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jay_GUNNER
Newbie

Re: Roku no longer supporting VidAngel

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Doesn't sound promising.

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atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku no longer supporting VidAngel

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Roku has no email support address. They also do not have a support phone number. There is a phone number for their general office, but be cautious if you conduct a web search for it. Many scammers manipulate the web search engines to get someone to contact them and pretend to be Roku, but they're solely trying to get a credit card number from you. Roku does not have ANY toll free phone numbers, so that's the first clue something might be a scam.

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

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I am not a Roku employee, just another user.
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rollmebacknow
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku Please Keep Vidangel

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Your petition is no different than being upset a child failed a math test and responding by petitioning for a passing grade. A better approach would be to give the child a math book and suggest he read it, and try again.

Think about this. Really. You want to use the VidAngel app because you have standards that the unfiltered movies/content do not meet. Yet you want Roku to abandon its coding standards. That is what you are doing.

 

@DBDukes  you sound like a wounded brand evangelist condescending to customers like this. Forget being an employee, why would Roku endorse you as a community voice and have you represent them like this if they DIDN'T CARE already. This is all so sickening to me and Roku is not what I thought they were.

 

 

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DBDukes
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku Please Keep Vidangel

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@rollmebacknow 

I'm a Roku user. I'm also a Roku user that knows what he's talking about. The responses I give are accurate. If you have an issue with the function or operation of a Roku device, I can offer good suggestions to help determine the cause, and perhaps resolve the issue.

This, however, is nothing of the sort. There's nothing wrong with anyone's Roku device. What I'm doing here is presenting facts to you and others in a way that you don't like. But the thing about truth is that truth doesn't depend on your liking it or not. The truth is the truth, and it doesn't care if you agree.

The fact is that you and others are asking Roku to lower or ignore their certification standards for a company that violated copyright law for years, was taken to court over it, lost the case, has to pay over $62 million in damages (https://copyrightalliance.org/copyright-cases/disney-v-vidangel/), is now emerging from bankruptcy, and is asking their base to demand that they not follow the certification rules.

Roku is rather forgiving. Those of us that have been around a while remember when a company called PlayOn was so bad about their copyright violations inherent in their apps and business model that the mere mention of them in these forums would get the post locked and occasionally, the user banned. Roku doesn't tolerate apps that facilitate violations of copyright or other content owner rights.

PlayOn changed how they did things. They no longer promote video piracy. In fact, they have an app in the Roku Channel Store. Two, actually. When they changed their business to not be one to facilitate piracy, and were able to demonstrate that to Roku, their app was approved. As I said, Roku is rather forgiving.

I suspect if VidAngel can demonstrate that they are no longer violating copyright law, that they are no longer stealing from others, that Roku will approve an app. VidAngel has put themselves in this position. Like PlayOn, they can get out of it.

I personally have no problem with what VidAngel publicly says they're trying to do. But their history of unethical practices to include violating copyright law do give me some pause.

DBDukes
Roku Community Streaming Expert
Note: I am not a Roku employee.

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ZL7
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku Please Keep Vidangel

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@DBDukes 

I don’t want us to go back and fourth leading down rabbit holes. You seem to have more free time than I do, you like to argue while I find it draining, and I think we might be related. Thanksgiving is going to get more awkward than normal if we continue.

However, no one is pointing this out, so I will. VidAngel did lose the suit. The core debate was whether the actions of VidAngel were altering others’ intellectual property. The court found them guilty, not for the activity, but for failing to ask permission. That was all resolved back in 2020. The Bankruptcy was a corporate law tactic to protect assets and better prepare a defense. That happened in the middle of the case, not after. The bankruptcy is why the case took 4 years. There are different types of bankruptcy. In the case of VidAngel they filed a Chapter 11: re-organization. It's a very common practice in corporate law. Bankruptcy in itself doesn't mean that someone is bad or wrong.

VidAngel actually took everything down until they could get authorization from companies to comply with the Court’s decision. They have been operating on this new standard ever since the suit and all the companies viewable through VidAngel (Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Showtime, Apple TV+, etc) have given permission. There are exceptions; some movies and shows have not given permission, so when you try to put filters, the app will not allow it for this reason.

