Virgin are losing money whenever a pirate watches, say a premium movie channel, but this simply isn't true, as this is not something the person in question would have paid for in the first place anyway, and there is no significant drain on network bandwidth. They're just watching it for free, because they can.
In the case of complete free-loaders, people who take no services, but just leech of a previously installed line, there is a small incentive for Virgin to disconnect those in oversubscribed areas, but only in very rare cases will they bother prosecuting someone like that. Partly because it isn't likely to be a winning outcome for them, but also because it just costs too much to investigate the claim and take the appropriate legal action.
The main reason cable companies take any kind of action, like we have seen them do recently through the encryption system, is that they are contractually obligated to provide a reasonable level of protection for their content, as demanded by their content providers. Also, if piracy gets past a certain point, it would most likely cost them, so it's really all about finding the right balance, so the numbers add up. At the end of the day, it's not a morality issue for them, it's a money issue, and if they can get £15-20 pounds a month, or however much their basic package is, that's going to be a lot more profitable for them than getting £0 by disconnecting someone with an illegal box and other services.
Anyway, let us know how you get on.
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