Could you conceivably buy space on a satellite and broadcast with your own encyption?

[norm360]

This is purely a hypothetical. But could you forsee a way serveal hundred or thousand "sat enthusiasts" could club together to buy space on a TP, broadcast encrypted content of their choosing (whether or not they have the legal rights), with only those paying getting access to the encrypt key.

Would an enterprise of this kind even be legal? Assuming no copyright holders ever saw the channel.

 

[Mickha]

Still illegal, due to copyright infringement, and the satellite owners would soon stop the broadcasts.

 

[robwormald]

Would an enterprise of this kind even be legal? Assuming no copyright holders ever saw the channel.

This implies that something is only illegal if it's discovered and you are caught, which is not true.

As someone who works in information security, I have a reasonable high-level understanding of broadcast and copyright laws. They vary from country to country, but in all countries that sign-up to the protection of intellectual property, there are international laws that would apply.

The fact that such a service would be broadcasting content for which it has no broadcast rights, would make it illegal. The fact that the "channel owner" would be charging and making money from the venture would probably constitute a separate and additional legal charge, depending (I believe) on individual national laws. Potentially fraud, as you would be selling something you don't own.

As for "assuming" that copyright holders do see the channel, are you going to vet each subscriber to confirm they do not hold copyright? What happens when Facebook gets a fan page and the word gets out?

 

[Analoguesat]

Exactly this sort of idea was planned a few years ago to bring Brit tv to southern Spain. One of the Intelsat birds out over the Atlantic was supposed to be used. Details are probably still on the forum somewhere.

 

[Captain Jack]

This is purely a hypothetical. But could you forsee a way serveal hundred or thousand "sat enthusiasts" could club together to buy space on a TP, broadcast encrypted content of their choosing (whether or not they have the legal rights), with only those paying getting access to the encrypt key.

According to Daily Mail, a big dish in the garden is all you need to do exactly that....

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/meeting-place/200176-idiots-daily-mail.html

 

[Analoguesat]

^^

Thats an incredibly badly written report thats completely clueless as to what was happening