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Former Anti-Piracy 'Bag Man' Turns On DirecTV
Cowards Anonymous writes "SecurityFocus has this story: 'A one-time enforcer in DirecTV's anti-piracy campaign is suing his ex-employer for wrongful discharge, after he allegedly resigned rather than continue to prosecute the company's controversial war against buyers of hacker-friendly smart card equipment.' John Fisher claims that he was hired by DirecTV as a senior investigator to track down satellite signal pirates. Instead, he claims, he was no better than a 'bag man for the mob'; coercing people into paying money for stealing services when he had no proof whether they had really done so."
The DirecTV "accused pirate lawsuits" story has been going on for quite a while.
The point of the problem is this: They're having something in the area of a 90-95% success rate in accusing people who were actually watching DirecTV's programming without paying for it. Or, to state it in a less pretty way, they were harassing completely innocent techies with to 5-10% of their efforts.
What's worse, is that the hackers have realized that so long as they don't confess, DirecTV doesn't have enough evidence to win most of the lawsuits they're filing. In fact, successful defenses have been mounted by making no defense at all. Usually trivial motions like the standard motion a defense lawyer always makes to dismiss the case after the plantiff's case claiming they didn't meet the minimum standards of proof, or motions for summary judgement against a defendant who no-shows are not going DirecTV's way. The only people to lose cases have been ones who either confessed or said something stupid to DirecTV that gets used against them.
Yet, despite these devistating blows in court, DirecTV is continuing to operate this SCOish collectors and lawyers devision. Despite having cases of zero chance of suceeding legally, they have been able to get people to hand over settlement money such that this operation is profitable.
What we need in this country is a higher penality for filing a lawsuit that is eventually lost. Basically, people are signing admissions of guilt and sending in checks in order to get the harassing phone calls to stop, when in reality they should be calling DirecTV's bluff and letting them file the lawsuit.
Of course, the notion that just because something is connected with litigation it should be immune to anti-racketeering laws is rediculous, the threat of being bankrupted by an legal battle can be at least as coercive as the threat of having your legs broken with a baseball bat, so why should one be legal, and the other not?
From the article: ... advocacy groups and lawyers have received enough consumer complaints to prompt the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society to launch an informational website apprising crackdown targets of their legal rights. EFF says innocent people are settling with DirecTV for no other purpose than to avoid costly litigation.
/. and elsewhere.
It seems the coercian involves people preferring to settle than rather than pay the costs for defending themselves. From an article linked to from the above:
At that point, the settlement price tag jumps to $10,000 -- still less than the typical cost of paying a lawyer to go to trial against a corporate powerhouse in federal court.
Is it now actually the case that in the US the law is too expensive for people to use? This is how it appears from the stories I read on
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Directv just shut down the P3 Stream, this is going to send alot of people to Dishnetwork because the P4 card has not been fully "explored" yet.
The canadian sattelite company Expressvue, used to go to peoples houses and offer them money for their "grey dishes" they then would overcharge them for their inferior service..
Expressvue ended up selling all of the "Liberated" units to dealers in Toronto. Damn hyprocrits.
Some of the actions taken by these sattelite companies to curtail pirating is worse than pirating itself.
Instead, he claims, he was no better than a 'bag man for the mob'; coercing people into paying money for stealing services when he had no proof whether they had really done so."
If only he hadn't blown the whistle, he could have had attractive career opportunities at the RIAA.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
DirecTV is continuing to operate this SCOish collectors and lawyers devision.
SCO is enforcing conjured fantasy with no basis in reality. There are no real Linux Thieves of SCO Code.
There are DirecTV Thieves.
Or, to state it in a less pretty way, they were harassing completely innocent techies with to 5-10% of their efforts.
Failure does not necessitate innocence.
DirecTV's lawsuits are aimed at people who bought ISO 7816 Smart Card equipment from vendors who also distributed DirecTV's access control software, or otherwise published information about how to get around it.
See, this is the slippery slope. In court, it's okay to present evidence that somebody purchased something as proof that the person used that item. However the ISO 7816 Smart Card Standard is more or less "dual-use" equipment. It's an ISO standard, afterall, so it's used in other applications like credit cards, security systems, and ID systems.
