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Behind the Satellite Piracy Lawsuit

Posted by michael on from the spy-v.-spy dept.

McSpew writes "This article at MSNBC is the most in-depth coverage I've seen from a mainstream news source about the $1 Billion Canal Plus lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch-owned NDS. For those not familiar with the suit, French direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) company Canal Plus alleges that NDS, a company owned by News Corp (which also owns BSkyB--Canal Plus's biggest competitor in Europe) hacked the smart cards used by Canal Plus and published the hacks on the Internet. Included in the article are conspiracy theories, a suspicious death and a look at the shady characters working for both sides." We had a previous story about this.

4 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Canadian "Grey" market not so grey anymore by Dark+Nexus · · Score: 5, Informative

    One thing about the piracy in Canada that the article fails to mention:

    While the signals have been ruled public domain (and thus don't need to be payed for) since the American providers do not have a broadcast licensce in Canada, it HAS been ruled illegal to sell the equipment for those services.

    Best reference to this I could find can be found here.

    Short version:

    Illegal to buy, but legal to use.

    --
    Dark Nexus
    "Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
  2. If you want background, here's an old article. by peterwayner · · Score: 4, Informative

    I wrote "Couch Wars" more than a year. It's a good introduction to the current world of satellite smartcard hacking.

    http://www.wayner.org/books/f7.pdf

    You're free to circulate it now because I've turned it into advertising ware for my latest two books Translucent Databases and Disappearing Cryptography .

    If anyone has thoughts, comments, or suggestions, write me at p3@wayner.org.

  3. dr7.com by DrXym · · Score: 4, Informative

    This link might help explore the background of this story.

  4. Very US centric article by alistair · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a debate which has been raging in Europe, and especially in the UK for a number of months. Here in the UK, On Digital, later ITV digital, were in direct competition with Rupert Murdoch's SKY satellite services. Yet the suspicion was that millions were being lost by ITV digital by the sale of pirate smart cards, which by the end of the service could be picked up at most car boot sales for about ten pounds, yet would unlock all the premium rate channels for the service. Normally these guys sell dodgy 3rd generation videos, so how did they mange to crack technology which was equivelant in security to the triple DES algorithm?. The following articles from The Guardian offer more information.

    How codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card and Murdoch security chief linked to TV piracy site.

    The Guardian is a left leading broadsheet in the UK which carries influence beyond its half million (UK) circulation figure. Yet it even devoted an editorial to this subject whcih can be read here;

    Breaking the code - Piracy on the digital airwaves.