Another Sky take down notice

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Another Sky take down notice

1 | 2 | 3

392 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#325181 30-Apr-2010 11:09

It will be interesting to see the eventual court case on whether the listings (date/time/programname) are actually copyrightable material.

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

walt12

324 posts

Ultimate Geek

#325189 30-Apr-2010 11:19

hads: It will be interesting to see the eventual court case on whether the listings (date/time/programname) are actually copyrightable material.

Someone is going to call their bluff for that to happen. At the moment Sky are trading on the unwritten axiom that access to the law is not free. If someone with a legal intellectual property background donates their time to defending the action then this may be tested because the targets are normally individual developers of limited means without the resources to wage a long and protracted legal battle.

Can a moderator delete my previous posts ...

hads

392 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#325190 30-Apr-2010 11:23

walt12: Someone is going to call their bluff for that to happen. At the moment Sky are trading on the unwritten axiom that access to the law is not free. If someone with a legal intellectual property background donates their time to defending the action then this may be tested because the targets are normally individual developers of limited means without the resources to wage a long and protracted legal battle.

Yes, that's what I was getting at. I have first hand experience :)

nicegear.co.nz - VoIP, DVB and other Linux compatible hardware

StarBlazer

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#325194 30-Apr-2010 11:30

Isn't this similar to the AU case over the phone books? The decision was that there is no IP on a phone book as it takes no real skill or artistic ability to produce. I would like to see that test case in NZ. It's not like anyone is making huge amounts of money from this - if any!

I suspect that sky are more worried about people using their own equipment to watch satellite on and not paying $000's for their box. By removing the EPG I guess it makes it very difficult to plan and record which will put some people off but not many.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

Asmodeus

1015 posts

Uber Geek

#325207 30-Apr-2010 11:55

StarBlazer: Isn't this similar to the AU case over the phone books? The decision was that there is no IP on a phone book as it takes no real skill or artistic ability to produce. I would like to see that test case in NZ. It's not like anyone is making huge amounts of money from this - if any!

I suspect that sky are more worried about people using their own equipment to watch satellite on and not paying $000's for their box. By removing the EPG I guess it makes it very difficult to plan and record which will put some people off but not many.

BUt you can't escape paying for their box as part of the installtion fee can you?

StarBlazer

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#325220 30-Apr-2010 12:06

Asmodeus:
StarBlazer: Isn't this similar to the AU case over the phone books? The decision was that there is no IP on a phone book as it takes no real skill or artistic ability to produce. I would like to see that test case in NZ. It's not like anyone is making huge amounts of money from this - if any!

I suspect that sky are more worried about people using their own equipment to watch satellite on and not paying $000's for their box. By removing the EPG I guess it makes it very difficult to plan and record which will put some people off but not many.

BUt you can't escape paying for their box as part of the installtion fee can you?

True, but you don't have to have the HDi box ($15/m) and don't need multiroom ($25/m/box) when you can share the recordings to other TVs and PCs in the home.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#325224 30-Apr-2010 12:17

StarBlazer: Isn't this similar to the AU case over the phone books? The decision was that there is no IP on a phone book as it takes no real skill or artistic ability to produce. I would like to see that test case in NZ. It's not like anyone is making huge amounts of money from this - if any!

I suspect that sky are more worried about people using their own equipment to watch satellite on and not paying $000's for their box. By removing the EPG I guess it makes it very difficult to plan and record which will put some people off but not many.

The irony of this is that they're not stopping it at all.

If you're somebody who goes down the path of installing a DVB-S card(s) in a HTPC to use Sky you still have to pay for the service. You can also very simply use the EIT EPG and have no requirement to run any other applications.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#325230 30-Apr-2010 12:39

So...if I was taking a photo of someone in my living room, and I just happened to have my Sky STB showing the EPG at the time, and the television was in the photo in the background, and I posted said photo on Facebook, could Sky issue me with a takedown notice?

I know this is ridiculous, but so is what Sky is doing.

Making money from their EPG is a totally different story though...

StarBlazer

961 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#325238 30-Apr-2010 12:58

Satch:
Making money from their EPG is a totally different story though...

The thing is there will always be people who buy TV guides and therefore have to buy that information from Sky - my wife is one of them. I could live without it, my wife uses it daily.

This course of action would only make sense if Sky were actually losing money from this program being there! Sounds more like bullying tactics.

Procrastination eventually pays off.

reven

3743 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#325291 30-Apr-2010 15:01

i really dont see why sky is doing this.

the small number of people using HTPCs, wont be effecting their bottom line. most people using HTPCs do have sky. theyre making money of of them. all they are doing is pissing them off.

you'd think they'd get that. you piss people off enough, people will stop using their service. they pissed me off enough to never get sky ever. and i wont. sure not everyone will cancel their subscriptions, but thats just because they have a monopoly, they need to think about the future, with apple tv etc, there are competing products, and people will switch.

sorry for the rant.

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#325301 30-Apr-2010 15:10

reven: sorry for the rant.

I think you have reason to rant so no worries.

And do you really expect Sky to be forward thinking???

dan

1134 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#325303 30-Apr-2010 15:14

i agree with raven, infact i have cancelled my sky service now so this will no longer be a problem for me :)

I used it on my iphone and htpc and neither currently work right now for sky channels, even prime, so screw em. :) will put the 65$ odd a month towards more data cap on my internet connection instead.

SepticSceptic

2190 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#325315 30-Apr-2010 15:33

dan: i agree with raven, infact i have cancelled my sky service now so this will no longer be a problem for me :)

I used it on my iphone and htpc and neither currently work right now for sky channels, even prime, so screw em. :) will put the 65$ odd a month towards more data cap on my internet connection instead.

Did you write a nice letter to Sky's CEO and explain why you, and others, are now canceling your sky subs ?

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#325316 30-Apr-2010 15:36

dan: i agree with raven, infact i have cancelled my sky service now so this will no longer be a problem for me :)

I used it on my iphone and htpc and neither currently work right now for sky channels, even prime, so screw em. :) will put the 65$ odd a month towards more data cap on my internet connection instead.

Well done. If you can live without it: up them!

My only attempt at logic thinking at what they are doing is there are people from the law firm on the Sky Executive board. And it is they who are pushing their own barrow. If this is the case, they don't seem to realise the barrow is full of a brown, smelly slush substance.

I was playing golf with someone in the higher levels of Telecom's internet sector. They were telling me the reason they went with Alcatel's hardware for the XG network is for exactly that reason ie. Alcatel has a person on the Telecom executive board.

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek

#325331 30-Apr-2010 15:54

dan: i agree with raven, infact i have cancelled my sky service now so this will no longer be a problem for me :)

I used it on my iphone and htpc and neither currently work right now for sky channels, even prime, so screw em. :) will put the 65$ odd a month towards more data cap on my internet connection instead.

I too wish to cancel my Sky subscription but there is no alternative.

1 | 2 | 3