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My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

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Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#161

Related (7 years ago): https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/8q1j0o/la_liga_uses... - Bars, pubs and other public establishments have to pay around 200€/month in order to show football on their TVs while the household package goes between 10 and 30€/month. - The official app, with over 10 million downloads, asks you for microphone and GPS permissions. - La Liga remotely activates the microphone and tries to detect…

I would never agree to this. But it doesn't strike me as particularly unethical, either. So long as both parties understand what they're agreeing to, this seems perfectly fine. If, for example, the NFL ever did this, I would just not watch.

The whole copyright institution seems pretty unethical to me. It's wild that someone can own the royalties to a particular piece of content for 70+ years after the original creator dies (at least that's the law in the US, I assume similar elsewhere), and that the creator can unilaterally name his price for licenses to that content (you can't even know if you want the content without first paying for a license to consume it) and then if you want to put the content into a different format (for example, if you own an HD Blu-Ray and want to put it on a hard drive) you effectively have to pay for a _new license_ for the same content. This is just scratching the surface of the ethical bankruptcy associated with intellectual property.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#162
post #83

Football is wild. Imagine countries and governments collect taxes. Then they use the taxes to buy petroleum products from Qatar. Then Qatar spends €262 millions on a single football player and gazillions on a European club, which is at €889 million loss over the last five years In the end, who is paying for it all? Ordinary people ultimately foot the bill – whether through higher energy prices, taxes, or the opportun…

Sounds like a good deal for Europeans and a terrible for Qataris. Europeans get the oil, Qataris get to brand football stars and make decisions at some clubs.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#163

Related (7 years ago): https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/8q1j0o/la_liga_uses... - Bars, pubs and other public establishments have to pay around 200€/month in order to show football on their TVs while the household package goes between 10 and 30€/month. - The official app, with over 10 million downloads, asks you for microphone and GPS permissions. - La Liga remotely activates the microphone and tries to detect…

> In addition, it uses the geolocation of the phone to locate exactly where the establishment is located. How much do GPS/Galileo/GNSS jammers go for nowadays?

In days of prison time?

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#164

In Italy something similar is happening: they have split the football game rights among different competitors, so that if you want to watch every game you have to spend >100€ monthly (that's very high for our economy). To this, add the facts that there has been a major hit to illegal streaming piracy and that football games are getting extremely boring in our country (compared to the Premier League or our Serie A of…

The main reason I don't watch any one it is because it's all locked away under expensive subscriptions and I don't really live in a place with great football matches, so yeah...I'd actually be into it if it was accessible, I just couldn't be bothered figuring out how to watch it, nor can I afford 100 euroes a month.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private corporations acting like police, engaging in illegal wiretapping and eavesdropping at massive scales to detect and punish crimes as defined by themselves. We truly are living in a cyberpunk dystopia.

It's clearly not illegal.

Often it’s not. Back when Sony put a Windows rootkit on autorun on music CDs just in case someone wanted to rip a FLAC, that was a felony violation of the CFAA in the US. The big difference is consent. If I use your app to watch a game and the conditions of using your app include giving you microphone access, that’s legal. If you breach my phone to turn on the mic and listen to me, that’s illegal.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Bars, pubs and other public establishments have to pay around 200€/month in order to show football on their TVs while the household package goes between 10 and 30€/month. This is common in Europe in general, also for copyrighted music. If your establishment wants to play recorded music, even just playing the radio or Spotify on the background, a copyright royalty fee has to be paid. Applies to all venues and even…

Do bars in the US just show matches on a residential cable tv connection?

Small bars, yes. There are limits to the square footage, and the number and size of TVs - above which you need to purchase a commercial license.

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#167
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, governments don't literally wire tax money straight to Qatar for oil. But whether it is at the pump or through subsidies, it is still ordinary people who end up carrying the cost — and that money gets recycled into football vanity projects.

I mean, if you're going to consider indirect transactions too, eventually every part of the economy ends up affecting every other part. That money that goes into those projects doesn't just vanish, it gets spent and flows back out into the economy.

I think you know what they mean...fuel is subsidized by the government, and Qatar winds up with the subsidized money. Need it be more complicated?

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#168
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair point, governments don't literally wire tax money straight to Qatar for oil. But whether it is at the pump or through subsidies, it is still ordinary people who end up carrying the cost — and that money gets recycled into football vanity projects.

I mean, if you're going to consider indirect transactions too, eventually every part of the economy ends up affecting every other part. That money that goes into those projects doesn't just vanish, it gets spent and flows back out into the economy.

From a wider perspective it does vanish in terms of productive value: billions go into inflated transfers and club losses that generate little beyond spectacle, instead of going into things that improve lives (cheap energy, infrastructure, innovation, public goods)

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#169
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, does that also mean bars have to police what people are watching on their phone, otherwise risking big fines? E.g. I go to the pub, have a drink and watch some random LaLiga match on my phone?

No, the bar pays something like 10x the price of a normal subscription to be able to publicly show live Sports as a draw for their customers. In UK/Ireland you can easily identify if the venue in question is paying for the commercial package as it will intermittently display a pint glass symbol in a bottom corner of the screen. Indeed, Sky investigators, who do spot checks, use it to quickly ensure that the pub has a…

>In UK/Ireland you can easily identify if the venue in question is paying for the commercial package as it will intermittently display a pint glass symbol in a bottom corner of the screen. Indeed, Sky investigators, who do spot checks, use it to quickly ensure that the pub has a valid pub contract and not a residential contract.

That seems as if it would be so easy to fake...

Re: My game's server is blocked in Spain whenever there's a football match on

#170
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - Bars, pubs and other public establishments have to pay around 200€/month in order to show football on their TVs while the household package goes between 10 and 30€/month. This is common in Europe in general, also for copyrighted music. If your establishment wants to play recorded music, even just playing the radio or Spotify on the background, a copyright royalty fee has to be paid. Applies to all venues and even…

In most EU countries private copying levies are paid to the copyright mafia any time you purchase a hard drive, printer or even a blank cassette. Because you know, you might copy something using it.

Also, blank media levies in no way give you permission to do what you're paying a tax the biggest rights owners for.
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