Virgin media possibly getting serious on dodgy boxes?

[supremus]

Originally Posted by broadbandking

I dont know if you are aware your IP can be traced to your location, just be aware of what you post on a public forum

He hasn't done or said anything that would require anyone to hand over his personal details or trace his location.

Originally Posted by broadbandking

I dont know if you are aware your IP can be traced to your location, just be aware of what you post on a public forum

but he is using dodgy equipement so it wont be his IP address anyone traces

[funcard_4]

For all you know I could be using a laptop connecting to the internet via someone internet connection, wifi perhaps. not reliable source. what would vm do do anyway if you have a dogy box hundrads of ppl have them. However if you sell these for a living then your asking for it, which i don't. Anyway I'm tired of this arguing. I'm going back to my day job.

[Jonnymeg]

Originally Posted by funcard_4

For all you know I could be using a laptop connecting to the internet via someone internet connection, wifi perhaps. not reliable source. what would vm do do anyway if you have a dogy box hundrads of ppl have them. However if you sell these for a living then your asking for it, which i don't. Anyway I'm tired of this arguing. I'm going back to my day job.

What goes around comes around. Karma and all that.

TBH VM probably aren't really bothered by the likes of you anyway as you aren't the kind of person who would pay anyway, so it isn't like they have lost a customer. [Removed].

Refrain from personal insults. If you do not like what a poster says you can just use the ignore feature.

[supremus]

Originally Posted by Jonnymeg

What goes around comes around. Karma and all that.

That's never been scientifically proven.

TBH VM probably aren't really bothered by the likes of you anyway as you aren't the kind of person who would pay anyway, so it isn't like they have lost a customer.

That's actually the ones they are concerned about. They're far less likely to take issue with people who actually pay a minimum subscription for the feed into their house, even if they leech the rest. Those are customers they're at least making some money from.

[removed]

[Jonnymeg]

Originally Posted by supremus

That's never been scientifically proven.

That's actually the ones they are concerned about. They're far less likely to take issue with people who actually pay a minimum subscription for the feed into their house, even if they leech the rest. Those are customers they're at least making some money from.

[removed]

My point is that if a customer goes from a full sub to minimum and then installs a 'super box' then VM are losing revenue.

Leaching **** that would not have cable unless it was totally free are not a financial loss are they?

Apart from the drain on the network itself VM are not losing revenue from these people.

---------- Post added at 16:37 ---------- Previous post was at 16:36 ----------

Originally Posted by supremus

That's never been scientifically proven.

Neither has God but the majority of the worlds population believe in some form or another.

[broadbandking]

Originally Posted by supremus

he hasn't done or said anything that would require anyone to hand over his personal details or trace his location.

read his furture posts

[supremus]

Originally Posted by Jonnymeg

My point is that if a customer goes from a full sub to minimum and then installs a 'super box' then VM are losing revenue.

They're making money from the £10(?) minimum subscription. They're not making any money from people who leech without paying for any services whatsoever.

Neither has God but the majority of the worlds population believe in some form or another.

As I've explained in the various religion threads, reality is not determined by way of democracy, or indeed geographically or sociologically induced superstition, but that's another topic, so let's stick to the piracy issue. I think it's astonishing how some people can be so self-righteous about things like these, when they commit similar, often far more serious offenses themselves on a daily basis.

Originally Posted by broadbandking

read his furture posts

Still nothing.

[rickyg01]

Virgin Media have applied a code update which has crippled cable boxes across the country which were used for receiving cable TV illegally.

Cable boxes affected include the Eurovox, Nokia Dbox, Starview and Kryptview.

Users receiving cable TV illegally receive the error message “Please wait…code been updated” and no channels can be accessed.

According to industry analyst Ian Waller, “The change is causing false keys to be recorded on a ROM7 update, usually only 1 or 2 characters are wrong, this has been happening on ROM10 and ROM11 updates for the last year. A genuine card can handle the change, an emulator can not.”

Virgin Media applied a similar change around a year ago, and it took almost a week for firmware updates for chipped boxes to keep pace.

However, from reports coming in the changes by virgin may not be a simple one off event, but instead being applied on a daily basis.

Although updates are available on the internet which try to keep track of the changes, if the code changes are being implemented on a daily basis this could make it very difficult for firmware updates to keep track.

The result would be a victory for Virgin in their battle against cable piracy, and an end to the widespread use of cable boxes for receiving free cable TV.

UPDATE: Reports in the forums suggest another code update began at 3:30pm today. It looks like Virgin have indeed started to apply daily code changes.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/foru...ad.php?t=94490

[BenMcr]

Please Please let this be true

[rickyg01]

looks if so its true, from reports another "code" change has happened and i think that makes it 2 for today,

[Nilrem]

I hope they can keep it up, and that it causes much fun and merriment* for the people stealing the service.

Even if it keeps getting broken, as long as it causes a few hours downtime every time it might end being more effort than it's worth - even just 15 minutes of mucking around a day soon adds up to costing more in time than the "saving" made by stealing the service.


*By which I mean much downtime and mucking about.

[supremus]

Looking around the various forums, it appears auto updating systems which handled today's code change were back in the game from yesterday, so it's back to the drawing board for Virgin. Last time they managed a major hit was April(?), which, as I understand it, meant people could still manually update their systems, and auto updating systems were back in a matter of days, which have apparently handled every code change since then, some of which very daily, assume key rolls and code changes are the same.

I don't understand all the jargon, so any of out resident pirates should feel free to correct me, but it sounds to me like the systems used by pirates, the emulators, do exactly what the name suggests; emulate original systems, but not flawlessly, so the cable companies can find and exploit weaknesses in the emulation, which was what they managed to do in April and a couple of days ago. But when they do, those flaws are apparently easily corrected by whomever creates these emulators, and it becomes increasingly difficult for the cable companies to find new weaknesses with each successful hit.

It really sounds like VM have no shot of winning this game, until they're prepared to invest in an encryption system that hasn't been completely comprised, but this would greatly increase their costs, and they're apparently not really making money off their TV product as it is, and I doubt their customers would appreciate the cost being passed off to them. I suspect Virgin just feel compelled to try one of these major hits every once in a blue moon to get some press coverage that might keep their content providers happy.

[BenMcr]

Virgin have already stated they plan to replace the Conditional Access System (i.e Nagravision 2) when they change their TV platform starting next year

Virgin Media chief executive Neil Berkett told investors last week that he wanted "next generation" delivery and conditional access systems to be rolled out on its network in 2009 and 2010.

He said the ongoing switch-off of analogue cable was part of the process: "Not only do you get the bonding advantages of DOCSIS 3.0 (the cable transmission standard), you get the bandwidth freed up. So in that respect we don't see ourselves as being bandwidth constrained.

"We can see us completing that journey through 2008 and 2009 as well as replacing our television platform in 2009 and 2010, and moving to next generation TV, next generation conditional access systems."