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Russian Student Arrested For Revealing DirecTV Secrets

Posted by timothy on from the all-over-again dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Associated Press is reporting the arrest of Igor Serebryany, 19, of Los Angeles for industrial espionage under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. Serebryany is accused of providing details of DirecTVs 'P4' card technology to a number of websites."

15 of 459 comments (clear)

  1. He probably just forgot to tell the police... by unterderbrucke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Information wants to be free!

  2. Real reason for arrest by dr_dank · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to confidential law enforcement memos, he is also suspected of starting the "IN SOVIET RUSSIA" cliche.

    This has a maximum punishment of 20 years of hard labor building beowulf clusters for Profit!

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    1. Re:Real reason for arrest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      The bad news is that in today's new year's presentation, our CEO had the keyphrase "Profit ??" on his slides. Try keeping a straight face then as he explains the question marks refer to the 2003 economy.

    2. Re:Real reason for arrest by Mr.+Bad+Example · · Score: 2, Funny

      Does this punishment also include Natalie Portman pouring hot grits down his pants, or has that been superseded by paddlin'?

  3. Oh great... by gpinzone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mitnick finally gets out of jail, Skylov gets amnesty, and now I gotta endure all the "FREE SEREBRYANY" sigs on Slashdot. When will the madness stop?!

  4. Man arrested for obvious criminal activity... by ErnstKompressor · · Score: 3, Funny

    Any takers?

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    1. Re:Man arrested for obvious criminal activity... by Mr+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

      New headline: "Dumbass Gets Caught"

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      Never confuse volume with power.
  5. Re:How did he get the docs? by jazman_777 · · Score: 2, Funny
    What I want to know is how did he get the information in the first place.

    Mitnick cracked their system, stole the docs, but they were in e-book format, so he used Slyarov's software to decrypt it.

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  6. Well, at least it's not the DMCA... by I'm+a+racist. · · Score: 1, Funny

    It's nice to see someone exploiting another (probably poorly written) law besides the DMCA for a change.

    Is it just me, or do Russians make great targets for this stuff?

    Anyone know some details about this law (I'm too lazy to bother looking into it myself)?

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    Down with Saudi Arabia!!!
  7. Re:Yes, but did he *sell* them? by Mr+Guy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right. So in essence, instead of going to jail for being an obvious criminal dumbass, he's going to jail for being a dumbass with nothing to show for it.

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    Never confuse volume with power.
  8. Re:This is illegal anywhere by Anixamander · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's funny is that Slashdot is reporting this as a YRO article... I'm pretty sure industrial espionage isn't on anyone's list of rights...

    You're new here, aren't you?

    Information wants to be stolen.
    I will now prepare for my first flamebait mod.

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  9. Punished under the Smirnoff Act of 2002 by burgburgburg · · Score: 3, Funny

    You're forgetting the statutory requirement to announce "What a country!" every hour on the hour.

  10. So, uh, what's the URL? by YetAnotherName · · Score: 2, Funny

    Where's the information he stole posted? Purely for scientific research, of course.

  11. Re:Fry him by suwain_2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's doubtful that the original poster meant that they should electrocute the alleged thief.

    But if the original poster were a member of the RIAA, it would be a completely different story.

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  12. kids today by geekoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    in my day we had to actually work to crack a system. social engineering, scopes, reverse engineering. Not kids today, they just steal the documantation and call themselves hackers.grumble grumble, mutter, wheez

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