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Users Conned by Cable Con
RJ Mansfield writes "MSNBC is running a story on users attempting to con their cable companies being connned. The high-cost filter being sold on Ebay and through email Spam to bypass Pay-Per-View (PPV) digital cable systems is a readily available filter that only temporarily blocks the PPV charges. Users are getting shocked when the cable company then bills the cable user for all of the ordered PPV."
Sounds fair to me, but knowing the type of people who do this, their first reaction is going to be one of "What a second! We weren't told about this!! We were busy reaching around your jacket to get your wallet, we didn't know that you were grabbing ours in the process!"
Suckers; Look what happens when you try to 'Steal' without research.... hehehe
Users are getting shocked when the cable company then bills the cable user for all of the ordered PPV."
I imagine Nelson (from Simpsons fame) saying "Ha-ha!"
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
We had free PPV for awhile, and we couldn't figure out why. We thought that they were charging us the whole time, so we called and asked, they hadn't known a thing. Ah well, all that free porn...
Seriously, are there people here on Slashdot who believe that stealing pay-per-view movies is better than just paying the cable company the $3.25 or whatever for a movie? I'm actually curious if anyone reading this site has tried one of these things, and if so, what the rationale behind using it was.
They that would sacrifice their
Wahhh!! That's so sad!! I need some tissue to dry away the tears!!
Not.
Anyone who is stupid enough to buy one of these devices is getting what they deserve. If you want the premium channels, then pay for them. If you think the cable company charges too much, then complain to them and rent DVDs. But that doesn't give you any right to steal the programming.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
Morons for not downloading a divx movie on Kazaa instead =P
That's much more effective piracy.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Otherwise /.ers everywhere would be either broke or divorced or both.
I just read the article, and the people are getting charged HUGE bills for watching TV that they didnt pay for, live, while it was being broadcast.
Hey they watched pay per veiw, a service that has been around a while and been accepted as being viable, and they are being told to pay for it. They dont even have ground to complain, it would be like getting robbed by a drug dealer who gave you bad drugs!
"well officer, I was trying to by some cocaine, and i found out that it was 50% sugar!"
I just find it funny some people are complaining about about being "cheated" by the product.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
---- El diablo esta en mis pantalones! Mire, mire!
It seems fair to me that someone trying to cheat on PPV charges would get burned.
A more interresting question is who did more wrong... Is it worse to try and circumvent PPV charges, or are the people selling these devices the real bad guys?
Opinions?
.: Max Romantschuk
that these devices are legal?
Talk about a devious ploy... this just reinforces my suspicions that cable companies are run by supervillains with dark hats and twirly moustaches.
And two years from now, the RIAA charges everyone that's been using Napster/Kazaa/Morpheus/Gnutella/Etc for all the music they've "bought".
I just discovered that Ebay is holding shares of the mentioned cable company ! They are the ones that sold the damn thingie while trying to increase their PPV profits !
SUE! SUE! SUE!
Sky in the UK have cottoned on this sort of thing as well. With SKY if you order PPV the box dials up sky to get authorisation. People realised this, unplugged the phone and found that they sky box would then grant them access as it gave them the benefit of doubt.
:) Fantastic
What they didn't realise that they box has a £50 credit limit so if you hit this then it stops. So people then plugged the box back in, it dial sky and they get a bill for £50
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
It's nice to see cable companies doing something about people stealing from them rather than simply blaming it all on P2P, the internet in general, and TiVo. Sucks for the people who now have to pay for all the stuff they might have not ordered if they knew they had to pay for it, but I can't exactly call this unfair.
Nothing from nowhere I'm no one at all
If you reply to a spam, you are going to get ripped off.
Any idiot can find out about "test chips", and other work arounds by using google.
This has been going on for decades...doh!
some guy getting a huge bill as he exits the brothel. "Wait a second! I'm wearing one of these 'magic' condom I bought on e-bay. The ad said I could have sex with prostitutes for free with these."
This is what we're talking about. A little crappy coax coupler. I saw this on ebay a couple days ago, and thought to myself 'This must be a scam -- such a little thing can't work, since real descrambler boxes are pretty large and complicated'. Guess I was right.
ENTRAPMENT - A person is 'entrapped' when he is induced or persuaded to commit a crime that he had no previous intent to commit.
Isn't it illegal to entrap people by soliciting via spam email for them to purchase your illegal product then twisting the screws because they use it? If the government can't do it, why is Big Business allowed to?
Think, the post! Think, then post! Not the other way around!
Actually, your problem is three-fold:
1. You didn't catch the bad link by eye.
2. You didn't bother to use the preview button.
3. You bothered to quote such an idiot as "The Gord" at all. If you've ever been to his store or shared email correspondence with him, you'd realize that he's actually quite a rude moron.
