the free way to watch television on your mobile that raises doubts about its legality of use

2023-08-04 01:17:46

Whether we are talking about the Women’s Soccer World Cup, following the news live, or simply watching our favorite TV show, one solution has stood out above the rest: IPTV. However, doubts about its legality with large fines and the possible consequences for its operators reveal that using and adjusting this technology It is somewhat more complicated than it seems.

And it is that IPTV is being the target of several attacks, coming from both the private sector and some governments; In a very short time, it has become most divisive technologyat the same time a demon that can destroy the industry, and the savior of those who only want to watch television anywhere.

The reality is somewhat more complex; And it is that, like many other technologies, IPTV is not malicious from birth, in the same way that P2P protocols were not in their day; the key is in the way it is used.

What is an IPTV

IPTV is a type of Internet protocol, which allows video broadcasting live through the same connections used for conventional web browsing, but separate. Its name comes from “Internet Protocol Television”, and the first examples date back to the early 90s, when the first Internet providers encountered a basic problem: the connections back then did not have enough bandwidth to transmit video. live over the Internet.

Originally, “IPTV” referred only to the various methods to solve this problem, such as video compression, but nowadays specific protocols are used, separate from the one used for web browsing (HTTP) and therefore not They have their limitations. Specifically, the great advantage of IPTV is that has a reserved bandwidth, which cannot be used by other applications to guarantee lossless and skip-free video; many IPTV services include other benefits, such as the ability to record shows or purchase content.

The Movistar Movistar IPTV decoder

In practice, we call “IPTV” any Internet broadcast service that is not carried out through a web page, although the methodology is very different from one service to another. For example, there are Internet operators that offer their own IPTV services, for which it is necessary to a decoder device that allows us to watch the broadcasts on our television; but there are also programs that support the so-called “IPTV lists”, with all the necessary information to connect to the service and play the broadcast. That’s not just a practical difference; many times, it is also a legal difference.

Is IPTV legal?

Asking if IPTV is ‘legal’ is the same as asking if web pages are ‘legal’; the question is what web pages we visit and who is offering them to the public. In the case of services with encoders, it’s simple: the seller is the one who has, or gets, the necessary permissions to distribute contentsuch as football matches, movies and TV shows. This is the case, for example, of Movistar’s IPTV service, which includes an HD decoder that must be used to view the content, since this is the one in charge of receiving and interpreting the connection from the company’s servers, without going through Web services.

Using IPTV lists it is possible to watch television channels on the computer El Androide Libre

But there are also servers that offer access to television channels in an illegal or unauthorized manner, which are accessed thanks to the “IPTV lists”, which are basically that: a list with the address and the data necessary to connect to each server. and to each channel that is broadcasting, and that some mobile and computer applications such as VLC they can interpret. The owners of these servers access the channels (usually legally) and broadcast them to anyone who wants to connect; although there are also private servers for closed communities of fans.

The middle ground are those content producers and creators who have decided to broadcast freely through IPTV, whose channels are accessible through the aforementioned lists; in fact, there are legal IPTV lists, which collect public channels or which broadcast without any encryption and are therefore accessible by anyone.

That there is such a variety of uses in IPTV is the explanation of why the question of legality is not as simple as it seems; and the reason why justice has not yet been decided by one party or the other. Telefónica is one of the companies that has fought the most to protect its rights to broadcast LaLiga, recently announcing an alliance with the anti-piracy company, Nagra, to detect and prosecute pirated IPTV networks.

Although in some cases it has been possible to request the blocking of the ‘pirate’ platforms, last June Movistar received a setback by losing the ability to request the block without judicial intervention. In fact, some of the most famous platforms that use pirated decoders are blocked by Spanish operators, while others continue to flourish without problems. Meanwhile, in Italy they are betting on a strong hand, with a new law that aims to fine users who use these pirate services up to 5,000 euros; an extreme that until now has not had a place within Spanish legislation.