That's DirecTV's mistake. They can't quite get courts to accept their claim that the only use of Smart Card equipment is to emulate their cards. There are other uses, so you can't presume that without another piece of proof. Since DirecTV doesn't have that other piece, the lawsuit is over and they lose.
Sure, a majority of people who suddenly got interested in ISO 7816 were people who wanted to hack DirecTV... but how is a court to know whether it has a member of that majority, or the minority who had legit other uses in front of it? Without additional proof, the presumption that it was a legit use goes uncontested, and the court rules for the defense...
When people speak out on issues like this, it helps managers in big corporations to .. err ... be careful to clean out their closets. What you don't want people to know about, don't do. Don't hide behind your 'corporate position'.
If you quit because you were doing something illegal in your job, you typically (but not always; it's state legislation) have whistleblower status. Sounds like he may have been racketeering.
Mind you, it isn't illegal to accuse people of doing something illegal or trespassing if you have suspicion that they indeed were. I'm really curious as to where the limits to the "use" of the law meet the "availability" of it.
When Big Business can win by costing too much to litigate against, you are deprived of the fundamental rule of law, by being unable to meet legal remedy.
Playing the devil's advocate, when it comes to satellite signals, theres no way to prove a damned thing. Its just like radio, its not like the local rock station knows what you do with the signal they put out on the airwaves, and neither does direct when you hack them. What they do know is that there are people with 6 receivers being billed at their address (im canadian so i dont know direct's details, bell did the same thing). Basically they give you the same programming on another receiver dirt cheap, and people it ends up being 6 houses with 1 receiver paying 10 bucks for all the programming.
Again, in all fairness to Directv, i dont think they have any real goals in eliminating legitimate techie uses of smart card stuff, but they couldn't care less about eliminating it if did get rid of all piracy. But they'll never get rid of it.
"Piratability" of the satellite is its main selling point. At Future Shop (where i believe the teenagers there make a commission) sold my father on Bell over Starchoice on the grounds that Bell gives you everything minus PPV for 6 months, and then you just find a friend at work or something who does satellite cards and get it all free. A girl my father didn't even know, a representative for the store sold stuff based on piracy.
I don't think star choice would be dying in canada like it is now if it could be pirated as easily as bell. Its completely unhackable, or let me say not even worth the trouble when bell is so easy.
Directv has interests in money. There is no money in eliminating piracy - its suicide - all new subscribers and even most directv folks will go to dish for the free wrestling. Directv has an interest in money, and extorting it from anyone is probably the most profitable way of going about it. If this guy didn't realize it, he's a moron. And if he honestly believes directv won't keep this held up in court as long as possible, he is also a moron.
*anonymous coward steps down from podium*
HU stream will be dead on the 27th of this month...p4 hack will be released on the 28th
where did you learn this? i like my football card very much thank you!
//Blessed are they that run around in circles, for they shall be known as wheels.
Don't use their products. If they want to screw people around with underhanded tactics in the name of a couple bucks- find someone else to deal with.
Sure it is their livelihood, and I bet it feels bad for them when someone gets something from them for free... it's one of the risks they took when they started their business dealing with an unlimited "resource" like microwaves (I think that's what those satalites use right?). If they want to fix the problem- make better hardware, better software.
Sometimes it's better for a company to spend a little more at the beginning in order to avoid the consequences down the road of being cheap .
They should look into implementing a proprietary method of coding their receivers and such...and not charge customers for this "upgrade." Only then should they continue these lawsuits.
MY SECRET DIARIES
Because litigation is the government approved method of coercion. Threatening someone with physical violence (at least, when not applied by the government as when the death penalty is meted out) is NOT government approved.
If someone is going to sue me, I would rather they send me a threatening letter first and try to settle the matter. Being served at your doorstep while you step out to get the morning paper is not anybody's idea of fun.
I highly doubt that any "innocent techie" has actually paid DirecTV. If you are innocent, you are going to think before you roll over and pay them. You also aren't going to confess to something you didn't do (unless they use cattle prods or make false promises).