If you actually read the article, it never points out how exactly these customers end up being billed for the movies ordered. If I try to infer how this is done, it seems to me that the customer will only be billed for the programming when either:
a) someone from the cable company comes over and takes a look at the box
or
b) the customer removes the device, and is hit when the box is polled
The article also said that SOME PEOPLE are getting these large bills... but falls short of saying that everyone who buys these things gets screwed. Are some of the people with these things actually getting what they want for free? The article didn't make that clear.
Aside: From the description given in the article, it seems that the design of the boxes is pretty insecure.. and it may be possible to add a (perhaps removable, since I think these boxes are usually rented/on loan) mod to a box which will prevent it from remembering what was ordered.
In reality, from experience these people tend to fall into two camps.... "I don't like digital", and "anything digital is good". And its for the exact same reason: how easy is it to pirate the material and how likely they are to accept change.
The acceptable use norm of material has been founded on the concept of being able to make a copy of whatever and whenever. Old analogue stuff was way too easy for anyone who had a vcr, digital stuff takes some work but once you have it you can ultimately do whatever you like. This is of course not what they owners/licensees want. And unfortunately this philosophy of anything intangible should ultimately be free as it cost them nothing to reproduce goes down deep in modern society.
What is needed is compromise on both parties, companies need to make things affordable instead of gouging consumers and the consumers have to realize that it cost somebody money and time to produce something so they should pay for it. I know this sounds a bit circular and communistic but the reality is that both camps can be happy if they both cooperate.
But this in the end is wishful thinking as the article clearly points out that there's plenty of people out there ready to cheat the system and complain when they get caught.
The high-cost filter being sold on Ebay and through email Spam...
Why is Ebay spamming people to steal cable?
Isn't that entrapment?
It is similar to a honeypot I guess, but I just don't like the aspect of spam being used.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
The key is you have to wipe the memory of the cable device and remove the PPV history, that way you don't ride the cable co. shaft.
With DirecTV, it was on the smart card, and there was a wealth of software to do it.
With cable boxes, there is probably a little button on the inside or a software command. I don't have a digital cable box. I don't know.
If you don't know wtf you are doing and you try to steal, expect to get caught. Theft is like anything else, it requires a clue to complete successfully.
I hate to be a pedant, and I imagine bringing this up will not be a popular action, but can you tell me exactly how the cable companies are 'conning' people here? It looks to me quite clearly that the cable companies are merely charging their users for services that they agreed to pay for when they signed up for service. Is this really a con?
Obviously the real scammers here are the selfish, dishonorable scum who sell these 'filters'.
And no, before one of you "information wants to be free" people chime in, I don't want to hear any bullshit about how the cable companies are 'evil' because they charge you for content.
Only on slashdot can a posting be rated "Score -1, Insightful".
oh you know it was just a double... poor doubles.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Doesn't say the cable companies are conning anyone. It says the users are being conned by the so-called "cable converter con". Please, get an education and learn some reading comprehension skills. Moron.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
now you have learned a hard lesson, trying to fuck with the system, does not and will not ever pay off. Really you should know better by now. But I personally think it's damn funny you A: bought something you saw in spam or on ebay only, B: got ripped off doing it and C: TRIED TO STEAL FROM YOUR CABLE COMPANY. Do you think they became multibillion dollar companies for being STUPID? what in the hell were you thinking? With karma to spare I felt this needed to be said.
information should be free, unless there's a pricetag attached, and in this case there is, it's like trying to take the little "do not remove" dye thingy off a shirt in teh store, you know you're gonna look like an ass when you walk out covered in black dye. Well now these people who admittedly deserve it look like asses. It sucks to have your cornflakes pissed in.
If these guys bought their gadgets from spammers they deserve it double. Keep in mind: Spammers are dumb and/or dishonest. NEVER BUY SPAMVERTISED GOODS!
..Not the seller.
:P)
Ideally, the seller would be at fault. Can you think of anything else to do with equipment to steal cable with, other than stealing cable?
(Rhetorical question - I know some Slashdotters would probably try to put Linux on it.
It'd be great if illegal things were blatantly illegal. It'd be great if we could go after their distributors.
But if we cross that line and say that's the case here, it has repercussions everywhere else. That is, you won't be able to buy a hammer anywhere, either.
It'd be so nice to say, "This is illegal, and it's the only damned purpose of the gear."
We can't do that, though, because lawyers have no common sense and judges haven't the time to read through 30k previous cases like they should be doing.
umm how the hell is this still at 0 and not modded into oblivion ?
As the saying goes.
Though I have to say I'm slightly puzzled by the consensus here that it is wrong not to pay for content and the 'victims' deserved all they get, but elsewhere on Slashdot there is outrage when action is taken against filesharers. When is copyright material not copyright material?
A guy walks into a bar. He says to the other guy, "Hey! I got these great CABLE descramblers for DirecTV SATELLITE systems!" The other guy says "okay, i'll take two! buh-dum-dum.
