The Dodgy 'Dodgy Box' Enforcers

[NewBroom]

This story caught my eye this morning: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/09 ... lamp-down/

An organisation called FACT or Federation Against Copyright Theft went around Irisht retailers threatening them to stop promoting 'dodgy boxes'. Sounded kinda legit, we have a music copyright crowd in this country.

Then I heard the boss man of this FACT being interviewed. These lads are just a private company hired by the likes of Sky to go around threatening legal consequences.

What's more they are not even Irish lads, they're a crowd of Brits coming over here and showing a bit of muscle. Thirty years ago they wouldn't be doing this for fear of meeting the real Kneecappers.

But why are RTE running with this. What skin is it off their nose? I pay the €160 to RTE, that's quite enough. It's none of RTEs business what people do after that.

[NattyO]

The TV industry is at the same point that the music industry was 25 years ago, and the “dodgy box” is the equivalent of the iPod, but the TV industry doesn’t seem to realise it. Once the genie is out of the bottle, there is no putting it back in, and heavy-handed enforcement is trying to hold back the tide.
The TV industry is going to have to change radically. The number of people who are willing to pay €100 a month or more to watch soccer and F1 is similar to the number of people who were willing to keep paying for CDs - i.e. not enough.
Just as the music industry had to completely change its financial model to embrace those who pirated music rather than fight them, the TV industry is going to have to come up with a formula that makes it easier and nearly as cheap for the consumer to access their product legally as it is to pirate it. That almost certainly means the day of the TV station is dead - nobody wants to pay RTE or the BBC or Sky to watch 1% of their output, they want to pay to pick and choose what content they access and when. The current situation where I pay an inflated fee so that lads and ladies who know someone’s dad in RTE can be paid a salary for life for presenting some show that nobody ever watches, or so that Sky can show the women’s one-legged World Cup from Azerbaijan is a dead end.
I, like most people, am willing to pay to see what I want to see. I’ll pay to watch sports, films, and documentaries that I am interested in. I won’t pay for the production of fair city, or sponsorship of pride month, or whatever.
Until the industry realises this, the dodgy box will continue to grow and they may be too late when they do change.

[Berties_Horse]

"The Chairperson of FACT said the notices delivered to the shops are not legally binding..."

I stopped reading there. There is such a proliferation of "dodgy boxes" that the mere thought of courts entertaining thousands of trivial cases is laughable. RTÉ plumbing new depths running this fluff article, more than a hint of desperation mugging off the public. What's next, a parody Monopoly piece? "Go directly to jail; do not pass go, do not collect €200..."

[NattyO]

I see all the "mainstream" media are pushing the "Electric Picnic must be on TV" narrative today. Like all these things, there's no effort made to make it look like this is just an idea they had, they all go off the exact same instruction, as always.
This is what paying for TV gets you - propaganda packaged as entertainment.

https://www.thejournal.ie/tg4-was-the-o ... op-stories

[MisterAnarchy]

"The Chairperson of FACT said the notices delivered to the shops are not legally binding..."

I stopped reading there. There is such a proliferation of "dodgy boxes" that the mere thought of courts entertaining thousands of trivial cases is laughable. RTÉ plumbing new depths running this fluff article, more than a hint of desperation mugging off the public. What's next, a parody Monopoly piece? "Go directly to jail; do not pass go, do not collect €200..."

Sky pay RTE to run ads for their service so RTE are eager to do their dirty work for them.
RTE are an absolute joke now, a propaganda outfit for those that fund them.

[briany]

This story caught my eye this morning: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/09 ... lamp-down/

An organisation called FACT or Federation Against Copyright Theft went around Irisht retailers threatening them to stop promoting 'dodgy boxes'. Sounded kinda legit, we have a music copyright crowd in this country.

Then I heard the boss man of this FACT being interviewed. These lads are just a private company hired by the likes of Sky to go around threatening legal consequences.

What's more they are not even Irish lads, they're a crowd of Brits coming over here and showing a bit of muscle. Thirty years ago they wouldn't be doing this for fear of meeting the real Kneecappers.

But why are RTE running with this. What skin is it off their nose? I pay the €160 to RTE, that's quite enough. It's none of RTEs business what people do after that.

Shops can promote 'dodgy boxes' all they want to so long as the boxes aren't promoted on the basis of being able to access IPTV services that broadcast copyright-protected material.

Obviously 'dodgy boxes' are nothing more than small, low-powered Android computers that hook up to a display and, indeed, can be used to access a lot of legitimate TV services. The 'dodgy' part is the apps which are designed to let one get Sky TV or whatever on the cheap.

[knownunknown]

Notice how most of the piracy died for a few decades when streaming services hosted nearly all content. There was a time everything was on Netflix.

Now again you need 3/4/5 different services to stream all the content people are again resorting to piracy. It’s simple market pricing. Extort people and they will stop paying.

[briany]

Notice how most of the piracy died for a few decades when streaming services hosted nearly all content. There was a time everything was on Netflix.

Now again you need 3/4/5 different services to stream all the content people are again resorting to piracy. It’s simple market pricing. Extort people and they will stop paying.

Digital media is one of the few places in all commerce where people always have a real choice and can vote with their feet. Piracy is always an option.