There would be less of a problem with a "need" to have hack-cards if DirecTV would only sell the services in the first place. Mainly, network feeds. I'm pretty much barred from getting DirecTV because I want it to have CBS/ABC/NBC/Fox. The local affiliates have a policy of "we don't grant waivers", and on top of that, they are not full affiliates anyway (pre-empting prime-time network shows willy-nilly and never re-showing them. If DirecTV could find some way around the local broadcasters' censorship and send network content in the satellite signal, that would be a big plus.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I would also like to know where u came about this information, because I have heard nothing about this, unless you're just speculating that the day after the P3 officially is offline, then somehow they must release the P4 hack the day after.
I have two older sony units with H-cards I picked up a couple years ago.
using the cards and receiving in an unauthorized fashion the "major networks" (because due to the waiver system there is no other way to get them) and paying DirecTV the typical fee for network feeds.
Canadians using the cards to receive all the US channels that are censored off the Canadian channel list, and also paying for these by putting extra money in the bill.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Hate to burst your bubble, but they've just recently gone from moving people from H to the Hu stream -- and shortly there after, yes, released the P4 cards.
The P4 card is definitely hackable, and I have had some success doing so. Sure, the Hu is trivial (now) and is what I will typically watch. I love that the original thread of this is Troll... Too funny.
I have something of a problem calling people "thieves" who make use of something that is lobbed into their property by someone else. DirecTV is sending its signal into your yard, after all. It would seem that those who make use of the signal given to them are less "thieves" than granky ol Mrs. McGurdy who kept the football you accidentally kicked onto her porch.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
In the bigger picture DirecTV should have no right to control information it beams over public airways. Unfortunately, the television industry, like the record industry before it, will die a slow and litigious death.
I urge everyone, download DirecTV programs to your hard drive, convert to mpegs using transcode, and distribute on gnutella.
That'll learn them.
Let the world change. Out with old.
and it's really the content suppliers who are losing out of money they'd otherwise be entitled to. How are the content suppliers losing in this? For example, a Canadian who does this address trick to get Fox News (last time I knew, it was censored in Canada) ends up paying DirecTV for it on the bill, and the appropriate cut goes to Fox. Seems like the only losers are the control freaks who don't want people to see certain things.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
DirecTV is removing the HU auth packets from the stream. Within days the HU card will be as useless as the previous cards (F & H) Here is a listing of channels and the dates they will die on. Date Channel 13 April Music Choice 800-821, 823-838,840-850 13 April Para Todos 406-450, 452-499 13 April Fox Sports Regional Networks 620-654 13 April Adult PPV 594, 596-598 13 April HD 73-100 13 April PPVs 100-199 14 April Premiums East 501,202,507,513,520,522,528,537,544 14 April Core 1 (news religion...) 366-377, 337-358 16 April Regional Sports Networks 2 601-612 16 April Core2 (266-271, 282-287...) 266-271, 282-287, 291-295, 300-315 20 April Seasonal Sports 700-799 20 April Core 3 230-244, 297-298,276-279,207-212 21 April Preimum Specialty 545-550, 523, 527-533,538-542 21 April Core 4 248-265, 321-329, 333 22 April Final1 822, 839, 595, 521, 514, 508, 505, 504, 503 23 April Final2 402, 404, 335, 331, 317, 299, 296, 290, 280, 273, 224, 229, 203,204 27 April Final3 360, 362, 245, 247, 202, 206 27 April Locals/Distant Networks and on the note about you having some success with the p4, you're full of it.
"no, a Hacked card is proof of intent to steal" no, it is proof of intent to decode material which DirecTV is giving to you by beaming it into your house or onto your roof. You can't steal something that is being given to you.
I've always had a really hard time trying to side w/the satellite providers on the issue of piracy.
I mean, in the case of cable piracy, you're exploiting a service which you're paying for the priveledge of. In other words, you wouldn't have cable if someone hand't hooked it up and ran wires.
