FUN and Irdeto sue Premiere World

chris

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Free Universe Network (FUN), the German industry alliance which supports an open set-top box market based on the common interface solution and opposes Kirch Group's proprietary d-box technology, has, together with Irdeto Access, sued Kirch Pay-TV.

According to FUN, Kirch Pay-TV made a commitment to offer its pay-TV channels on digital platforms other than those requiring the d-box at a European Commission examination into BSkyB's (report) entry into the company as a shareholder. Its subsequent failure to do so has prompted the industry alliance to take court action despite FUN's requests.

FUN states that its aim is to secure the encryption of Premiere World's channels in the system provided by Irdeto access as well as the d-box technology Betacrypt using the simulcrypt method. Then the manufacturers of common interface decoders would "for the first time gain equal opportunities in competition".

FUN adds that although Kirch Group has issued a statement supporting the common interface solution, it has so far failed to stand by its word. As a result, the industry alliance, according to its chairman Lutz Mahnke, "has been forced to initiate forceful steps".

Mahnke believes that "in an open market there is no room for the exclusive coupling of decoder and content that Premiere has so far been practising." He is also of the view that FUN is not alone with this conviction and its request to use open European standards such as the common interface and MHP solutions. Indeed, "they are also supported by the European Parliament, the German media authorities and various other organisations which engage in market economy and consumer protection."
 

2old4this

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I find this so ironic - that the committments being referred to here were prompted by BSkyB's interest in Kirch. While BSkyB is the worst offender of the lot when it comes to monopolistic practise such as the coupling of content and receiver.
So when is someone finally going to take action to force BSkyB to end the exclusive proprietary nature of their service?

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w hole

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Now that is a political question!

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W Hole
 

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...but it is a question several other countries across Europe have been willing to tackle head-on (Germany, Switzerland, Italy...) so why not in the UK (which of all European countries has by far the most restrictive and monopolistic satellite industry)?
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Mr Cloud

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About 6 weeks ago there was the announcment of PW to start production of Betacrypt CIs. The order got a German company somewhere in the south of the country - I've never heard its name before. PW changed its mind when it began to target on the Swiss market (it's currently available in Germany and Austria).
Fortunatly, Switzerland blocked d-box technology due to the known reasons. They more or less forced PW to provide CIs for their swiss target group. It's quite likely that the CIs will be officially available in Switzerland only.

(Source: http://www.sat-hagedorn.de)

BTW, Deutsche Telekom now sold its whole cable network. DTAG had an agreement with PW to use Betacrypt for their digital services as well. What encryption system will be used in German cable in the future is now unclear 'cos it depends on the new operators. If they force a new encryption system in German cable PW may overthink its Betacrypt strategy completly. Had anybody realized that industry began to move away from proprietary solutions to standards ? This also applies to Microsoft ...

Regards from Rostock, Germany

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The German firm Mascom are producing the Alphacrypt CAM which decodes Betacrypt as well as Irdeto. Is that the one you are referring to?
http://www.mascom-haendler.de/alphacrypt.htm

Note by the way that although, as above link explains, sale of their Alphacrypt CI has now been suspended pending further discussions between BetaResearch & Mascom, the hardware is a standard EuroCAM, the Alphacrypt bin file had already been extracted by hobbyists, and some EuroCAMs can now be reprogrammed.

see also http://www.satellites.co.uk/scripts/webforum/DCForumID14/127.html#

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