ChatterBank1 min ago
Is It Legal For Bt To Hack My Personal Hardware And Overbrand It With Their Own Bt Tv Logo And Software
5 Answers
I have a Youview BOX that i have personally purchased that is not branded to a service provider and i do not subscribe to any form of tv service from a service provider, although two service providers BT AND TALK TALK badge and use the same model of Humax box for their tv services and would provide them badged externally and with their own user interface.
I use my youview box solely for freeview tv and catch up.
My box has been connected to my virgin line with no issues for three years.
I have recently changed service provider to BT and within days i have found that my own personal hardware box and its software has been hacked and hijacked by BT themselves, it is now running the BT TV product badging on all pages within the user interface , and when retuning channels it runs a video advert for BT.
BT may be my service provider but they are NOT my TV provider and either do i subscribe or want to subscribe to their TV products, so what gives them the right to completely overbadge my personal hardware with their own software. How is this equivalent.
My equipment was purchased by me , at a substantially higher price than the same BT equivalent badged box. My Humax box was unbranded other than to the Youview product and was the reason i purchased it.
I have complained to both BT AND YOUVIEW who state that the box takes on the badging and advertising tv product of the service provider that it is connected to dependent on the ip address the box is given.
What next, they provide a bt logo all over my own phones, computers and tablets. Of course not because that would be a total invasion of my privacy and an abuse of their power as a service provider.
My question is, are they breaking competition law by hacking and hijacking my own personal tv set top box and loading it with their own interfaces and advertising as if my equipment had now been provided by them.
I am not happy that my own equipment has been been taken over and the whole skin version of my software replaced with that of a TV service provider i do not subscribe to.
I am not the only one affected by this issue, googling , highlights many people who have had their personal hardware / tv set top boxes hacked in this way.
Where do i stand legally on demanding my box is returned to its previous state.
The large companies are using their position in the market place by muscling in i would say illegally. If my box did not display the virgin logo for the three previous years then it is totally unequivalent if BT can force its branding on kit that does NOT BELONG TO THEM either via a sales or rental agreement.
I use my youview box solely for freeview tv and catch up.
My box has been connected to my virgin line with no issues for three years.
I have recently changed service provider to BT and within days i have found that my own personal hardware box and its software has been hacked and hijacked by BT themselves, it is now running the BT TV product badging on all pages within the user interface , and when retuning channels it runs a video advert for BT.
BT may be my service provider but they are NOT my TV provider and either do i subscribe or want to subscribe to their TV products, so what gives them the right to completely overbadge my personal hardware with their own software. How is this equivalent.
My equipment was purchased by me , at a substantially higher price than the same BT equivalent badged box. My Humax box was unbranded other than to the Youview product and was the reason i purchased it.
I have complained to both BT AND YOUVIEW who state that the box takes on the badging and advertising tv product of the service provider that it is connected to dependent on the ip address the box is given.
What next, they provide a bt logo all over my own phones, computers and tablets. Of course not because that would be a total invasion of my privacy and an abuse of their power as a service provider.
My question is, are they breaking competition law by hacking and hijacking my own personal tv set top box and loading it with their own interfaces and advertising as if my equipment had now been provided by them.
I am not happy that my own equipment has been been taken over and the whole skin version of my software replaced with that of a TV service provider i do not subscribe to.
I am not the only one affected by this issue, googling , highlights many people who have had their personal hardware / tv set top boxes hacked in this way.
Where do i stand legally on demanding my box is returned to its previous state.
The large companies are using their position in the market place by muscling in i would say illegally. If my box did not display the virgin logo for the three previous years then it is totally unequivalent if BT can force its branding on kit that does NOT BELONG TO THEM either via a sales or rental agreement.
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Buying a Youview box (just like buying a router) doesn't get you anything at all other than a lot of electronic components. Just like a router, it doesn't do anything at all until you use it to access a service.
That service provider is then free to deliver up their own (branded) version of such a service to you. It's perfectly normal and perfectly reasonable.
That service provider is then free to deliver up their own (branded) version of such a service to you. It's perfectly normal and perfectly reasonable.
You can use the Humax box to watch TV and Freeview without an internet connection, but as soon as you access catch up and iplayer, you are using the BT service and its at that stage that you see their logo. I dont think they have hacked your equipment but are displaying the logo once you link to the service.
The box displays the BT TV logo and badging “even before using any catch up services” even now looking at freeview tv channels in the tv guide the BT TV LOGO is in the corner, the BT TV garish purple colouring has been applied to my personal hardware by way of them applying their skin to the user interface. It doesnt just show BT PLAYER as an app, it has the whole BT TV user interface which i do Not subscribe to.
My box prior to this was running RETAIL UNIT YOUVIEW software .
If i were to plug in my own retail purchased netgear router to my BT broadband line,then i am pretty sure that it would not take on a bt software just because it is connected to a bt ip address.
As i said before it is acceptable to have a new icon for bt player similar to now or netflix, but not to rebrand my whole user interface with BT TV software with their logo on every page with a whole bt colour scheme and bt tv videos which run as tuning happens.
This box ran absolutely fine for three years with the basic YOUVIEW interface which allowed ALL tv and catch up services to run without issue. But as soon as my personal hardware is connected to bt, the Youview interface has been removed and replaced by Bt’s own.
Its not right
My box prior to this was running RETAIL UNIT YOUVIEW software .
If i were to plug in my own retail purchased netgear router to my BT broadband line,then i am pretty sure that it would not take on a bt software just because it is connected to a bt ip address.
As i said before it is acceptable to have a new icon for bt player similar to now or netflix, but not to rebrand my whole user interface with BT TV software with their logo on every page with a whole bt colour scheme and bt tv videos which run as tuning happens.
This box ran absolutely fine for three years with the basic YOUVIEW interface which allowed ALL tv and catch up services to run without issue. But as soon as my personal hardware is connected to bt, the Youview interface has been removed and replaced by Bt’s own.
Its not right
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