If You Think it is Too Good to be True, it is
The Superbox streaming box is a device that allows you to turn your dumb TV into a smart TV. The devices are sold at BestBuy and Walmart. It is also sold on Amazon, if you can find it. Amazon killed the sale but if you look for a combined modem and router, you can still find it.
Why did Amazon kill it you ask? The box sells for $400, so it is not cheap, but it claims to allow you to watch 2,200 pay-per-view shows and streaming services like Netflix, ESPN and Hulu for no additional cost. Needless to say this is not legal and technically, but probably unlikely, you could be charged with a felony. Maybe multiple felonies.
Superbox, of course, uses the Wernher Von Braun defense of “once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down”. They say that they are just another Android TV box (that costs ten times what others cost) and they can’t control what people do once they buy them.
Superbox also claims that watching a stream of movies, TV shows and sporting events won’t violate US copyright laws. That is true, if, for example, that sporting event is streaming for free on, say, YouTube. It is absolutely not true if watching that program requires a paid subscription.
And the box is not illegal if you already have a paid subscription to some service but don’t have a TV that can directly stream that service, so that is, sort of, the Betamax defense.
Their homepage includes a prominent message that says the company does “not sell access to or preinstall any apps that bypass paywalls or provide access to unauthorized content.” Why would you put a notice like that on your homepage? To deflect lawsuits, of course.
But in order to see those 2,200 channels you have to CONFIGURE the box to update itself. This includes removing the Google Play Store and replacing it with some very sketchy software called the “App Store” or “Blue TV Store”.
Once you have reconfigured the box, you (and not them) can download malicious software that gives you access to streaming content that requires a subscription. Without said subscription.
If this sounds sketchy and illegal, it is both, but the company didn’t make you do any of this.
The apps, once installed, take over your Internet connection and turn it into a proxy network that allows you to stream content from other owners of superboxes.
The first thing the box does is contact a server in China. What could be sketchy about that?
The company that makes the box has changed its name several times in the last few years. The company’s address is a UPS store in Fountain Valley, California.
It also integrates Grass.io, a [possibly] legitimate app that allows a user to earn points by letting it use your unused Internet bandwidth. You can earn points and possibly earn some crypto if you refer 221 customers to them.
There is a lot more here if you are interested. As usual, Brian does a real in depth investigation that he is known for.
For you, probably, all you need to know is that if it seems illegal, if it sounds illegal, it probably is illegal. Just saying. Stay away. Far away.
Credit: Brian Krebs
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