Another Sky take down notice

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

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dan

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#325333 30-Apr-2010 15:55

SepticSceptic:
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 ?

Nope, however they did ask the reason for leaving on the phone when giving the required 28 days notice of cancellation,

Kiwipixter

246 posts

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#325339 30-Apr-2010 16:01

reven: 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.

Small number of HTPC enthusiasts for now, but these enthusiasts will create utilities and how-to guides to make it so easy for potentially many future users. It looks like Sky will go to great lengths to try to eliminate the use of their contents on non-Sky hardware.

reven

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#325342 30-Apr-2010 16:05

Kiwipixter:
reven: 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.

Small number of HTPC enthusiasts for now, but these enthusiasts will create utilities and how-to guides to make it so easy for potentially many future users. It looks like Sky will go to great lengths to try to eliminate the use of their contents on non-Sky hardware.

ive been using a htpc for tv for decade, these numbers havent increased that much. infact a lot of ppl are switching to "simpler" solutions. sure geeks will prefer an htpc, but the average user just wants somethign that works, and doesn't need any maintenance.

every pvr currently needs a little maintenance, rebooting everyonce in a while, which shows the operating system etc. users dont want that. most users will be happy with a hdd freeview device, tivo or mysky.

i dont think sky has anythign to worry about with htpcs. they should concentrate on making a better product, on demand movies/tvs. then you would get peoples attention. cant wait for appletv to bring tv shows to nz.

reven

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#325346 30-Apr-2010 16:10

having said that my ideal solution, one im still trying to implement (xbmc sadly didnt get pvr into the next version) is
- mythtv backend running on my ubuntu server
- apple tv front end
- apple tv for itunes movies / tv shows
- running xbmc on apple tv for live tv, and my larger library stored on the ubuntu box.

the reason why apple tv got me, movies i can buy/rent legally and watch pretty much straight away, and they have a huge library.

there are some issues with it, cant buy 720p you can only rent them. the interface needs work, some actors dont show they appear in a movie when they did etc.

i was waiting to get tivo, but they dont have enough movies or tv shows.

i think ps3 was going to partner with tvnz or tv3 on demand as well, which would be pretty cool.

reven

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#325356 30-Apr-2010 16:37

c71931f:
Kiwipixter:
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.

Freeview?

sky has sports, for that there is no real alternative.

for everything else, there are options.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#325361 30-Apr-2010 16:50

Satch: 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?

They possibly could do that - especially if you continued to post new versions of the photo on a daily basis.

eXDee

4032 posts

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#325369 30-Apr-2010 17:05

All i see this request as is sky using their monopoly + legal threats to bully people into doing what they want.

If that GBPVR page didnt actually host the file, then i don't get how its infringing. I would think it would be fine if it stayed up, and just said to google the utility if a download is wanted.

I have no legal background, but i cant see how someone discussing or giving instructions on how to use something is going to break the law.

This shows how their current votiing results in the 'worst company' thread in off topic is very much justified.

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ajkiwi

109 posts

Master Geek

#325394 30-Apr-2010 18:25

The interesting headache about all this is for us telsaclear tv suckers - we can't get the sky eit data - it's not on the telstra stream, as far as I can tell - and telstra haven't even GOT a mysky equiv box out yet (for this, and much, much more discussion on this, see the telstraclear forums).

So I'm stuffed. Like many welly residents, I have cable tv or nothing (apartments, valleys, twonhouses with no aerials or sky infrastrcuture) I've got no epg of any kind if these things keep dropping off. I'd be better killing off my telstra tv and putting the money into downloads.

*sigh*

Sky, I'm about to get REALLY creative about how I'm getting my listings. Given the small scale of HTPC in nz, surely this is just them wasting good legal money on insects?

Kiwipixter

246 posts

Master Geek

#325409 30-Apr-2010 19:12

What about using bitorrent and offshore trackers?

Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek

#325417 30-Apr-2010 19:48

I wonder if all of these recent take downs have been brought about by IceTV (or whatever that Aussie EPG provider is called) looking at setting up a service here. They've been a bit quiet after an initial few questions asked here, but it could well be that they have asked Sky for help to close down these free sites, so that in a few weeks they can announce a subscription service with out any competition. Pure speculation on my part but...

hads

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#325426 30-Apr-2010 20:12

Mattv: I wonder if all of these recent take downs have been brought about by IceTV (or whatever that Aussie EPG provider is called) looking at setting up a service here. They've been a bit quiet after an initial few questions asked here, but it could well be that they have asked Sky for help to close down these free sites, so that in a few weeks they can announce a subscription service with out any competition. Pure speculation on my part but...

I don't believe your speculation is correct. I think it's more just a case of Sky being bullies.

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Mattv

242 posts

Master Geek

#325430 30-Apr-2010 20:25

hads: I don't believe your speculation is correct. I think it's more just a case of Sky being bullies.

Quite possible, but playing devils advocate here a bit, if I was wanting to start a "legitimate" EPG service here, make a deal with Sky and play by their rules, I would first want make sure they were enforcing those rules so I wasn't at a disadvantage from the outset.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all impressed with Sky's actions here, just wondering aloud really.

sbiddle

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#325438 30-Apr-2010 20:51

I'd say the chances of that being true were very minimal.

IceTV were up against the exact same threats that Sky are currently throwing around here. Being involved with Sky doing this would be exceptionally hypocritical.

Deev8

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#325532 1-May-2010 10:58

sbiddle: IceTV were up against the exact same threats that Sky are currently throwing around here. Being involved with Sky doing this would be exceptionally hypocritical.

And companies are rarely hypocritical.

nate

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#325855 2-May-2010 19:46

reven: i think ps3 was going to partner with tvnz or tv3 on demand as well, which would be pretty cool.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/nate/7209

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