Seriously, your friend probably has a hacked satellite reciever box. There is a card inside which can be modified or replaced with "all you can get" info on that card. I don't know any more spacifics because i'm a cable person. However, i know a few guys with direcTV who have done this sort of thing.
A Penny for my thoughts? Here's my two cents. I got ripped off!
I believe that he is refering to peoples posts where others are saying cable companies are conning people or entrapping them, you should try getting a clue yourself before insulting others without all the facts.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
...you clear the memory of your cable box? You block the upstream, it unscrambles the show, the box gets bulletted disabled, you clear the memory and then call to report a problem. They reset the box and everything works fine? Sure it might be a tad inconvenient but if you really really wanted to watch that boxing event...
Or, if you can't clear the memory, box um "dies" and takes the bill with it. Return box to cable company and get replacement.
I'm not saying of course these are legal or ethical but I'm just saying that if someone's stealing PPV what would prevent them from doing either of these? Rule number one when you are stealing a service is you don't call tech support. If your box quits working, then, make sure the box *quits working*.
- JoeShmoe
.
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
Man, I thought the same thing after seeing what dept brought us the article. Are we two of a kind or what?
In an interview says, "Man, you just can't trust anybody these days. Everyone's a crook. I feel like I've been robbed."
Police say an arrest has already been made, of the purchaser for possession of burglary tools, when he attempted to file a complaint.
Film, well, you know when.
It's times like these when I fully understand the maxim of W.C. Fields, "A fool and his money were lucky to get together in the first place."
To which he added, "Never smarten up a chump."
KFG
How many times have we heard this? It's thrown around all too often, as if humans have some overriding sense of reality that can tell them what is reasonable, and what is not, when dealing with technology that they have zero experience in. If you don't know how digital cable systems work, you might believe this will do the trick. Then again, if you read this article, you might believe that satellite test-cards are phony as well, but guess what...
"Gee, a $200 computer... That sounds too good to be true, I guess WalMart got into the fraud business. Not me! I'm not going to get scammed into buying their $200 computer."
"Gee, you mean my ability to setup computer networks can get me hundreds of thousands of dollars? Nah! That couldn't be true."
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
A couple of years ago, when i was addicted to quake, lived at home and only had access to dialup i got hold of some strolen accounts. These were not ordinary "free" dialup accounts that looks like just another phonenumber on your phonebill, but a toll-free number that billed the owner of the account.
:)
:)
Yeah, i know, it was a really low thing to do on my part.. but i knew i was not the only one using the account, and the real person that owned the account would never end up having to pay the bill. So i felt i only screwed over a "big company".
I was young and dumb
Anyways, a couple of months later, my ordinary phonebill dropped down in the mailbox. It was a *little* bit bigger than usual. There were no additional notes on the bill and there was no warning about legal actions from the company, so i payed the bill and kept my mouth shut.
I got what i deserved and i learned my lesson
Since it's known that Ebay gives out information about customers to law enforcement agencies, it's probably possible to get information about the peddlers selling the descrambler. Hope they covered their tracks.
-Look lively. LOOK LIVELY!!! --Mr. Shmallow
I hope that all the people saying "serves them right" have the same attitude to this practice.
I'm not sure what the difference is between the large boxes and the coax filter, but I do know that it takes more than a simple coax filter to do descrambling. (There has to be filter tuning, which involves user control, which makes it so you can't just do "Plug-n-Play" of descramblers)
It's my guess that you need a -real- cable descrambler (as in, one from the official cable company) to use the coax filter, and that cable box needs to send data to the cable company to work, so the coax filter blocks one half of the transaction or something. This puzzles me, though, because I think getting the legitimate descrambler box would cost more than it would to get a "pirate" cable box anyways.
Anybody know more than I do about this?
(P.S. NO I DON'T STEAL CABLE. Why would I anyways, all they ever do is play shitty movies that involve naked women and exploding cars and crap.)
For once, the editors are okay here. Break it down:
The "Cable Con" part referred to in the title: "You can get free PPV, if you buy this thingy. Con your cable comany!"
However, those people who think they are going to con themselves get conned, because they actually bought a worthless piece of crap. See how the users got conned by a cable con?
Read the article again, it doesn't say the cable companies are conning people, they are saying that the people selling the devices to steal the signal "conned" people.
... how people here are pointing out the balantly obvious fact that the people who are getting the bills are getting exactly what they deserve, since they have enjoyed a service that they have agreed to pay for, and therefore is only fair if they, well, pay for it...
While a couple of articles back these same people were defending the virtues of file "sharing" networks, where users are comfortably ignoring the fact that they have agreed *not* to redistribute the copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holders.