It's the same with stealing electricty. It's not just laying around on your property waiting to be used... You have to pay for the priveledge of having electricty, just like you have to continue to pay in order to use it.
But with satellite it's different. They're shooting their signal across my land, so to my twisted way of thinking, there's not a lot of difference between me putting up an antenna to catch on-air broadcast feeds (ie, NBC, ABC, etc), and me buying a receivier and antenna to receive the satellite waves that are there for the taking.
I know there's a lot more to it from the legal point of view as well as from the ethical standpoint, but to me it's hard to really call someone who just buys the equipment and sets it up in their own home a criminal. They didn't run a line to illegally tap into some companies pay-for-use system. They didn't splice into someone elses services.
They simply installed the neccesary equipment to receive what's already on their property.
In one sense, I have to say that I can't really see why the satellite companies don't just sell the equipment and then make their money in premium services and advertising (as tv networks have been doing for some time now, with amazing success!). Give the standard programming away, and charge those who want more (this could probably be acconplished by encrypting certain streams, and sending out the free ones as unencrypted or something. I'm not satellite techie, but it seems fairly straight-forward).
In other words, give the razors away, and sell razor blades.
Of course the capitalist side of me says "That's no way to run a business", and thinks of all the backend licensing and copyright work that would be involved in order to make something like this happen.
But still... I have a hard labelling those who choose to freely receive what's already being broadcast to them as criminals. The day there's no more rape or murder in the world, that's the day I'll start considering satellite piracy a real crime.
Not trying to troll... Just thinking out loud...
...read my post from last week for more ExpressVu insight. Note this will probably be the last time I discuss them.
BTW: The story on those units is there.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
DirecTV is removing the HU auth packets from the stream. Within days the HU card will be as useless as the previous cards (F & H)
Here is a listing of channels and the dates they will die on.
Date Channel
13 April Music Choice 800-821, 823-838,840-850
13 April Para Todos 406-450, 452-499
13 April Fox Sports Regional Networks 620-654
13 April Adult PPV 594, 596-598
13 April HD 73-100
13 April PPVs 100-199
14 April Premiums East 501,202,507,513,520,522,528,537,544
14 April Core 1 (news religion...) 366-377, 337-358
16 April Regional Sports Networks 2 601-612
16 April Core2 (266-271, 282-287...) 266-271, 282-287, 291-295, 300-315
20 April Seasonal Sports 700-799
20 April Core 3 230-244, 297-298,276-279,207-212
21 April Preimum Specialty 545-550, 523, 527-533,538-542
21 April Core 4 248-265, 321-329, 333
22 April Final1 822, 839, 595, 521, 514, 508, 505, 504, 503
23 April Final2 402, 404, 335, 331, 317, 299, 296, 290, 280, 273, 224, 229, 203,204
27 April Final3 360, 362, 245, 247, 202, 206
27 April Locals/Distant Networks
If only this analogy applied. It surely doesn't when these "tools" are being used in one's own home! To make than theft/tools analogy more apt: it is like as if the banks kept dropping safes onto your front lawn. They don't have to this, but they do, without your permission. One day, you decide to open one of them.
However, the vast majority of these people WERE buying the stuff to steal DirecTV
None of them were, as no theft was involved. They were making use of signals given to them by DirecTV when they lobbed to signals into their property.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I understand that SCO has just made him a job offer.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
in me says that bell does the minimum required to make sure the PPV people don't freak out and pull their content. This allows them to gain a monopoly share with a pirated dish. Over the next year or two as they now effectively dominate the market, you will see them crack down on pirating and ultimately release a "new" reciever free to everybody - this upgrade will include callback authentication of services effectively rendering pirating impossible.
The current recievers are a joke to crack, although I question if it's worth the time - $65/mo really isn't that much money.
..don't panic
This is not "the world of null-A". The definitions of words are not static Definitions aren't imaginary, either. The only reason the term "theft" is being used is because it is emotionally-charged, despite the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Someone referring to the blindly aggressive tactics of corporations as "the mob", I love it!
You know why? Because it's accurate.
