OK everybody, I know you don't all like my point of view, and you have rightly pointed out that I do sell official cards across international boundaries. Is what I do illegal? I don't think so. Is subscribing to other countries channels illegal? I don't think so.
I'm not going to do any selling here. This is a simple guide to the law as I understand it. Many of you complain about monopoly broadcasters, but what most of you may not be aware of is that territorial restrictons on subscription sales are almost invariably imposed on broadcasters by the content rights holders - and by that I mean the FIFA'a, UEFA's, Universals and Disneys of this world - and almost all of them are from non-EU countries.
But those contracts, in my opinion, fly in the face of EU law. And I agree with all of you who say that you should be able to subscribe across international boundaries, even though that would ultimately harm my business.
If the EU imposed its will on broadcasters, the broadcasters would have to capitulate ultimately.
Some of the EU dogma goes back a long way. In 1987 the EU imposed an obligation on broadcasters to negotiate rights "over the entire satellite footprint".
There is also what is grandly called the "Principal of Exhaustion of Intellectual Property Rights" which, in a nutshell, states that any EU citizen or resident has the right to purchase anything they want to in one EU country, and take it to another EU country (and in the case of EU citizens, anywhere), where they may use it themselves for their own personal use, sell or give it to a third party for their personal use, as long as the sale, use or possession is not a criminal offence in the destination country, and the obvious exception on that point is cannabis from Holland.
I am sure you all remember the fuss over the Maasricht Treaty and Britain opting out of the Social Chapter, and later the Amsterdam Treaty where Britain opted in. The latter Treaty actually had much more to do with consumer rights (but was less interesting for the tabloid press), and largely consolidated the various fragments of consumer rights. Following on from that an EU Working Party wrote to all broadcasters pointing out their obligations to comply and in April 2003 the subject was discussed extensively at a Bar meeting in London. But still we have the anomaly of the rights holders contracts with broadcasters.
Now if you want to get something done about it you can - write to your MEP, your MP, and to the relevant EU Directorates - whinge all you like - bombard the hell out of them (if you lot can hack, you can sure as hell spam) - and point out that the EU must impose its will on the broadcasters.
As an aside I do speak to many broadcasters direct, and at a very high level, and almost all of them (privately) would love to sell their services across the EU, which should, for these purposes, definitely be regarded as one country.
So you see, you may have your way of doing things, and I may not agree with what you do, but I actually understand the reasons why every one of you wants to hack.
Most EU broadcasters charge less than BSkyB - but that has more to do with buying power and commercial constraints rather than anything else.
Finally a few specific points:
- To the gentleman in Malta - if you want to subscribe to Sky Italia you need an Italian address, and must provide a copy of your Codice Fiscale.
- If you want to watch Canal Digitaal Holland there are now very few receivers that will handle the encryption change. France and Poland will follow suit soon. Sorry hackers
.
- Canal Digital Scandinavia will shortly migrate to Conax 2.
- Viasat Scandinavia has plans to switch off Viaccess transmissions and migrate totally to NDS Videoguard; (yes that Murdoch man again).
And finally, when I give you all this information, how about doing something constructive with it.
Moral of the story - don't shoot the messenger - he actually just might be on your side.
Disclaimer - I am not a solicitor, and you should not regard what I have stated here as legal advice. For that you should seek your own.