Really, make up your minds: either file sharing a la KaZaa is ok and the people who bought these devices shouldn't pay for the content they "downloaded" for free or file sharing a la KaZaa is *not* ok and the people who bought these devices should pay for the content they downloaded.
It's very simple: you want content X? You pay for it. Why? Because the content provider says so and we have given them the power to be like that.
>"well officer, I was trying to by some cocaine, and i found out that it was 50% sugar!"
How about I was buying coke and half of it was cut with cyanide and a few friends died? Do we laugh them? If the nanny state says, "No drugs for you" that doesn't mean con artists get a free ride to do whatever they please.
I see no reason why the users of these devices shouldn't sue the retailers and manufacterers for false advertising. Just because something is contra-band doesnt give you the right to do what you please.
Its illegal to make lethal booby traps for criminals and for a good reason too. Not just to protect the police who might stumble on them (or kids or whomever) but because criminals actually have rights! Due process and all. Look it up sometime in the Constitution, its a fading fad thanks to post 9/11 hysteria but its still a good idea.
You must have been reading a different article. I sure didn't see any mention of the cable companies conning their users. But that has been said before.
But what if it really is the cable companies selling these fake filters on ebay? First you sell a cheap device, then you get to charge the unsuspecting viewers. I should have made this into one of those four step '1. sell defective filter 2. collect underpants 3.... 4. profit' jokes. Oh wait a minute, I just did.
This is probably slander. I'll stop now.
Maybe
How could these users be conned by Cable Con? Everyone knows that Cable Con just makes the cables... 'Iron' Jimmy and 'Brother' Nunzio do all the hard work like conning people, and breaking their kneecaps... Jeez, people.
Surprised if Cable Con doesn't sue slashdot for slander.
You're doing it wrong.
Is there any possibilty that it is someone from a cable company posting these things on eBay?
Consider....
The guys selling this or getting burned by this should invoke the DMCA by arguing that the cable companies illegally cirumvented the 'privacy/security' device they happened to have connected to their TV. (arguably, isn't this thing essentially a simple firewall for outgoing traffic)
Now that's fucking funny. Very good. Excellent troll satire.
People here always argue that copying music isn't stealing because nothing is in reality stolen. Everyone seems to agree with that. How is it then that cable piracy is now being called stealing, and everyone agrees with that too. I'm not saying it is or it isn't, but come on, pick a side and stick to it.
I think a lot of /.ers suffer from hypocrisy.
it is ok to con the PPV channel.
it is ok to con the music industry
it is ok to con Microsoft by copying all their software (for those of you who use it)
but when someone else (other article some time ago) violates the GPL by not opening their code, you rant and rave about 'theft'.
seriously, it is all the same.
the only difference is POV.
Int.
then why is his post titled "Smack the /. Editors"? you should try getting a clue yourself before telling others not to insult others without all the facts
That's why you don't buy anything like that until you've done extensive research, and it's been on the market for awhile.
Otherwise you end up like these people and get stuck saying, "What porn? I didn't order any porn honey..." (mumbling)"GOD DAMN FILTER!"
-------
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
-- George Orwell
Satellite TV in Spain (cable didn't catch on) relied on a smart card that contains all the information about what the subscriber has paid for. This meant that if you reprogrammed the card to contain the most recent user codes, you could access all the PPV channels for free. If you have a legit card, it recieves the new codes from the satellite signal itself.
There was a huge underground industry around - it got to the point were people where actually selling cards with PICs on them which would reprogram themselves automatically, getting the info from the satellite signal.
Obviously the satellite company knew about it, as did everybody else. I cannot think of anyone that didn't have one of these cards (if they had satellite obviously). The TV company didn't do anything about it for a couple of years. Why? Market share. The more people that signed up for their service and got a box, at a higher price than it would be with the compentition, the better in the long run for the company. People were signing up left right and center with the expectation of being able to unlock all the channels.
And then all of a sudden - clamp down! The company started verifying the user info in a different way an bingo - millions of subscribers that are addicted to 24/7 PPV.
The people buying these filters are clearly :
1) Trying to break the law by stealing cable content
2) Complete morons
Why is anyone spending time and money taking out adverts on Ebay to warn them?
But I think the number is smaller than you think.
There's also some differences. The law is the law, and if you don't like the price of some goods than don't buy them, but also don't consider yourself morally free to steal them, either. That's the law, and there are a lot of hypocritical people out there that only follow laws they agree with.
On the other hand, the difference between all the things you mention and GPLed projects are that GPLed projects are FREE, and people still "steal" the code. Most people who admit to pirating at least make the CLAIM that if prices were lower they'd go the legal route. GPLed code is out there for the good of the community, and when people steal it the community suffers. You can say the same is true of the entertainment and commercial software industry, but we all know they do, in fact, make quite large profits despite thievery. GPL programmers often donate their code (which is time, and time is money) for free.