Taking action in court is a very normal process in this country and losing a suit doesn’t make one an Al Capone in every situation. Going through court proceedings and having the ruling motion against a party doesn’t necessarily make them evil. This was a civil case, not criminal.

All of this aside, I do not wish to deviate off course from my original purpose and intent. I am not here on this forum to have lengthy debates about the court case. I will not discuss this further. My purpose for being here is the petition. The purpose of the petition isn’t to strong-arm Roku or make them do anything. I believe that would be against American values. 

I have Roku and Apple devices. I could easily just go to Apple exclusively, but I prefer Roku. I don’t know if they keep metrics to show how many users use VidAngel, or if they think that VidAngel subscribers will simply drop the matter and continue using Roku without it. Therefore, I am hoping to present signatures to let them know this: we (VidAngel users) love using Roku devices, but we also greatly value the service VidAngel offers. We value that service enough that we will move on to another device that does offer said service.

On a personal note, I think filtering should be a normal option offered along with every movie and show without the use of some third party app. Why wouldn’t you want to capture a larger audience. Hollywood debates on whether to aim for a PG-13 or R rating all the time. Imagine being able to have multiple versions. We already do this with directors cuts, re-releases that go up from one rating to another, and movies that are edited for cable television. 

VidAngel users want filtering options for different reasons, but all of them have taken a deliberate step to filter daily content and they aren’t going to give that up when there are other options that support filtering.

Roku is not responding to VidAngel, according to VidAngel. Roku is not responding to customers who ask about the matter. Roku can choose to decline or accept any applications as they wish, but as far as we know, there is nothing wrong with the coding or the adherence to the conditions and standards. No one but Roku knows why VidAngel has not yet or may not ever be made an official channel, and any statement that purports to know the reason is speculation only.

If Roku doesn’t want VidAngel as a channel, then so be it. Their company, their rules. It would be nice to know why they made the decision though. I personally am not angry at anyone. I'm not angry at Roku, and i'm not angry at DBDukes. Just making that statement because tone and delivery can be misinterpreted through written word, more so than spoken word. 

AngryAnchovy
Streaming Star

Re: Roku Please Keep Vidangel

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This was so perfectly stated!

Please just approve the VidAngel app in your store... we do represent a very large and loyal customer base that will leave our Roku devices behind to follow VidAngel!!!

calipete
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku no longer supporting VidAngel - Take back your privacy!

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Roku is losing us (and all our devices) as a customer permanently. For those of us who also have a Roku TV, simply throwing it away is not an option, even though it will likely try to continue to spy on our streaming activity long after we ditch them. There is a solution, however. 🙂

If you want to keep your RokuTV, and not let Roku potentially continue spying on your streaming habits, you can use a filtering device, such as the the one from Circle (meetcircle.com,) or you can add a static route to your router to send all traffic destined to roku.com to an unused IP address on your LAN (e.g. 192.168.1.253.) I hope this helps some of you to take back control of your privacy. Cheers!

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ZL7
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku no longer supporting VidAngel - Take back your privacy!

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Roku doesn't like me including a links to the petition, but I have started a petition on Change.org titled, "Renew support of VidAngel on ROKU." The purpose is quite simply to show how many Roku customers consider VidAngel essential. Please consider signing. Thank you.

ZL7
Channel Surfer

Re: Roku Please Keep Vidangel

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@AngryAnchovy  Thanks for bumping my post. I guess they didn't like me including anything about the petition. If you're interested in showing support, go to Change.org.  The title is, "Renew support of VidAngel on ROKU." The purpose is quite simply to show how many Roku customers consider VidAngel essential. Please consider signing. Thank you.

atc98092
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Roku no longer supporting VidAngel - Take back your privacy!

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@calipete wrote:

If you want to keep your Roku TV, and not let Roku potentially continue spying on your streaming habits, you can use a filtering device...


Simpler than that. Simply disconnect it from your network. You won't get any future updates, and none of the apps will work, but it will still work just fine as a TV for OTA broadcasts, and you can connect a different streaming device via HDMI for your online access. But that's only if you don't intend on using the smart functions of the TV.

Dan

Roku Community Streaming Expert

Help others find this answer and click "Accept as Solution."
If you appreciate my answer, maybe give me a Kudo.

I am not a Roku employee, just another user.
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