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The war on piracy never ends, with the latest battle seeing a British man fined £16,000 for making money from illegally streaming Sky Sports. This is yet another attempt for the UK to crack down on measures to protect copyrighted content.
The Independent reports of Mr Yusuf Mohammad, a Bristol born man recently ordered to pay £16,000 by the UK High Court. This decision is paired with Yusuf being required to disclose any and all information on the money he made during the illegal streaming of Sky Sports content, alongside details on those he had contact with regarding the operation.
Naturally, UK intellectual property protection body FACT is pleased with the decision, with its CEO Kieron Sharp openly stating: “This is the latest action taken in the ongoing crackdown on illegal digital piracy. It should now be crystal clear to anyone thinking of pirating or watching a pirated stream that this is not a grey area and that it is illegal.”
This sentiment echoes Judge Peter Armstrong, who took on board Brian Thompson’s guilty plea after distributing large quantities of fully-loaded Kodi boxes, handing him an 18-month suspension. Armstrong said:
“If anyone was under any illusion as to whether such devices as these, fully loaded Kodi boxes, were illegal or not, they can no longer be in any doubt. I've come to the conclusion that in all the circumstances, an immediate custodial sentence is not called for. As a warning to others in future, they may not be so lucky.”
KitGuru Says: A lot of Britons still access digital material illegally and don’t fully understand the ramifications of such an action. Currently, the UK government is pushing 10-year jail sentences regarding piracy, making it look a lot less worth it in the long run.
Availability is still and issue as is the cost. There are many Game of Thrones fans out there that:-
A) Don’t want to watch on a monday at 9pm (would rather view at their own pace, maybe later, maybe earlier)
B) Don’t want to pay Murdoch a single penny via Sky.
C) Don’t want to pay for commercial TV with adverts and the like
Also, having a subscription per provider is just unacceptable and out of the question based on price. £10 for Netflix, £7 for Prime, etc etc
For me, not having a TV Licence and a cable/sky subscription is all about adverts. I Netflix and Prime everything.
Then they can’t watch the show. I may disagree with most of the absurd rules around copyright law, and which idiot thought 10 years is a proper punishment, but convenience is a shitty excuse for infringing on copyright law. You make choices in life to pay for one thing and not the other; GoT is not a primary need.
Would there be less piracy if there was better service? Yes. Would there be no piracy? Obviously not. Is a mediocre service a valid excuse to not pay but still use it and enjoy it? Hell no.
I’ve had a few of these boxes that i bought from ebay for friends, to be honest Kodi sucks ( just my opinion) I’ve uninstalled it from my box, I find i use it more to watch youtube or handy to stick a usb drive into to watch a movie in bed, which is no more than can be done with an android tablet or phone, software such as Mobdro and CartoonHD gives any android user tv and movies on their device wherever they are, so the boxes should be sold without the preinstalled apps as just an android tv box then left to the owner to install what they want, Kodi is freely available on google play store though
I fully disagree. Limitations of choice are a valid excuse for piracy.
I personally won’t send a single penny of mine to Sky or Murdoch. Were there a reasonable price I could pay to get that stuff without those hang ups I’d do it.
Absolutely no matter what there will be piracy, you’re right, but the easier you make content to access the easier you make it for people to be legitimate.
Besides all this is the fact that piracy doesn’t hurt sales at all. Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in history and it still makes money hand over fist. I’ve personally bought countless merchandise, Blurays and the books up to date. I’m just not going to sign up to Sky and pay money to Murdoch to watch it on release.
I don’t feel bad at all and I feel morally fine with what happens because I have spent more than most on GoT stuff.
You’re approaching this from an angle that being a part of the social zeitgeist while it is relevant (i.e. on first release of the episode) is something that you’re entitled to.
While it would be great in an ideal world that all content is accessible, affordable and convenient, the reality is that you pay a premium to be a part of that group in the exact same fashion that video games cost full price on release and eventually go down in price, appear on different platforms and have sales.
If your moral conflicts of paying Murdoch are getting in the way, I think Amazon Instant Video gets it not too long after, per episode, again, at a premium price because of the ‘early adoption.’
I believe that your perspective would hold more weight if the content was always locked behind a high paywall and from one single source, but the fact it is opened up to various different media within weeks/months after originally airing highlights your impatience.
This is tangential, but after reports from independent crimonological studies accused British police for being one of the most racially bias law-enforcement agencies in the world, the one copyright infringement case they shout off about is of a man named Yusuf Mohammad, for doing something literally hundreds of other people do.
I’m not saying Yusuf’s case was the result of racial bias, but a sensible police force would have just stayed quiet if he was the only recent case.
“I’m not saying Yusuf’s case was the result of racial bias”… lol, you just did exactly that. Also using obscure fictitious “studies” to back your point of view makes your whole point smell of B.S. You seem to be using this poor guys ethnic sounding name to back up your own racial bigotry regarding the UK police force and UK law in general.
If you actually paid attention to what I said, I was saying that highlighting this was a stupid move. And don’t just write off reports because it doesn’t fit your world view. Do some actual research you intolerable moron.
10+ years ago I would agree with you. But nowadays convenience is a good reason.
Why?
Because that is now the main focus of media distribution, and if people like Sky or HBO don;t move with the times, then they will lose out. Look at how Netflix redefined watching TV and now release entire seasons in one go as they know people prefer to binge watch rather than traditional weekly releases.
Surely though that’s still racial bias if the police force “stayed quiet”.
I feel that there’s a lot of irony in your statement.
bs they will kick this out on appeal there is no law for streaming none he was convicted of a law that does not exist