I've noticed, though, for some people it's not so much about saving money as it is a moral imperitive to rip off a big company. I disagree with this sentiment, but I hear and read a lot from people who steal content, and reading between the lines that's the conclusion I come to fairly often. That is quite hypocritical.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
Both of you should get clues, quit arguing on slashdot, and go have a sandwich. Am I going to have to pull this car over??
I suggest you learn how to read english.
wow, again we have two 'first post's within the first three post! is that all you people think about?!
.. if you've got something to say, OK! first post is nice! if you've only got gibberish to say you wont find a single person here not thinking "ahhhhr..."!
i mean, ok
That is all.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
For buying spamvertised produtcs. Ha-ha!
It would be cool if, somehow, the blame for this "misfortune" fell on the spammers.
NEWSFLASH - Record companies discover a way to determine who has pirated music over the past 5 years. Millions are billed, sometimes the bills are in the thousands of dollars. Various people whine and bitch about it, but they were stupid enough to download the stuff, so they are getting what they deserve.
Smeghead every day of the week.
Since the legal and financial ramifications have already been discussed...
I understand how the outbound filter prevents the cable box itself from reporting when a subscriber orders a pay-per-view event. I am surprised that no one has designed and built a "smart" filter that would intercept the cable company request and report "no new pay-per-view orders, thank you very much." This seems like a more insidious threat to the pay-per-view system. The cable company's box would "believe" that it had reported all pay-per-view orders, and the cable company home office would always "believe" that no pay-per-view content had been ordered. I assume that such a device would have been mentioned in the article, if it existed.
Sometimes I worry that I'll develop Alzheimer's disease, but no one will notice.
Gee, theft get's thieves caught. That's not only funny, but ironic. They dereve to be nabbed! In other words: fuck 'em. If you steal a signal, especially in today's automatic, managed, bandwidth-capped world, you should never be surprised that you find yourself looking at a bill with plenty of zeroes on it.
:)
God, I love it when this kind of thing happens. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside to see morons, pirates, and general thieves get sent to the cleaners. Caveat Emptor, my brothers.
If you think about it, what could be a better scam. If you are a cable company, sell faulty descramblers through some sort of made up distributor. Then when people start using the devices (and they start to fail) you get all kinds of new revenue.
Kinda like running a stock research site and giving good or bad reviews on companies you have just bought or shorted.
This is the device (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ite m=3013536743). Aside from the name, the write up only says you can get PPV, etc. when the coupler is connected to the appropriate box. Which is true since it is just a coupler. The buyer is inferring from the _name_ that the device will make the viewing free. A court case would revolve around whether it is reasonable to assume a descrambling ability when no such ability was mentioned in the description. The description would be argued as being the seller's definition of the name. Their definition does _not_ mention descrambling. Which makes the scam a rather tidy one.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Then the people feel wronged and bitch when they go to pick up this new TV and get arrested instead.
Tards. They're getting whet they deserve.
The idea of cable descrambling is so you can have another box in your house and not pay the cable company rental fees. Of course this box will have to do it's own cable descrambling so you can get the cable channels you pay for. So in a nutshell, yes it is LEGAL to make such a device but all these devices have a disclaimer on them: IT IS ILLEGAL TO STEAL CABLE CHANNELS, PLEASE CONTACT YOU CABLE COMPANY AND TELL THEM SO THEY MAY BILL YOU FOR THE SERVICE
ALSO: to those that think people get these things to get free $3.50 movies, ummmm the last Roy Jones Jr fight I watched was $49.95... Wrestlemania 100000 is coming up and I'm sure that'll be near 50 American as well.
You know it seems to me that this tool would actually serve a legitimate use if it forced PPV broadcasts in the clear without making me click through. I could then have the TiVo record what I wanted, when I wanted, from PPV.
Hell I don't mind paying for, but that click-through-to-order shit makes it a pita to use with the TiVo.
http://windows.scares.us
So, I hope they used a safe harbor escrow service and that ebay is cracking down on fraudulent sales on their website.
Fraudulent sales? On ebay? Say it isn't so!
I'm sure that ebay will be cracking down on this and other frauds immediately!
Oh, and I've got a bridge for sale, I'll put it up on ebay in a minute...
I'm just worried that many 'fairly honest' people would fall into that sort of trap. Could you imagine if everyone suddenly got billed for the songs which the companies know they downloaded? How many people would be paying large fees then?
Still, I can't help laughing. This story was categorized very appropriately!
Information by it's very nature is free.
So the other alternative is to emmigrate.
Emigrate where?
Everybody knows if you want free PPV & pr0n you need to get DirecTV and a hacked HU card.
Bunch of cable monkeys. Satellite is the way to go.
Bullshit.
The term for this is Theft of Services.
