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Sky Sue BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin Media over Copyright Claim

Mark.J

Administrator
Staff member
ISPreview Team
I happened across an interesting development the other day and I am struggling to find out more information about it, so figured I'd cast the net a bit wider while awaiting official comments.

In short, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales have notified that Sky plc - represented by DLA Piper - filed a copyright claim on 25th May against rivals BT, EE, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. The case is 'Sky UK Ltd. v. British Telecommunications PLC and others', case number IL-2023-000082 (Intellectual Property List (ChD) - Intellectual Property).

At present there's not a lot of information I can find on the context for this case, so if anybody is able to uncover something more then please drop me a message :) .
 
<tounge-in-cheek>
Perhaps it's a reverse class action where Sky is going to head their afformentioned partners in crime up over the use of "Fibre Broadband" which they have all copyrighted and used to describe VDSL FTTC services in the UK. With the exception of VirginMedia who get included for high latency on DOCSIS HFC services.

All as a crime against the Great British public and permitted by our illustrious regulator OFCOM who should also be named in such a claim. They failed to get the industry to a place where fibre investment could proceed at pace earlier.
</tounge-in-cheek>

But let's not totally derail @Mark.J 's quest in his copyright conundrum
 
Well I am just doing an educated guess here. It sounds to be as it's to do with peer to peer sharing of copyrighted material. It can't be Premier League content since the PL itself is after the infringers (see here). So I would say it could the exclusive content, usually from the US, that Sky Atlantic licenses to broadcast in the UK.
 
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...a little birdie says that until the court publishes some details or judgement about the case the it's unlikely you'll get any more information until that point.


Unless someone directly involves leaks something...
 
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So, I’ve learned the application relates to a request to grant a ‘blocking order’, similar in nature to the order granted to the Premier League in each of the last 4 seasons.

The exact details are unclear, but Sky are asking the ISPs to block certain IP addresses from delivering pirated content at times they specify (e.g. to protect content broadcast by Sky across linear channels, such as Sky Sports and Sky Atlantic).

In this way, Sky aren't so much suing the ISPs per se, but since those providers act as intermediaries then they're requiring them to help protect Sky's copyright. In that sense, it's nothing terribly new.
 
And they think that blocking IPs will prevent people from watching it? Those who don't have or know what VPN is will find out shortly. Not to mention that IP/domain can change at any time as they are being reported all the time not by Sky only.
 
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And they think that blocking IPs will prevent people from watching it? Those who don't have or know what VPN is will find out shortly. Not to mention that IP/domain can change at any time as they are being reported all the time not by Sky only.
None of the measures are perfect but most people are “casual pirates“ and will be deterred by simple blocking measures. The “dedicated pirate” is not the target here I think.
 
And they think that blocking IPs will prevent people from watching it? Those who don't have or know what VPN is will find out shortly. Not to mention that IP/domain can change at any time as they are being reported all the time not by Sky only.
This is partly why they leave the blocking to the last minute. If they can interrupt people's viewing enough to ruin that viewing that's all they need. Forcing people to scramble for VPNs to watch something isn't trivial.

Obviously those who use VPNs all the time and never pay for any content will be unaffected. Those who come across a social media post advertising availability of a programme free of charge will be deterred.
 
Can't this just be bypassed by changing your DNS anyway? Much like how TPB is blocked by ISP BT but change the DNS and everything works.
 
No. That was at the beginning now they block the IPs. But either way a VPN will bypass both DNS and IP blocking. how long till the large content producers go against VPN services like in China and Russia?
 
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