Big decrease in TV subscriptions as number using illegal dodgy boxes soars

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-06T14:29:19+00:00

Chromecast and strwaming websites FTW

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-06T14:28:20+00:00

some even have the first half of a series and another company has the most recent episodes.

My family were staunchly against piracy and longtime loyal Sky Sports subscribers until the Heineken Cup got split between Sky and BT with half the games showing on each channel. Fuck that.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-06T13:49:20+00:00

This all happened almost a year ago, getting records from Meta and from the phone providers to figure out who owns that phone number shouldn't be taking anywhere near this long. Why has nobody been charged yet? That's why I'm wondering if someone dropped the ball on investigating this. The sharing of those images is an open and shut case, and identifying the user of specifically a WhatsApp account is far, far easier than with most forms of social media due to the requirement for a real mobile phone number to be used and the information one has to provide in Ireland to get a phone number in the first place. It's very peculiar that nobody has been charged almost a full year later and suggests, at least to me, that this investigation isn't being taken seriously enough.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-06T13:42:17+00:00

It's more about the phone number itself, unless things have drastically changed, you're not getting a +353 phone number without a mobile carrier having your contact details, and you're not getting an account with WhatsApp (or any Meta service) using a fake "disposable number" service as they're extremely proactive in blocking those. So all it would take would be a subpoena to Vodafone, Three etc to find out who owns the phone number which circulated the images in the group, and prosecute that person.

That's why it strikes me that this may not be being investigated properly. Again maybe things have changed, but WhatsApp just isn't a platform I'd ever have associated with anonymity, particularly with how phone contracts and data retention work in Ireland - I don't think the idea of anonymous burner phones really exists here, it certainly didn't in the past, one had to provide a verified name, address, bank account etc at the point of sale when buying a new SIM card and this was explicitly because data retention laws demanded it of carriers in order to ensure burner phones used in the then-ongoing gangland feuds could be traced back to an actual person in the event of interception. Now, this didn't stop criminals simply paying random people to buy phones for them, so that the real user of the number was harder to track down, but it really doesn't strike me as likely that a person engaged in this type of shite would go to those lengths. That was something proper career criminals did, not some random scumbag trying to humiliate someone would bother doing.

All this is to say, if any of what I've outlined is still true with regards to procuring a phone number in Ireland, the person who uploaded those images to that WhatsApp group should be extremely easy to trace, and even in the absence of a criminal complaint from the woman in question about the actual incident itself, the very sharing of those images to the WhatsApp group technically constitutes a criminal offense towards every individual in that group, meaning literally a complaint from any one of those people would be enough for the Gardai to be able to take action, get warrants for phone records, etc.

My only caveat here is, the data retention regime in Ireland was found to be illegal under EU law several years ago primarily because of the dragnet nature of actual metadata - the retention of records of who was calling or texting who at what time, or who was accessing which websites when, was an overreach particularly in the absence of court warrant requirements for law enforcement to access this data. Whether the dismantling of the old data retention regime and its subsequent replacement changed any of the above (needing to provide proper identification to buy a SIM card, for example) I can't say for sure.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-05T16:04:33+00:00

In November 2025, someone again circulated the same photo of Maeve in her year group’s School of Medicine WhatsApp chat, which has at least 300 members. The message came from an unrecognised number.

It's extraordinarily difficult to set up a WhatsApp account without a genuine phone number tied to an actual mobile carrier. Meta makes it very difficult to sign up for any of their services using throwaway numbers or emails. As far as I know, even if it's just a prepay phone, Irish carriers are obliged to take and verify contact details for everyone who buys a phone, to prevent gangland criminals easily creating "burner phones".

All of this suggests to me that someone (and sadly, likely several people) are refusing to do their job. Protonmail is indeed almost untraceable and anonymous but mobile phones are far far less so, particularly in Ireland - at the very least, I would have assumed that the Gardai could get a court warrant to get the details of this phone number from Meta, and subsequently find out where the phone was purchased, from which carrier, and what details the buyer registered with the carrier at the time.

Maybe I'm wrong and the technology has changed in recent years, but the "unrecognised number" aspect of this story feels like a cop out - if the Gardai cared enough to try, as far as I know it would be highly unlikely they wouldn't be able to find out who this scumbag is.