For instance, I'm currently living in a school-owned apartment. In apartments of the type I live in, each apartment comes with a washer and dryer. If one of my friends comes from the dorms, and uses my washer and/or dryer, they are stealing services from my college. I don't think the local rent-a-cops have ever busted anyone for this.
Another case is people using publically available courtesy phones to make international calls. That person got caught, and the phone system was fixed so it couldn't be done anymore.
IANAL
-Xoder
After reading this and laughing (I know a guy that got seriously burned after unplugging his DirecTV's phone line for awhile) I decided to take a look at raymond917's eBay Feedback rating.
He's got a pair of shades next to his rating. Make me wonder if he'll change his moniker after this.
What I found interesting is how much an average person such as myself can find out about someone just by looking at their eBay Feedback and any of the still available auciton listings. This guy likes kickboxing movies, in fact he's bought a number of them since January 1st. He bought a Gunman Chronicles/Survival/Alcatraz mulit-pack at the end of February that he's selling already.
Things like this with eBay make you go hmmm.
d a v e
"Hmmm...upgrades."
WWF Wrestlemania PPV cost $40.
Pro Boxing events cost more than that.
It adds up
I hear New Zeland is nice...
You say
Les Français sont des singes de capitulation qui mangent du fromage.
And I say
Au moins leur fromage n'est pas en plastique, putain d'enculé de fachiste de merde.
And yes, I'm a coward
Is there such thing as software descrambler for TV tuners PCI/VGA cards?
Here in Spain there are 2 digital satellite platforms. One uses SECA2 as its security system. The other one NAGRA DIGITAL. The one that uses SECA2 changed from SECA1 at the beggining of the year, as SECA1 was a completly hacked system. The cards to hack it were sold everywhere and they were sold as programmable cards to use it garage doors. If you were taking them and using them for something different then it was your problem.
Anyway, those cards were easily programmed if you had the knowledge, and also easily updated each month with new decoding keys.
The device itself was legal.
After 3 years trying to fight the hackers they companies that used SECA1 decided to switch to SECA2. They did a better software for the card (actually the system was cackeable because the decoding card software was full of bugs). And they changed the system. The new format till today has not been cracked.
There is another thingie for cable. They are called "cubo" (cube in english) Its a sort of box that goes between the cable connection and the descrambler and filters the signal that the descrambler sends to the cable company. I dont know exactly how it works but I know people that use them.
All the time, people with knowledge and people that understand how it works so they dont make a mistake like the poor fools of the slashdot article.
Get books, Get girl/boy friend, go outside do some sports. And stay away that TV.
This shoud fix all your ppv bug's.
[My english is better than most other people's Turkish, so please point out mistakes politely. Thank you.]
Who would pay for that, when you can download multiracial, teen anal, midget fisting porn for free?
They didn't get cheated, they got what they payed for. They paid $10 for a 98 cent filter that blocks the return path of digital cable boxes. Most cable companies will only allow a few events to be purchased without actually communicating with the cable box. Morons... Don't steal cable services...use your neighbors :)
Why worry? Each of us is wearing an unlicensed "nucular" accelerator on his back.
Sig changed for readability by G.W.
While a 1-{800 | 888 | 877 | 866} number is free to the calling party, except for some nefarious call redirection scams, it is NOT free to the receiving party. They pay for the call. They can receive ANI information detailing which phone number is calling them.
Unlike Caller-ID information which is transmitted in-band (on the same line) between the first and second telephone ring and can be blocked by the dialing party, the ANI service is transmitted off-band and CANNOT be blocked when you call an 800 number. It's always there.
I don't see how this is substantially different from the RIAA or others going on the offensive against users downloading music illegally. Yet Slashdoters jeer these poor jerks who are stealing cable (in the third person), but cheer the freedom-loving Americans who download copyrighted music (should be in the first person).
Don't get me wrong -- I think the RIAA is paddling the wrong way on a roaring river, but the fact is copying music is pretty much the same crime as stealing PPV.
They ought to know you don't buy your cable descrambler off just anyone on Ebay. You should be buying it from your local crack dealer like everyone else.
BTW what about the feedback section on Ebay - wouldn't that make it pretty easy to fix?
Microsoft-Anything users beware.
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
I just sent him an email with the story link so he doesn't get slammed.
I would like it if someone did that for me, y'know?
Could you please sum up the arguments in the book you're referring to? I haven't the time at the moment to actually pick it up. Where did you get the idea that the 16th Amendment never passed, though? It was ratified by 2/3 of the states (more than that, actually), which is all you need. If you're complaining that it wasn't by a direct vote of the people, you're barking up the wrong tree - there's no requirement for that.
Also, if you're thinking of the "Ohio wasn't a state" argument, that has been very convincingly debunked - Taft was born on American soil, so he didn't have to be a resident of a state; Presidents don't figure in the amendment process anyway; and the amendment had enough votes without Ohio's anyway. I expect something more compelling.