Human beings are not as complicated as they might wish themselves to be. Gatherings of men in one context are going to be just like gatherings of men in another. It always seems to end up badly whenever we allow power to go to the hands of a few. Over and over and over and over again.
It's what human beings turn into whenever they get the opportunity. Hence the Constitution, and all the other lessons history has forgotten. We're just doing it all over again, just more thoroughly with the aid of technology. What does the future have in store for us? Maybe we can all see it in our peripheral thoughts in a hazy kind of way. THat something just isn't right. Pass the Zoloft.
While I don't agree with DirecTv's business practices they are completely within their legal rights. DirecTv piracy tools were cheap, easy to setup, and accessible before the release of the HU card.
Here's my story: I was curious about trying HU emulation, bought some equipment, but never invested the time or money into getting a working system. When the feds raided the company I purchased from I received a letter from DirecTv asking for $3500. I retained a lawyer but the reality of the situation is that settling would be cheaper than going to court. Just owning the equipment is a crime due to our DCMA laws, legally it doesn't matter if you pirated it or not. The same week my local newspaper reported on the front page that about a dozen individuals were being sued by DirecTv for piracy -- it even listed their names. Needless to say, I settled. Most of the people who bought normal ISO readers/writers from the same places selling enumerator boards and the like should not be surprised. Few of these people have a legitimate reason for owning the equipment. The big difference between criminal and civil suits (like the ones DirecTv is perusing) is that the burden of proof rests on YOUR shoulders.
What's worse, is that the hackers have realized that so long as they don't confess, DirecTV doesn't have enough evidence to win most of the lawsuits they're filing.
Where do you check your facts?? DirecTv has won many of the cases they brought to court. While some sites (www.legal-rights.org) tend to emphasize only the favorable rulings, other (more objective) sites show DirecTv is winning most cases brought to court. Trust me, I did hours of research due to my own legal situation.
Definitions aren't imaginary, either. The only reason the term "theft" is being used is because it is emotionally-charged, despite the fact that it has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on.
Etymological history is irrelevant. The clear fact of its usage is not.
The word "unquote" was coined as the result of a mistaken interpretation of "end quote". Nevertheless, it is a word and means something, no matter how many static-language fetishists bawl about it.
Thanks, moderators, for modding this crap Redundant, as it should be. I posted AC knowing this would happen.
This comment above explains how to get local broadcasters without stealing it.
There would be less of a problem with a "need" to have hack-cards if DirecTV would only sell the services in the first place. Mainly, network feeds. I'm pretty much barred from getting DirecTV because I want it to have CBS/ABC/NBC/Fox.
p
Funny, I've had local channels via DirecTV's satellite service for about a year now, and it looks like they have more packages with local broadcasting than without.
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packages/Landing.ds
The local affiliates have a policy of "we don't grant waivers", and on top of that, they are not full affiliates anyway (pre-empting prime-time network shows willy-nilly and never re-showing them. If DirecTV could find some way around the local broadcasters' censorship and send network content in the satellite signal, that would be a big plus.
Looks like that's more your local affiliates' fault, not DirecTV's. Sorry.
Just my $.02...
The topic is still current because frivolous lawsuits are still prevalent. The utterly outrageous McDonalds case lowered the bar; now anything can happen.
It is almost impossible to steal a broadcast signal of any kind. You can use these cards to get networks without stealing.
...in the beginning, didn't even have commercials! The radio spectrum was more closely held to be a public commons, with a public benefit. Broadcasts were more a free service in the sense of they were donated by the companies on their nickle. Later on commercials started slipping in, now these various broadcasters get to "own" a slice of spectrum,apparently forever and forever and forever, and their relicensing hearings are a COMPLETE SCAM, a mere rubber stamp job. It's apparently illegal to run your own non commercial very low power radio station, even on a totally unused piece of the spectrum. And to just listen, to use a wireless receiver? To my mind, you broadcast it out at random into the ether, then anyone may listen if they have the equipment. It is NOT the same as illegally hooking up a wire, then you have touched, altered property that is not yours, it's anothers, but over the air broadcasts to my way of thinking are open to reception. Of course, the courts and companies don't agree, but what else is new when a public "thing" gets sold to a private for-profit concern, turned into a "private" thing? To me, there's the theft in the first place. Just to get MY permission as a joe tax payer, part owner of all the spectrum around me, at a minimum your boradcast should be available to me to receive. If you want to make money, ask for donations of sell stuff. IF you wish to broadcast commercials to garner a cash flow that MIGHT lead to profits, that is your right to do that, and I don't see the government should interfere there as well, YOUR choice of programming and how many and what commercials you may transmit for that "license" to "own" some of the EM spectrum, untilsuch a time as your relicensing comes back up, and we need REAL hearings, not this joke we have now with industry insiders licensing other industry insiders..
