iPlayer 'loophole' to close on 1 September

[Kepler_452b 77]

Looks like it won't be possible to watch BBC programming any more after August  :(

[Guest]

Source? More info?

[foxmulder 43]

Yes, please provide some more info on this matter. I also like watching documentaries on BBC, so could you please elaborate ?

 

Or is it just spam ?

 

Regards

 

Fox

[NaDre 157]

Yes, please provide some more info on this matter. I also like watching documentaries on BBC, so could you please elaborate ?

 

Or is it just spam ?

 

Regards

 

Fox

 

There is an announcement about this here:

 

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/bbc-iplayer-and-the-tv-licence

 

Some people in the get_iplayer (a widely used BBC ripper)  forum have asked the author for feedback on this, and not gotten any:

 

https://squarepenguin.co.uk/forums/thread-952.html

 

It may just be a legal change, with no demand for passwords or use of encryption. They have not said. In the past the author of get_iplayer ("dinky") has shared any tangible information that he had about API changes. Since he has said nothing there, I think we will just have to wait and see.

 

There is something in the Mirror speculating about this:

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bbc-iplayer-viewers-enter-tv-8547565

[Kepler_452b 77]

Yes, please provide some more info on this matter. I also like watching documentaries on BBC, so could you please elaborate ?

 

Or is it just spam ?

 

Regards

 

Fox

 

 

Here's the url on BBC where I found this:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36942458

 

It sounds like they are going to insist on a paid license to use the Iplayer  

 

That's all the info I have. If there is a way to continue watching BBC I'd love to know about it.  Thanks.

[Kepler_452b 77]

 

Yes, please provide some more info on this matter. I also like watching documentaries on BBC, so could you please elaborate ?

 

Or is it just spam ?

 

Regards

 

Fox

 

There is an announcement about this here:

 

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/bbc-iplayer-and-the-tv-licence

 

Some people in the get_iplayer (a widely used BBC ripper)  forum have asked the author for feedback on this, and not gotten any:

 

https://squarepenguin.co.uk/forums/thread-952.html

 

It may just be a legal change, with no demand for passwords or use of encryption. They have not said. In the past the author of get_iplayer ("dinky") has shared any tangible information that he had about API changes. Since he has said nothing there, I think we will just have to wait and see.

 

There is something in the Mirror speculating about this:

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/bbc-iplayer-viewers-enter-tv-8547565

 

 

On the squarepenguin site I found this:

 

"I don’t have a licence. What will I need to do?

From 1 September 2016 you will need to be covered by a TV Licence if you download or watch BBC programmes on demand, including catch-up TV, on iPlayer. If you are not licensed, you risk prosecution and a fine of up to £1,000^* plus any legal costs and/or compensation you may be ordered to pay."

 

This would sound like IP tracking after the fact is the only means of enforcement.

 

Perhaps someone who uses Iplayer in the UK could explain if a password/account number/login is required to use Iplayer?

[zhang888 1066]

This depends on the actual technical change that is going to be implemented.

Sounds like another wording of DMCA.

[me.moo@posteo.me 80]

None of this will affect internet access in any way (yet!); it is all to do with the UK's TV licence. It is a requirement in law to have a licence to watch ANY live television broadcast in the UK but the payment goes only to the BBC (this is how the BBC is funded). In recent years more and more people have not been buying a TV licence and using the defense that they only ever watch catch up TV or equivalent and never the live programmed output of any broadcaster. This is what will change - the licence will be required for ALL TV broadcasts over any media type, live or not.

 

How this will be policed is not yet known but it has nothing to do with how the iplayer will work at the moment.

[Kepler_452b 77]

BBC to deploy detection vans to snoop on internet users

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/05/bbc-to-deploy-detection-vans-to-snoop-on-internet-users/

 

 

This may be the enforcement plan.

[OmniNegro 155]

BBC to deploy detection vans to snoop on internet users

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/05/bbc-to-deploy-detection-vans-to-snoop-on-internet-users/

 

 

This may be the enforcement plan.

This plan only effects unencrypted WiFi. So use Ethernet and a VPN. Suddenly you are invisible to the trolls.

[Artful Dodger 23]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/06/bbc_detector_van_wi_fi_iplayer/

[Staff 10018]

Is this a parody or some elaborated joke? It sounds hilarious, to say the least. And technically it is totally ineffective, irrelevant.

 

Kind regards

[me.moo@posteo.me 80]

Is this a parody or some elaborated joke? It sounds hilarious, to say the least. And technically it is totally ineffective, irrelevant.

 

Kind regards

 

It is total nonesense and insanely hilarious. These vans used to troll about all over the place in the 1960's/70's picking up signals given off by TV sets. To say they can use anything similar today is ridiculous. Not a massive amount of thought has gone into any of this unless the BBC and civil service executives are even more incompetant than previously thought.

[Artful Dodger 23]

It is no joke, these vans are 100% real, but the only thing that can be found in the back of the BBC detection vans:

1. A slight smell of body odour.

2. Stale cigarette smoke.

3. Last nights fish and chips wrapper.

4. Some well thumbed top shelf mags.

5. A bottle with urine in it.

 

Be afraid people!!!

 

[Kepler_452b 77]

Unfortunately Brits are the most surveilled people on earth. The average Brit is photographed hundreds of times per day. Orwell would feel vindicated. The creepy vans could be using some kind of TEMPEST attack to reproduce the monitor displays in British homes in real time and actually watch what they're watching. A small example of what a surveillance state (or clever hacker) is capable of.  But this would exceed the limits of invasion of privacy in any real democracy.

