General : Is piracy on the way out and will VM and Sky benefit?

[OLD BOY]

There have been many warnings lately about the use of Kodi, torrenting and illegal streaming generally, but is this the beginning of the end of piracy? Is the threat of criminal intrusion also putting people off?

Clearly, VM and Sky would benefit considerably if this was stopped, and it would certainly pay them to provide whatever assistance they could to deter piracy in the future.

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style...t-tv-block-ban

[Khenryashley]

I doubt they will ever wipe these IPTV sellers out. It’s a bit like a game of wackamole.
There has been a concerted effort in the last couple of years and they have had the odd success. This has been due to the idiocy of the sellers by advertising on Facebook and the likes. A couple off well known long time Iptv suppliers have also been shut down.
I’m sure these film/tv companies will do all they can to shut down these sellers but I doubt they will get to all of them. These IPTV suppliers are worldwide businesses with servers all over the world.
Will The film and tv companies benefit? I suppose people who use these IPTV suppliers use them because they don’t what to pay (or can’t afford) full price to the corporates.
So would they pay if they had to. That’s a different question.

[peanut]

If they did wipe out all piracy then there won't be much need for super fast broadband. So the ISPs would lose out. I'm sure we can now all cite legal reasons for having speeds of up to 350mb which does help matters.

[heero_yuy]

No, no and no. All the time content providers make their content too expensive/restrictive/time limited etc the pirates will thrive. First we had cassettes of albums traded in the play ground. Then rips of CD's on line, then DVD's and bluerays on torrents. Piracy evolves faster than the content providers can counter.

Now if they lowered their sights...

[ozsat]

I'm sure there are quite a few people using piracy to get access to Premier League football matches which are just not available using any other route.

[OLD BOY]

It feels to me as though they are closing in on the pirates, and digital fingerprinting will help with that.

However, what if they start going after the punters? A VPN isn't going to protect you if the authorities raid the offices of IPTV providers of pirated programmes and seize the records of their customers. When that happens and ordinary people start getting landed with huge fines, this will put most people off, I would have thought.

People only do stuff like this en masse when they believe they can save a lot of money and get away with it. If it becomes apparent that they will catch up with you sooner or later, many would be put off doing it.

[pip08456]

I'm sorry OB but you appear to be living in the same cloud cuckoo land as the authorities.

You cited Kodi in your OP. With Kodi you don't need to sign up with anyone so they'll have a lot of luck raiding offices.

Even torrenting is still alive and kicking.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by pip08456

I'm sorry OB but you appear to be living in the same cloud cuckoo land as the authorities.

You cited Kodi in your OP. With Kodi you don't need to sign up with anyone so they'll have a lot of luck raiding offices.

Even torrenting is still alive and kicking.

I did mention Kodi because I was referring to that as a general introduction to the subject, but my focus here was on IPTV providers.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by peanut

If they did wipe out all piracy then there won't be much need for super fast broadband. So the ISPs would lose out. I'm sure we can now all cite legal reasons for having speeds of up to 350mb which does help matters.

Not necessarily.. I'm a PC gamer, and it's actually quite hard to get new games without using a download service such as Steam, or GOG. Even where a game does come on disk, what is released on the disk is often effectively a stub that downloads the rest of the game from Steam (or some other service).

Companies are increasingly doing this on console as well. I've had xbox one games that have to download >20 gig of data even though they come on a disc.

Then there are the video/audio streaming services (Netflix/Prime Video/Spotify etc), and the fact that even re-installing your existing devices (computers, tablets, phones etc) can involve downloading gigs of updates now. There are also services such as iCloud that encourage us to put all of our photos and home videos online.

I would argue Piracy is a major contributor to broadband use, but it's far from the only one.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

No, no and no. All the time content providers make their content too expensive/restrictive/time limited etc the pirates will thrive. First we had cassettes of albums traded in the play ground. Then rips of CD's on line, then DVD's and bluerays on torrents. Piracy evolves faster than the content providers can counter.

Now if they lowered their sights...

I don't entirely agree. There will always be people who don't want to pay for stuff. Hell, when I worked for Blockbuster, we gave away some old films for free. We had to ask people to bring them to the counter, as the easiest way to ensure the inventory was up to date was for the manager to reduce the price on the computer to 0, then "sell" the film to the customer for nothing. People still nicked the films. I have a friend who watches a lot of films, but considers Netflix a rip off, so watches at least one film a day on dodgy streaming sites, despite the fact that most of the films he watches are probably on Netflix or Prime Video (he rarely watches anything newer than about 5 years old)

Services such as Netflix that offer a good selection of media for a monthly subscription have undoubtedly had a massive impact on piracy, but there are those who object to paying anything as they see the media as some evil thing that just exploits it's audience.

