DODGY BOXES HAVE come under scrutiny again after they were the subject of a case in the High Court this week.

A ruling by the court has permitted TV company Sky to obtain the details of hundreds of Irish dodgy box users, in a case that could have wider implications for illegal streaming subscriptions. So what’s going on? 

How do dodgy boxes work?

For the uninitiated, dodgy boxes are illegal streaming devices that offer discounted access to thousands of channels and movies on demand.

Instead of paying a monthly fee to a television provider or streaming service, dodgy box users pay an upfront fee to another person to obtain a box (or USB stick) that plugs into their TV, then an annual fee to access the service.

They look and feel like normal TV packages, but are usually a fraction of the cost of legitimate subscriptions with much wider access: you can use them to watch everything from traditional channels and live sport, to films and series on demand.

As a result, they’re seen as a scourge by TV content providers, who feel they are being undercut by people abandoning subscription services in favour of illegal streams.

Why are they in the news again?

On Wednesday, the High Court gave permission for Sky to obtain the details of 304 dodgy-box users as part of an ongoing court case aimed at tackling the problem.

Sky launched a civil action against Revolut after the 304 users used the banking app to pay re-sellers, the people who sell dodgy boxes and subscriptions.

Judge Brian Cregan therefore ordered Revolut to provide the names and addresses of those users to Sky, as well as the details of 10 re-sellers.

Sky plans on using this information to take legal action against some of the dodgy box users and the resellers.

Should dodgy box owners be worried?

It’s hard to say at this stage what impact this will have.

Sky’s High Court case only targets a handful of the country’s dodgy box users out of potentially hundreds of thousands of people – a survey by the Irish Independent suggested there may be as many as 400,000 of them in Ireland.

But the precedent set by the High Court may have a chilling effect on users or people of thinking of getting a dodgy box.

The law is clear and penalties for using a dodgy box can be quite severe: the Copyright Act 2000 says that people who use illegal streaming services can face a fine of up to €127,000, or a maximum of five years in prison.

This isn’t the first time this kind of thing has happened though, is it?

No, issues around piracy and illegal streaming have been ongoing since the internet was adopted en masse three decades ago.

Various court cases have been brought by different organisations over the years in an effort to block Irish internet users from downloading music or streaming TV shows illegally.

In 2013, six Irish internet service providers were ordered by the High Court to block access to The Pirate Bay website – a torrenting website that facilitated the downloading of copyrighted material free of charge and without the copyright holder’s approval.

Four years later, the Commercial Court also ordered nine internet service providers to block three websites that enabled users to stream TV shows and movies for free.