Toledo Uncappers Getting Shafted

Jacob writes "Broadband Reports has a well written article detailing the plight of those Ohio cable modem users who found themselves facing gun wielding FBI agents for uncapping their cable modems. Buckeye Cable has clearly crossed a line and the tech community and consumer groups should be all over them like a wet, angry rag. Kudos to Broadband Reports for not letting this thing die." Granted, those who were indicted were violating their service contracts, but having their posessions siezed by FBI agents is overkill.

Comments

sucks to be them

[tps12]

While I can well imagine that being woken up by the FBI knocking down your door can throw your whole day off, I don't really have any sympathy for them. They were breaking the law, probably in more ways than one. From the fact that we know they were stealing bandwidth, we can assume that a) they were all pretty computer-savvy and b) they were transferring large amounts of data. Sounds to me like they were pirates and hackers, trading in illicit files, virii, mp3s, and hacking tools like BackOffice and PacketSniffer. Hopefully they've learned their lesson and this will serve as a warning to other criminals. The Internet is better off without them.

Welcome to America

[ryochiji]

Welcome to America, the land where the poor and the weak are punished, the powerful and rich rewarded.

Oh, and apparently, if you don't like that, you're supposed to go to Canada or something.

Re:Welcome to America

[ethereal]

They're supposed to pay a higher percentage; that's what makes it a progressive tax system. The whole point is to support (at some very basic level) all of society, requiring more support from those who are more capable of providing it. Until I see rich folks giving away their money because it hurts too much to keep it, I don't imagine that it is too incredibly painful being rich. They're still doing better than everybody else, just not quite as much better as they would under the sort of plutocracy you dream of. The rich derive an incredible amount of benefit from the government compared to other countries (in the sense of having guaranteed stable banks, not having to hire your own personal army for bodyguards, and ease of access to political life); it makes sense that they should chip in more for the privilege.

Terrorists

[Cytlid]

I'm glad the FBI puts so much effort into stopping people from uncapping their cable modems, instead of ohh, say preventing aircraft from flying into buildings.

Re:Isn't this America?

[medscaper]

Yeah, I call bullshit on that one, at least a bit. While I don't feel that the current laws are perfect (are they ever?), I think that it's a hell of a deterrent to tell friends, "yeah, I got caught with three nickel-bags, and they took my f*cking CAR, dude!" And, while being proven innocent SHOULD get your car back, I think it's a great additional deterrent. I think there was a big deal about this a couple of years ago, when their were some criminals crying that they had their stuff taken AND got jail time, which was tantamount to being tried twice for the same crime or something...

In this case, it was simply retarded for them to confiscate anything, but in cases like drug offenses or DUIs, I'm all for it.

FBI == Stasi

[Marijuana al-Shehi]

Never forget.

Lock up the damn thieves

[codepunk]

Plain and simple I pay a premium price for 1.5 and by god if some fool is not paying and using my pipe then lock his ass up and throw away the key. Ok the FBI might have been a little over kill, but they need to pay dearly for stealing others service.