Quote:
Originally Posted by pabloo
...snip  joe blogs setting up private cardshares up and down the country all over the place  |
Personally I'd be astonished if there already aren't a handful of private cardshare rings already about. The principals, methods and requirements involved are not exactly state secrets.
In reality though the overwhelming majority of people would either find it too much trouble to learn or lack the technical skill to either setup a server or configure a client. You only have to browse certain 'other forums' to see that the majority simply need a plug and play solution.
When the N3-as it's generally known by-encryption method was rolled out from late 2009, I'd be interested to know what percentage of people using a pirate box then, (and lets face it, they were virtually just plug it into the cable and away you go) moved over to a card-sharing solution? 'What-I have to connect it to a router? 'I have to flash new firmware', What's a null-modem cable?'
I'm going to bet quite a small proportion.
The weak-point of cable card-sharing is that unlike satellite, you need to have something physically attached to the VM cable network, which potentialy makes it vulnerable to detection. Find it and remove it and the whole lot comes crashing down, as a number of Starview owners have recently discovered. Admittedly being detected is unlikely but is it really worth the risk, just to share with a couple of mates?
It may only be a short-term thing anyway, switched digital video (whenever VM start to roll it out) would probably render all of these card-sharing schemes useless or at least very hit-and-miss.