MPAA, Netflix, Amazon join up to sue TickBox TV for piracy
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Yikes!
What kind of wishful thinking goes through people's minds when they promote apps like this?
Do they really think think they will be "flying under the radar" of companies which probably pay mountains of money to monitor the internet for anything related to piracy of programming?
What kind of wishful thinking goes through people's minds when they promote apps like this?
Do they really think think they will be "flying under the radar" of companies which probably pay mountains of money to monitor the internet for anything related to piracy of programming?
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From there marketing material, it sounds like they are using a(n incredibly flawed) theory that it is illegal to download a torrent, but perfectly okay to stream the same thing.
This won't end well for them.
This won't end well for them.
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You know how to tell if it’s legal?
If the site contains the words “this is legal”, you can be pretty sure it isn’t.
If the site contains the words “this is legal”, you can be pretty sure it isn’t.
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I expect this kind of copy from a company based in like...China or Vietnam. You have to be extremely stupid to do this with a US incorporated company.
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While I agree the general piracy fight is more or less a waste of time (and I subscribe to the theory it probably increases their sales through word of mouth and popularity), this is a pretty big mole with a giant target painted on it's stomach. Hard not to grab a hammer.
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Never even heard of this before today when on some other tech website I also read someone decided to spam it saying they use this Tickbox device and posted a link to it. Anyways this is nothing but the never ending game of cat and mouse between tv/movie makers and these streaming box makers.
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Completely agree. I'd be tempted not to even hire an attorney for this one. Seems like a layup.
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No court in the history of...ever...has bought the "I was just *telling* people how to find this illegal content!" defense.
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It is fun to bash the MPAA, but in their defense at least people associated with the project make money. Well unless you sign up for a share of the profits. Unlike the RIAA where you just accept being ripped off and treat the album as promotion for your tour.
Yes I understand that speaking favorably of the MPAA is like speaking favorably of the DPRK. But I do believe copyright holders deserve to reap the rewards of their projects so that they can do the next one.
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I'd much sooner they devote their litigating resources to ridiculous applications like this, than going after individual users.
"Tickbox" is not even trying to hide what their application is really for.
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I think it's because that would REALLY be the world's longest, most expensive game of whack-a-mole ever. And because there's plenty of precedent that is going to close Tickbox's doors pretty quickly.
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They could just get an office intern to go to court, and when it comes time for opening statements, have them just go "Come on, man".
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"It is legal to stream content. It is illegal to download copy written material"
Ah yes, because downloading is different than streaming. They seems to be splitting hairs very fine, but I don't see what difference it can make.
Ah yes, because downloading is different than streaming. They seems to be splitting hairs very fine, but I don't see what difference it can make.
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No fan of the MPAA or RIAA, though good content deserves compensation, however without silly arbitrary restrictions.
Movies Anywhere went a little ways in making things better this past week, as pirates historically have enjoyed the content with much greater ease then paying customers. That needs to change.
Movies Anywhere went a little ways in making things better this past week, as pirates historically have enjoyed the content with much greater ease then paying customers. That needs to change.
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Because products like this are a massive problem in that they make piracy accessible to people who are not technically inclined. Between getting torrenting software, finding good trackers, not getting your computer infected with awful malware, getting your codecs set up, and then outputting from your computer to your TV, pirating used to be quite a hassle. Not enough to keep industrious geeks and the chronically broke form doing it, but enough to keep it form being mainstream.
A box like this though? It reduces piracy to the same complexity as using a Roku. Last thanksgiving I was a bit dumbfounded when one of my wife's cousins - a very technically inept man - was gushing about the android streaming box he'd bought for the TV and how much money he was saving since he ditched cable.
That's what they're terrified of. Dorm room pirates are an annoyance but ultimately probably popularize their products and drive sales. Making it convenient enough to be an option for the general public is a big deal if you're one of these companies.
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No, actually, 100% illegal since it isn't legal.
Don't conflate what tech is capable of doing with what people illegally do with tech.
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It doesn't make a difference legally, but it probably helps with consumer perception. Saying that something plainly illegal is actually legal isn't very convincing, but saying that something plainly illegal is actually legal because of this one technical detail that people might not be aware of? That works a bit better.
See also: early ROM sites declaring that downloading from them is totally 100% legal so long as you deleted the ROMs within 24 hours. A lot of people took that as true, and as a result they were a lot more likely to use those sites.
