[Sussex] Heres a Question. not linux but open source related.

Alan Pope alan.pope at gmail.com
Tue Oct 25 13:10:57 UTC 2005


On 25/10/05, Andrew Guard <andrew at andrewguard.com> wrote:

> > Likewise Sky( or their subsiduary ) could release the code. Theres a
> > fair chance a developer might be interested enough to inspect it and
> > spot a potential issue ?
>
> I can not rember now which firm did write software for Sky+ box's.  But
> if memory serves me correctly they are base in northern England.
>

NDS used to do the software for them, don't know if they still do.
They have an office in Eastleigh so may not be the people you're
thinking of.

> It a real shame Sky isn't owned by UK government like BBC or Channel 4
> as we could of used Freedom of Information Act.  For private business
> this law doesn't apply.
> >
> > The current code obscurity is reducing the chance of someone locating
> > and fixing an issue is it not ?
>

Proprietary software is bad mmmkay ;)

Seriously though Sky and (NDS?) are uber-secretive about their
software, they always have been. There was a real cottage industry in
cracking the code used to encrypt the signal that Sky broadcast in the
past ('season' and 'voyager' software sticks in my mind). I don't know
if that's still the case though. I suspect they'd use that as an
argument for keeping it closed - "if we opened it, we'd lose all our
business through piracy" - the shareholders wouldn't like that.

> Like they really care, they have your money.  The only why for things to
> change is Sky in class action over problems with Sky+.
>

Indeed. Best thing to do if you want some money off is to (threaten
to) cancel your sky subscription. When I cancelled nearly a year ago
now they offered 3 months free if I stayed. I told them the reason I
was leaving was not due to my inability to pay, but because the
programmes were sh1te. The bloke in the "leavers" department didn't
really have an answer for that. :D

Cheers,
Al.




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