Don't waste your time with a moron that got his signature out of a translation engine.
You made a device that not only filters the outbound datastream, but knows how to respond to the cable company polling?
It would be interesting to know if the cable company was bright enough to make the polling/response sequence an encrypted one.
I can also imagine someone figuring out how to blank the local viewing records on the decoder - use the filter, watch your show, blank the record, remove the filter.
P2P != copying music
In a cable service, you have channels that are eligible for and ineligible for when you pay a certain rate. This is the agreement that you have with your cable company. Obtaining more channels (or PPV features) without paying for them in illegal.
P2P is simply a concept - technology if you will - that allows machines to share files. No matter how you look at peer-to-peer transfers, I look at it in its basic parts: machines (peers) sending data to other machines (peers). P2P's concept has existed since we were able to transfer a file from one system to another. P2P's preferred modern implementations make it extraordinarily easy to transfer data - OF ANY TYPE - without having to use the old methods (of which I'll name a few):
1) "sneaker-net", in which case one person would place data on a tape, disk, or other medium to be transferred to another machine.
2) a computer (peer) connecting via sounds-signals to another computer (peer) via modem (or other like devices).
3) a computer (peer) connecting to a web server (peer) via TCP/IP.
The third example brings up a unique point since modern P2P clients generally transmit their data based off HTTP transactions - each client that runs such a client are acting as HTTP servers and HTTP clients.
RIAA is targetting the concept of P2P - the concept which they themselves use to hand out press releases and data to their customer base via http://www.riaa.org.
In the cable example, there are no legitimate (legal) reasons for obtaining channels outside the scope of your contract plan. As we have known since HTML was invented and widely deployed, there are plenty of fully LEGAL and GOOD reasons to have P2P - it's the basic function of the Internet. One peer connected to many different peers transmitting data (irregardless of content). Making P2P illegal is stupid. Punishing companies would provide a technologically innovative application to consumers is also just as stupid.
Let's view a parallel example:
Four people use a 1996 Chevy Impala SS as a fast getaway car that cost a bank a tens of thousands of dollars and injured a couple members of society. If it were up to the RIAA, not only would the perpetrators be locked up, but General Motors would have an injunction placed against them by a ruling judge for providing a vehicle to carry out illegal activites (referencing Napster). This abuse of the judicial system is sickening. It's also disappointing that the people we elect are not properly versed in the differentiate between technology and abuse of available technologies.
There is no computer that inherently attempts to commit illegal acts. Just like a 1996 Chevy Impala SS does not in itself attempt to commit an illegal act. I will even go so far as to say that the Napster, Gnutella clients, Kazaa!, and *Donkey P2P applications also themselves do not inherently commit illegal acts. The problem exists between the chair and the keyboard - if people choose to be dishonest and misuse a product in a which for which it was not intended, the liability is upon them. This applies to the people who wish to obtain cable service above and beyond the scope of their contract.
Ayup
those of us that have em will be set for a long tiem to come...
they are just getting the bills for the stuff they didn't buy ... they're just getting them all at once rather than monthly. This is just the same as unplugging your directtv/dish receiver from the phone and when it sais you can't buy any more PPV plugging it back in and getting billed for everything at once
I never expected spam victims to get bit in the ass by spam. (remember, some of these were sold via UCE.) Yes, the spammer should die, but I forsee this being an EXCELLENT case against spam.
This sig no verb.
If you think this wasn't planned by the cable companies, you've got to think again, they are making tons of money off of this just as telco's were raking in the big bucks off of games which kids download off the internet and unknowingly disconnects them from their isp's and dials an expensive non-free number, which the telco gets paid for.
America, the land of the allmighty dollar, it's really sad.
I bought one of these and plugged it into my cable modem. I didn't receive any porn at all...
Do you beleive you should have the right to do with what you please, any signal that comes into your home?
I do.*caveat below
So if the cable company sends you the signal and there business madel is the filter it after it gets into your home, then there business model is flawed.
If they filter it at the 'cable box' then thats fine.
This isn't a 'there a bad company' statement, it is what I believe regardles of who is sending the signal.
Naturally the cable/satalite companies would say it would hurt there business, but implementing a flawed business model doesn't mean you deserve government protection.
*As long as what I do stays within the bounderies of my property/home. meaning I shouln't be able to rebroadcast the signal to my neighbors, or redistribute a copy of whatever is being broadcast.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
While I agree that it's no one's fault but the person that pushes the button, I don't think it's right to expect that everyone know how everything works.
Yes, if I get into an Indy car, I expect to be killed because I have no idea how it works.
Maybe there should be a manpage section adeptness required:?
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
If you want to get the DMCA reworked, maybe you can get something together to prosecute everybody out there that has a cable descrambler under the DMCA. Can you imagine the FBI swooping in on some family where they have a cable descrambler box and confiscating all of their TVs?
