Behind the Satellite Piracy Lawsuit

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.

Comments

What are we going to do tonight Rupert?

[bobdown2001]

Same thing we do everynight Pinky.......Try to take over the worlds media!

'Encouraged Piracy'

[Thomas M Hughes]

From the article:

There's also a long-standing notion that piracy is good for the business. In an odd twist, tacitly allowing people to watch pirated TV is a way to gain market share, since many pirates eventually give in and convert to paying customers.

I hadn't expected to hear that on MSNBC. In fact, I'm led to wonder if the 'higher ups' even know of this policy. The management of media companies seem to be more prone to saying things like "Ad skipping is theft!" "Napster costs us billions each year." etc, etc. One really has to wonder why big media is really cracking down on piracy, if they have people in their ranks who have been encouraging pirates all along.

Re:'Encouraged Piracy'

[liquidsin]

Probably because making such a stink about it brings it to the attention of your average joe. I'm sure a lot of people didn't know about napster until it was all over the media for being evil. Wave it under their noses, show them it's there, then when they get hooked on the free stuff, take it away and they'll pay for your product to get it. Kind of like how a drug dealer works...

Canadian "Grey" market not so grey anymore

[Dark Nexus]

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.

Very US centric article

[alistair]

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.