County Monaghan is included in a list of 22 operators suspected of supplying so-called dodgy boxes for TVs. All of those on the list have been issued with cease and desist orders by the UK-based intellectual property protection organisation, FACT.
Of the 22 operators given a warning from FACT, three quarters have stopped supplying the illegal equipment. Dodgy boxes are USB devices that plug into your TV or laptop. Suppliers have downloaded a multitude of TV channels and streaming services onto the USB, sometimes, for a one-off fee, which enables viewers to watch many channels for free thereafter.
Chief Operating Officer at FACT, Eddy Leviten, told the Joe Finnegan Show earlier, that those people in Monaghan who bought a dodgy box or firestick could be acting illegally and may have wasted their money: "Over three quarters of the people we contacted have stopped using firesticks and services have stopped so, end users are unable to access content," Mr Leviten told Northern Sound, "people who've we visited or wrote letters to have stopped selling the firesticks and the services have stopped as well so, the end users then are unable to access the content so they've thrown their money away by doing that."