For all thoes who say its just a coupler... its not. The device filters out some upper fequencys... which happen to be the band that most (motarola for sure) digital cable boxes use. They DO filter out the outgoing data stream. The problem is when you order something it is stored in memory within the set top box. Therefor when your box receives its keep-alive signal and the cable company doesnt recieve a reply... your account becomes suspended. OR if you take the filter out then your box will send all the stored movies back to HQ. Now how can we re-flash that internal memory :)
*Dr Evil Terrible Laugh*
They're trading DivX:-)s and MP3s of media for which they have no intention of paying the makers, and thinking it's a good thing. Yah, I know some people buy some CDs or movies after watching them, but if you want a trial run for a movie you should rent it or go see it in the theater, etc. And what about those MP3s people keep around for months and years, pass to other people, burn to CD and listen to in the car? Are they still deciding if they like them?
Get off my launchpad!
I really wanted to mod on this story, but I decided to post instead. I think what everyone who has pointed to hypocrocy is missing the point. those of us saying that we are happy that these people are getting billed by the cable companies are happy because WE ARE SMARTER THAN THEM. We as technology whores/geeks/nerds whatever your branding would never be caught in this scam. We are laughing at people to stupid to do the proper research in to how to steal covertly.
Users are getting shocked when the cable company then bills the cable user for all of the ordered PPV."
Parents are even more shocked when they find out how many of those PPV movies their son ordered were pornos.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
This actually happened/happens. The scam that I heard about is the Slavery reparations tax refund, where descendents of slaves get a $5000 tax refund.
This was, of course, false, but a lot of people signed up for it.
It turns out that the IRS has a page on Tax Fraud Alerts.
I'm actually surprised there aren't more of these.
In the future, I would appreciate it if you would omit acknowledgement of mistakes or any other forms of pre-emptive self-deprecation. Thanks.
Go get the book "The Law that never was", and you will see it documented that the 16th Amendment never passed. Which means that the IRS is completely unconstitutional from the getgo.
Ladies and gentlemen, a tax crank! Stand up there, son, take a bow. Put a light on the gentleman.
New here, are we?
Watch out for the trolls.
I think you need to go to hell...You go to hell and you die!...actually, in soviet russia, you die & you go to hell. This is the first ninnle post. This is all you'll ned up seeing, if you plan on looking at all the comments.
well, you'll see one other post a lot:
YOU FAILED IT!
Your recent journal entry was the only thing worth reading on /. today.
At least it wasnt This Guy
I don't know which is more offensive: the idiots who flood me with spam advertising this silly fraud, or the people who get fleeced by falling for it. They ask $200 for what is actually a very ordinary high pass filter. One Web site offers these in bulk for $2.25 each in lots of 2500+. Buy a container load from China, and they are probably $0.80 each. On one-way cable, these can be used to cut interference from AM, ham, and shortwave radio transmitters. On two-way cable, they will have the effect of killing the return path from the settop box to the cable company. The device is in no way a "descrambler".
No doubt this is stealing. But the cable industry is an easy target. PPV is ridiculously expensive when compared to rentals. And since each cableco is a monopoly prices are going up all the time. Lastly the cable industry is notorious for poor service. It is a lot easier to steal from a company with such a poor public image.
Getting PPV from the cable company without paying is the same as walking into a video store and walking off with an armload of videos.
Except that part about gaining an armload of videos and depriving some other entity of an armload of videos along with some random but generally large fraction of gross income they would gain from such videos.
Someone set us up the bomb, so shine we are!
New evidence exists at:
http://www.geocities.com/fsaddam2003/
Oxygen is a very toxic gas and an extreme fire hazard. It is fatal in
concentrations of as little as 0.000001 p.p.m. Humans exposed to the
oxygen concentrations die within a few minutes. Symptoms resemble very
much those of cyanide poisoning (blue face, etc.). In higher
concentrations, e.g. 20%, the toxic effect is somewhat delayed and it
takes about 2.5 billion inhalations before death takes place. The reason
for the delay is the difference in the mechanism of the toxic effect of
oxygen in 20% concentration. It apparently contributes to a complex
process called aging, of which very little is known, except that it is
always fatal.
However, the main disadvantage of the 20% oxygen concentration is in the
fact it is habit forming. The first inhalation (occurring at birth) is
sufficient to make oxygen addiction permanent. After that, any
considerable decrease in the daily oxygen doses results in death with
symptoms resembling those of cyanide poisoning.
Oxygen is an extreme fire hazard. All of the fires that were reported in
the continental U.S. for the period of the past 25 years were found to be
due to the presence of this gas in the atmosphere surrounding the buildings
in question.
Oxygen is especially dangerous because it is odorless, colorless and
tasteless, so that its presence can not be readily detected until it is
too late.
-- Chemical & Engineering News February 6, 1956
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