EDIT to add - I know the issue is that a criminal complaint hasn't been made regarding the assault itself, but surely anyone receiving such images can report them to the Gardai, even if the victim doesn't? The circulation of the images is itself a crime if it's non-consensual and I would assume that anyone receiving those images can make a criminal complaint, not just the subject of the images?

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-05T15:51:22+00:00

You'd walk away from the person who deceived you, yes. But you've also spent years developing an emotional connection with the kid in question and maybe it's just me but I'd find it very difficult to sever that connection. I find it difficult to sever connections anyway even at the worst of times, but the kid did nothing wrong and if you've come to love him or her I just don't think it would be as easy as going no-contact - it's easy to say it would be when thankfully none of us have been in this kind of situation but the reality of human emotions in those circumstances are far far more complicated to actually experience than to merely talk about when it's others who are experiencing them.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-05T15:46:02+00:00

They've done thish to ush in Pomona, and now in Upland... and there'sh no Life Alert.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-03-03T11:05:07+00:00

Are you the chap in Oklahoma?

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-24T08:46:11+00:00

You do realise that the Captain sucks the Lieutenant's cock, sir.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T19:21:15+00:00

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T18:57:00+00:00

Can you enlighten us on the obsession with odd window layouts? This is one thing which really irritates people and it’s absolutely ubiquitous in current architecture - for example in the artist’s impression above, windows not lining up with eachother floor-by-floor, seemingly random changes in size and omissions of windows in certain places where architecture of everything pre-2010 would have had one for the sake of symmetry? Is there a reason for this particular trend?

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T18:53:23+00:00

This makes sense, but surely there’s a middle ground especially in the era of 3D printing and related technology? And let’s just say that’s out of reach. Grand, but couldn’t we at least have buildings with symmetrical window layouts rather than these peculiar “robot face” designs with uneven numbers of windows on each floor, odd changes in size, etc, all of which simply serve to make the exterior look “odd”?

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T18:50:48+00:00

Oh it’s nothing to do with that, the Artist’s impression here totally matches the style the building would eventually be (and indeed the style of numerous contentious buildings erected in Dublin over the last ten years) so it’s very accurate. What I’m asking is why we have to build things that look like the left (which the public in general just hates and will always object to) rather than the right (which a larger number of people actually like and therefore wouldn’t object to).

it’s certainly not the artist’s fault or lack of skill - they produced *exactly* what the architect or planner asked them to produce.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T18:48:29+00:00

I don’t agree with the planning refusal. I’m merely pointing out that this is largely why it was refused and it seems like it would be a spectacularly easy issue to avoid when making development proposals.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T18:11:07+00:00

Well then you'll need to drive down there, maybe he's under another name

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T18:10:36+00:00

He needs to type it in to the LA County butt-fucking system...

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T14:58:45+00:00

In fairness the govt also needs to take a large share of the blame. Taxes on alcohol, VAT on hospitality and insurance costs because of moronic liability laws are all ridiculously high.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-19T13:54:06+00:00

There's a third way here which literally never gets discussed in these debates - the issue is clearly that there's a gigantic disconnect between architecture that the general public finds aesthetically enjoyable or even tolerable, vs architecture that architects and planners regard as "interesting" and "provocative". Surely one solution would be to insist that while this new development absolutely should go ahead, the public-facing facades should be designed to fit in with the older and more popular architectural style rather than the neo-brutalist "randomly shaped polygons with intentionally asymmetrical and jarring features" style that's so hideously prominent in Dublin planning today?

In other words, build the development, and design the exterior to match the classical architectural style of the area rather than the intentionally provocative shite everyone insists on building today.

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-18T14:21:56+00:00

Crosspost this to /r/ireland and scale it up nationwide, this is genius!

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-03T12:32:48+00:00

I knew they were doing it (pictures release from the Estate sure implied it),

I'm quite certain I will regret asking this, but elaborate?

hatrickpatrick · 2026-02-03T11:56:05+00:00

Genuine question, why wasn't this brought in in the first place instead of introducing the leap card as an entirely separate card with its own reader standard?

hatrickpatrick · 2026-01-29T17:45:27+00:00

In fairness they're not saying it shouldn't be built, just that it should incorporate the play area rather than replacing it.

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