[mythtvnz] Sky->smart card reader->MythTV ???

[Steven Ellis]

On 1/03/2009, at 6:24 PM, Sam Hadley-Jones wrote:

>> Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:20:49 +1300
>> From: Aaron Whitehouse <lists at whitehouse.org.nz>
>> Subject: Re: [mythtvnz] Sky->smart card reader->MythTV ???
>> To: MythTV in NZ <mythtvnz at lists.linuxnut.co.nz>
>> Message-ID: <49A901F1.6010706 at whitehouse.org.nz>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>>
>> yuri wrote:
>>> Cut the paranoia.
>>> If it's not mentioned in the Terms and Conditions then it's not a  
>>> problem.
>>> If the ToC does forbid it, it's a contractual matter, not a  
>>> criminal matter.
>>> Pay TV providers are not legislators.
>>
>> Haha... if only that were true.  This isn't legal advice, but in a
>> one-line summary, the issue is with "Technological Protection  
>> Measures":
>> http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/DLM346899.html?search=ts_act_copyright_resel#DLM346899
>> http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/DLM1705876.html?search=ts_act_copyright_resel
>>
>> "A person (A) must not provide a service to another person (B) if?
>> (a) A intends the service to enable or assist B to circumvent a
>> technological protection measure; and
>> (b) A knows or has reason to believe that the service will, or is  
>> likely
>> to, be used to infringe copyright in a TPM work."
>>
>> "A person (A) must not publish information enabling or assisting  
>> another
>> person to circumvent a technological protection measure if A intends
>> that the information will be used to infringe copyright in a TPM  
>> work."
>>
>> Even that is not that straight-forward.  What constitutes infringing
>> copyright is really wide when it comes to time-shifting and format- 
>> shifting:
>> http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1994/0143/latest/DLM346229.html?search=ts_act_copyright_resel#DLM346229
>> may help as only those with "lawful access" to Sky could use the
>> techniques and they are likely to use it for time-shifting.
>>
>> As with all these things, even if you get legal advice on the point  
>> and
>> think you are okay, are you going to risk it for helping strangers  
>> on a
>> mailing list?  It certainly isn't the first time that DRM etc. has  
>> been
>> used to protect monopolies and stifle competition.
>>
>> Welcome to NZ's DMCA.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Aaron
>
> I'd have to side with Yuri on this. There's no circumvention of TPM  
> *if*
> you're just using the sky feed like any other in MythTV. Now, if the
> *intent* was to then set up card sharing (distributing the ECM keys to
> people without a Sky subscription), that would be an issue.
>

Wrong.. Very very wrong.

To watch a DVD under Linux you are circumventing TPM as you aren't  
using a licensed program, likewise if you watch Sky. If sky provided  
software to do this under Windows/Linux/Mac etc then we could do it  
legally, methods like ndscam etc aren't just borderline illegal, they  
are illegal under the new laws.

> To put it another way; the idea of decoding sky digital on your mythtv
> box is replacing the sky decoder hardware. One still requires the
> subscription card in order to watch only the channels that have been
> subscribed to. There is no breach of copyright. Your Sky contract  
> may be
> breached but that is irrelevant in the context of instructing others.
> There's no law against telling someone how to break a contract.
>
> At a guess I'd say that there would be lots of individuals on this  
> list
> who would like to integrate Sky into their mythtv setups merely to  
> save
> quality loss capturing from an analogue card, transcoding, ir  
> blasting,
> etc.
>
> On that note, if anyone has Sky and would like to test Mythtv
> integration, I have a spare phoenix serial card reader (the jaycar $60
> kit) that can be borrowed for a month or so.
>
> Sam.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtvnz mailing list
> mythtvnz at lists.linuxnut.co.nz
> http://lists.ourshack.com/mailman/listinfo/mythtvnz
> Archives http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/mythtv/mythtvnz/

Steven Ellis - Technical Director
OpenMedia Limited
email   - steven at openmedia.co.nz
website - http://www.openmedia.co.nz

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ourshack.com/pipermail/mythtvnz/attachments/20090301/b2a6c861/attachment-0001.htm