There are also those that see Piracy as a victimless crime as the big media companies can afford to lose their couple of quid. They can. But it's not them that loses out. It's the people on the projects they cancel or don't start in the first place, to make up the loss that lose out. They lose on on work that they may need to feed their families, and even on a small production, that can mean dozens of people are affected. That's bad enough, but on a large production, the number of people can run into the thousands, and add in the third party companies that supply services and goods to the production, and that can be tens of thousands..

Don't get me wrong. You or Me not paying £10 or £20 to see or buy a film and pirating it instead isn't going to make a difference. If we pirate it, then release a torrent and it ends up being downloaded thousands or millions of times, that *will* make a difference.

[techguyone]

Originally Posted by pip08456

I'm sorry OB but you appear to be living in the same cloud cuckoo land as the authorities.

You cited Kodi in your OP. With Kodi you don't need to sign up with anyone so they'll have a lot of luck raiding offices.

Even torrenting is still alive and kicking.

Indeed.

In response to the OP

No & No

Let's take an example.

The Expanse.

Here in the UK I can either... Pirate
Or

Wait 9 months and see if they put it on Amazon Prime or similar (no guarantee there either)

If/When the respective distributors get their head out of their arse and stop region locking/subscription locking their content and/or making the prices something sensible, then Pirates will continue to flourish Arrrrrr

(btw S3 of the Expanse is awesome)

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by pip08456

I'm sorry OB but you appear to be living in the same cloud cuckoo land as the authorities.

You cited Kodi in your OP. With Kodi you don't need to sign up with anyone so they'll have a lot of luck raiding offices.

Even torrenting is still alive and kicking.

You may be interested in this link, which appears to indicate that the net is slowly closing in on those who view pirated material. I think this is the start of a long campaign.

Showbox users take notice now!

https://torrentfreak.com/showbox-sit...wsuits-181124/

Extract:

“Show Box is NOT a legitimate software platform for viewing Copyright protected movies. If you use ShowBoxApp to view copyrighted movies, the movie studios may be able to see your IP address and your viewing history,” it begins.

While it’s hard for copyright holders to track pirating users who use Showbox to stream from central servers, those who use torrents can indeed get in trouble. The warning makes that pretty clear as well.

“Movie studios are cracking down on illegal downloading and are filing lawsuits against users of ShowBox app. Websites that promote and/or distribute ShowBox are also being pursued by the movie studios for promoting illegal activity,” it adds.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

You may be interested in this link, which appears to indicate that the net is slowly closing in on those who view pirated material. I think this is the start of a long campaign.

Showbox users take notice now!

https://torrentfreak.com/showbox-sit...wsuits-181124/

Extract:

“Show Box is NOT a legitimate software platform for viewing Copyright protected movies. If you use ShowBoxApp to view copyrighted movies, the movie studios may be able to see your IP address and your viewing history,” it begins.

While it’s hard for copyright holders to track pirating users who use Showbox to stream from central servers, those who use torrents can indeed get in trouble. The warning makes that pretty clear as well.

“Movie studios are cracking down on illegal downloading and are filing lawsuits against users of ShowBox app. Websites that promote and/or distribute ShowBox are also being pursued by the movie studios for promoting illegal activity,” it adds.

They would have a problem trying to find my IP address as I use a VPN which does not keep records not just on my PC and Laptop but also my phone no matter if I am just browsing the net.

[techguyone]

Authorities are not interested in people who stream, just downloading usually via torrents, the people they're REALLY after are the owners of such services, they kill that, they don't need to worry about the people using the service as the service will no longer exist, this was why and how Terranium TV shut down recently.

VPN's do come in handy too

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by techguyone

Authorities are not interested in people who stream, just downloading usually via torrents, the people they're REALLY after are the owners of such services, they kill that, they don't need to worry about the people using the service as the service will no longer exist, this was why and how Terranium TV shut down recently.

VPN's do come in handy too

You may be right, but my instincts are to avoid illegal viewing. So many people make the mistake of believing that how things are now is how things will be in the future.

Clearly, the target currently is the big players who make this stuff available. But, step by step, these operations will be closing down.

What concerns me is that when those operators close down, they will be after the punters. Businesses are businesses, and content owners will be looking to all that lost income and they will want to turn that to their advantage.

People may think they are safe with VPNs. Maybe so. But what if the companies providing VPN services get their offices taken over by the police, who then get access to their subscriber details?

I am not going to preach to anyone about this, but I do want people to think about the risks they are taking. You may get a period of time where you get free (or reduced cost) viewing, but what will be the potential cost of obtaining legal content for free?

Answers on a postcard....(to use a pre-email phrase).

[nomadking]

Being a subscriber to a VPN service is not proof of anything. If the VPN service keeps detailed logs(which they tend not to do) then maybe you might be found out.