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From an end user standpoint it’s an interesting distinction. If the end user doesn’t make or order any copies, there’s a reasonable argument that the end user hasn’t infringed any of the copyright holder’s exclusive rights.
From a provider/facilitator standpoint, it’s a garbage argument. The person originating the stream is making an unauthorized public performance and probably also has made unauthorized copies.
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It is theft by someone sharing videos to stream.
Goodluck catching them all.
(I wanted to try KODI out after I saw a Youtube vid on the latest version and features. Then I wondered, who is putting out these NEW film releases to stream and they are free???)
Update: sorry kids, its illegal to sharewarez, music, files, video streams.
Best of luck to Netflix and Amazon catching them.
Goodluck catching them all.
(I wanted to try KODI out after I saw a Youtube vid on the latest version and features. Then I wondered, who is putting out these NEW film releases to stream and they are free???)
Update: sorry kids, its illegal to share
Best of luck to Netflix and Amazon catching them.
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I am sure the owners of the company don't expect to win the legal challenge. My guess would be that their business strategy is throw together a simple streaming app on cheap hardware, sell as many as possible as fast as possible, get rid of the money through executive payroll or something like that, go to court, lose the case and have the corporation declare bankruptcy and move on.
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Although I don’t think TickBox has a leg to stand on, let’s not oversell this:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect ... n.com,_Inc.
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thanks MPAA - I never heard of tickbox before
edit - I guess no one got the point of my post
edit - I guess no one got the point of my post
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Trying to eliminate piracy is obviously ridiculous. They will never be able to keep up with the methods of smart people who don't want to pay for content.
What they can do is stop 100% automated "last mile" solutions that allow the entire population to pirate with ease or possibly without even knowing what they are doing is wrong. They can't stop me from pirating, but they can certainly stop my mother and grandmother.
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So TickBox is just a more organized method of A Google search for "free streaming sites"?
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It's the bit about the FAQ and the tutorial video that really kills me. Like... how dumb do you have to be, to make a tutorial video of someone accessing explicitly pirated content? Particularly if your eventual lame legal defense is going to rest on supposedly not condoning pirated media?
Why would you have an "In Theatres" section at all, when something "in theatres" is almost certainly going to be subject to copyright?
Why would you have an "In Theatres" section at all, when something "in theatres" is almost certainly going to be subject to copyright?
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Yes, along with a database of all the sites that are de-listed at this point. That may not feel like much to you, but imagine the difference it might make for your grandmother in terms of usability.
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There is nothing illegal about Kodi. Try it. I use it on my media machine because its a nice, simple interface, with an excellent player, to my subscription services. If you use the authorized plugins you will be both safe and legal. And the plug in for my service is far superior, both as a player and as an interface, to the one the service itself provides via a web browser.
The idea that there is something illegal about Kodi, or that it is, in itself, copyright infringing, is both silly and ignorant. Its like saying you do not use Facebook because its a terrorist service. Or you do not use Excel because its a financial fraud package.
Like any other package it can be used while engaging in illegal activities. So can a car!
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How many of these boxes do you think they've sold? How much have they invested in their "business?" Subtract the latter from the former = profit. So they get shut down now. They almost certainly won't even put up a fight. They'll just disappear. In six months (if that long) some new incorporated company is selling a product called the LeechBox that is "... 100% LEGAL!!!!" There's no wishful thinking involved, no "flying under the radar" at all.
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Possession, maybe?
i.e., the idea that you never actually *have* the movie entirely in your possession?
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I looked at some of the instructional videos. On the TV one once he selects an episode he says "it's going out and grabbing all the different sources". They're clearly selling the thing by transparently dancing around the fact that it's a torrent streaming box. I hate to side with the MPAA et all on this kind of thing but I don't know what the hell these people were thinking.
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If TickBox is a self-contained unit with everything our grandmothers can use easily, there is no real way to stop it becoming a generic unit anyone can and will build. Clones from every part of the world will become available, quite happy to make profits for as long as possible in each iteration.
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The courts have mostly decided against your definition of "free speech". I can think of a couple cases, one in which an ex LEO was teaching people how to beat a lie detector, and another in which someone was teaching people how to hide drugs in vehicles, where the courts found against them.
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steelcobra
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
It's one thing to put together your own setup that accesses streams and torrents for personal use.
It's another to commercially sell a device that does everything for you with no effort on the user's side, that gives an experience similar to commercial units and provides the content creators no revenue stream by their official release channels.
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