 

https://hackaday.com/2015/10/19/tempest-a-tin-foil-hat-for-your-electronics-and-their-secrets/

 

But from Artful Dodger's Register post, it looks more like they're thinking a correlation attack which would probably be pretty useless as mentioned by Staff and others. After September I guess we'll find out what they are actually up to. But neither correlation nor TEMPEST should stop out-of-country watching by vpn.

[Kepler_452b 77]

Hmm, it just occurred to me that the emr leakage from a properly designed VR headset (like Oculus Rift) would probably be to small to monitor at a distance.

[NaDre 157]

I think the only hope the BBC would have of stopping unauthorized use (by people in the UK) is to require login, and perhaps even encryption.

 

The thing is, are all those people who using the service with authorization going to be unhappy now?

 

"Why are they making me do this? I'm a tax payer!"

 

While a company like Sky may be able to do this and weather the storm of complaints, the complaints if the BBC does this will be a concern for politicians. They may side with the public and demand that the BBC stop this unauthorized use but not with such onerous measures.

 

For those of us outside the UK, though, I fear that there is lots more that the BBC can do.

[Kepler_452b 77]

I would argue that blocking overseas watching would be a dead-ender approach for Britain. Just as millions of people around the globe tuned in to BBC Radio for decades for their news, now millions of people around the globe tune in to BBC for news and entertainment (whether authorized or not). Keeping your brand (Britain, BBC) in front of the globe's population is one of the most powerful things a country can do.

[Staff 10018]

The creepy vans could be using some kind of TEMPEST attack to reproduce the monitor displays in British homes in real time and actually watch what they're watching.

 

Unless the average British citizen uses electronic equipment from 20 years ago, side-channel attacks can succeed in some cases when the attacked equipment is 2-3 meters away from the attacking equipment. Good luck in bringing a van 2 meters away to every and each electronic equipment in UK houses.

 

While it's true that some side-channel attacks techniques are covered by military secret, so we might be ignoring something essential here, it's questionable that such secrets will be made available to "civil" BBC vans. It is reasonable to assume that such an action would expose the secrets to the unavoidable leaks which would bring them into the public domain in a matter of hours.

 

Kind regards

[OmniNegro 155]

A WiFi antenna in a Coffee can allows amazing reception in a particular direction. But with encryption and even basic common sense, it is only the dumbest of people who leave anything at all to be seen.

 

As I said before, Ethernet is the solution. Cat 6 Ethernet is cheap, and you cannot read it from any distance without breaking into the network in a way that is still quite illegal even in the prison that England sounds like it must be.

 

And if you must use WiFi, by all means use good encryption. Even cheap devices like common consumer routers can handle 128 bit AES with ease. And so far, no-one has *EVER* broken a single AES key. Not even once.

 

So there you have it. This is FUD. England is spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in order to try to extort the citizens that are already paying for the content to pay even more.

[Artful Dodger 23]

I don't know Staff these vans still look scary to me;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LweldrmZh50

 

 

The BBC are going to try to scare people in the UK, but lets face it. They got around 3.7 Billion in 2013/14. That is a racket worth protecting.

 

Joking aside people go to prison in the UK for this.

 

http://www.cityam.com/article/1377046054/exclusive-tv-licence-offences-responsible-tenth-all-uk-court-cases

 

How much does a Ethernet cable cost, if they could hack your wifi and VPN, which they can not.

[me.moo@posteo.me 80]

England is spreading Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt in order to try to extort the citizens that are already paying for the content to pay even more.

 

England is not spreading anything, this has been picked up as if it will affect the world which it won't. It is a simple small change in UK law for the UK only. The fact that the BBC iplayer's current overseas blocking can be circumvented has nothing to do with any of this. No one is being extorted; 99.99% of viewers pay for a TV licence with no problem and always have, it is because of this that the BBC exists and does what it does. No one is being asked to pay more!? Most people pay 10 times more for satellite TV/Internet/Comms lines on top of the TV licence.

[Kepler_452b 77]

Do they get free tv in jail?

 

Room and board?

 

Free clothes?

 

Medical care?

 

Dental?

 

Might be a good option for homeless people if they can figure out how to get caught watching tv without a license.

[OmniNegro 155]

I don't know Staff these vans still look scary to me;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LweldrmZh50

 

 

The BBC are going to try to scare people in the UK, but lets face it. They got around 3.7 Billion in 2013/14. That is a racket worth protecting.

 

Joking aside people go to prison in the UK for this.

 

http://www.cityam.com/article/1377046054/exclusive-tv-licence-offences-responsible-tenth-all-uk-court-cases

 

How much does a Ethernet cable cost, if they could hack your wifi and VPN, which they can not.

I am not sure if you were seriously asking, but Ethernet really is very inexpensive. I bought a 50 foot (15.2 Meters)Cat 6 Ethernet cable just a few days ago for $12.99 USD from Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0134QJH4G/

[Kepler_452b 77]

It seems I've become obsessionally interested in British TV licensing and clearly need to seek treatment (or have cocktails).

In the meantime I've found this piece. The BBC administration is opposed to an encryption and subscription model for several reasons including that it would cost £500 million to retrofit millions of Freeview TV sets to accept encryption/login. Presumably this would apply to Iplayer too.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/bbc/11444921/Could-the-BBC-survive-without-the-licence-fee.html

So it's probably safe to say the BBC will not be encrypting or requiring login anytime soon.