Developer shuts down Roku app after admitting piracy

The Desk ^ | 6/22/2022 | Matthew Keys

[Republican Wildcat]

The developer of a popular underground Roku app that offered free access to streaming and over-the-air broadcast channels has shut down his project after admitting he did not have the legal right to distribute some streams offered through the service.

In a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday, Free2View (F2V) TV developer Georges Brunet said it was not his intention to pirate the copyrighted signals of commercial broadcasters, but admitted he didn’t obtain permission from the providers of certain live streams before offering them to his customers.

F2V TV launched as an underground project two years ago. Last year, the service was officially distributed through the Roku Channel Store after Roku announced it would stop supporting private, non-developer channels on its platform.

The majority of the content offered on F2V TV originated with streams that were distributed through Samsung TV Plus, Redbox and Vizio SmartCast Plus, according to an audit of the F2V TV service by The Desk.

In addition to those channels, F2V TV provided streaming access to around a half-dozen over-the-air broadcast signals programmed by Weigel Broadcasting, including Me TV, Story Television, Heroes & Icons (H&I), Start TV and Decades.

For months, Brunet told F2V TV users that the Weigel channels were “exclusive” to the service and were offered through a “special arrangement” with a program distributor. The channels were available free of charge on F2V TV until earlier this month, when Brunet received a notice from a New York-based law firm saying they were “aware of no such arrangement” to carry the channels on the service, according to a copy of the legal notice obtained by The Desk.

“By streaming Weigel network and their copyrighted programming over the Internet without authorization

[Republican Wildcat]

I thought this seemed fishy. Not only the broadcast channels that were local to some markets, but then he started adding streaming channels that were free on other Roku apps - would not make sense that they would allow their product to be used on another app.

Oh well - most of the content was available on other apps for free, or accessible with an antenna.

[Republican Wildcat]

In case you were wondering what happened to it...

[Seruzawa]

Oh I see. He didn’t intend to violate copyright laws, he just did it anyhow.

[Republican Wildcat]

It is an interesting explanation - he knew the content didn’t belong to him nor did he have permission to stream it, but didn’t intend to stream things that he didn’t have permission to stream.

I’m surprised since this was all illegal this was up for all of those months before it was discovered.

[Wilhelm Tell]

Maybe since he seems to be good at double talk he can explain what the definition of “is” is.

[BipolarBob]

it was a good thing until the cops got involved.

[telescope115]

The headline gave me a good scare. I thought the legitimate ROKU app was being shut down for a moment…
I finally got rid of Comcast for TV (still have them for Internet).
ROKU and SLING TV have everything I want, except for most Cubs games.

[telescope115]

He sounds like Bill Clinton.

[Born to Conserve]

I have a computer in “DMZ mode” that I use to watch streaming services. The browsers have add blocking and malware protection. I don’t pay a nickel and get most stuff as soon as it streams anywhere.

Sometimes the service drops for an hour or so when the authorities mess with the links. Then it comes back running just fine.

We’ll see how long they can stay in operation....

[Republican Wildcat]

I would obviously prefer television for sports (I’m not a huge sports enthusiast, but as my screen name suggests - the second part of it - I am a Wildcats fan), but radio works just fine when I consider the cash that doesn’t get used to have for other things...and still quite a few sports games are on broadcast TV.

[bigbob]

Roku has tons of content for free - a few ads is all.

[Conan the Librarian]

F2V TV provided a great service of over the air broadcasts to we folks who can’t get a decent signal from the over the air (I live in a OTA hole. Sometimes I get a signal after 10pm or so). The main reason I used it was to watch Svengoolie on Me-TV, otherwise, I didn’t really care.

After this, I won’t be buying anything advertised on their channels. They weren’t losing any revenue from this service, and, they WERE getting advertising messages to people like me who they couldn’t reach before.

You can PAY for the free broadcasts via another app, but, I’ll just keep fighting my antenna from now on.

[V K Lee]

Disappointing, to say the least. Just as they cancelled X-TV
years ago, they've silenced this Canadian. Did enjoy the fact he had all CineVault stations in one area. Lost CineVault
70s :-( but their classics can still be found on Samsung TV+

Thanks for the heads up. The past month has been one of non communication. Computer buried on Boot hill and waiting for
replacement was agony.

[minnesota_bound]

I watch the free Pluto TV and Tubi tv thru the Roku box I have. You can also watch on your pc, tablet and cell phone.
A thousand and one tv shows and movies.

[Republican Wildcat]

You might see if LocalBTV is set up for your area. It is on Roku. This is actually legal. Don’t try setting up for an out of market area, though, it would pretty much permanently block you constantly saying “you are not in this area” - unless you have a VPN maybe that would work.