That's my take on it.
Story, long time ago when cable first started, you didn't even need a box, just the cable. I moved into an aprtment that had a coax hanging out of the wall. Now I had a TV, and normal rabbit ears, but the reception sucked, and I was not able to get a normal antenna, as I didn't own this apartment. I had not purchased the cable networks offerings, but I DID feel it was my choice to screw that coax on and see if the longer wire that went out the wall and up the wall and "over yonder" some place might somehow improve my over the air reception, as it was the closest thing to having an outdoor aerial. Much to my surprise, I got cable feed, and it WASN'T connected, but it ran parallel to a connected cable. I guess induction did it somehow. Now, I would NOT have physcially screwed that together to the for-pay feed, or climbed the pole and hooked myself or anything of that sort, to me, that was and is illegal. But I saw no illegalities in receiving the signal. I rented the apartment, there was the wire, it worked, no physical connection, I did nothing to get the reception, it just "was there".. Eventually the cable company came and moved all the wires and I lost feed,so be it, so I went back to fuzzy rabbit ears.
There's the difference. There's physcially hijacking someone's property, then there's recieving a broadcast that is transmitted "at random" down from the sky, using a granted monopoly piece of the spectrum that is part mine anyway. They are not some sort of tight aiming it to individual people, they broadcast it out in a WIDE spread that hits everyone basiclaly under a huge area. It's as random as their altitude can get in the "down" direction.
Basically, I am tired of the government saying it can just take MY property and sell it, then saying it's OK for this private company to sell me my property back. I fully realise it's expensive to run a satellite and launch it and etc, but, we already figured out that advertising is "enough" to make incredible profits for broadcasters, I have no idea, but the sum totality of over the air broadcasting profits since the beginning of the radio age has to be into the hundreds of billions of dollars.
I've never wanted the local channels. I've wanted the network feeds for the major networks that you can get with the waivers. The so-called "local" channels are too distant to bother to broadcast a strong television signal, but they do have blanket "no-waiver" policies.
That's the reason I've had cable for years: the so-called "local" stations are distant and weak.
On top of that, their equipment and signal quality is very poor, and they pre-empt network shows willy-nilly. Why even bother to watch "Enterprise" when the "local" UPN affiliate never shows it on its regular time, preferring to show it 2/3 of the time at midnight Friday night, and the remaining 1/3 of the time at some randomly-chosen unannounced time?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
That reminds me of an old quote about copyrights, to paraphrase ...
"If you draw a cup of water from the sea, it is yours, if you pour it back it belongs to the commons. All creative works are drawn from the sea of knowledge. Kept to yourself they are yours, but once exposed are the commons."
Actually you are closer than you even know.
The P4 is already hacked. I've see it with my own eyes (definately not a 'he said a brother's cousin's dog's former nanny' kind of thing). My guess is there will be a little time before it is widely released (have the free-tv'ers sweat and pay more when it is released).
All the channels are working on the P4 hack including those already shut down on the HU. There are still some small bugs to work out but it is already a done deal.
Why doesn't DirecTV owe me damages? They are irradiating my property with microwave radiation without my consent.
I'm sorry, but this is a classic case of IIA (Idiots In Action). These guys are like the kid who hits his baseball through your window and then calls the police claiming you stole his baseball. And "of course" you're guilty - you're in possession of "stolen property". But who put it there?
The reason why I'm unsympathetic is because DirecTV set themselves up for piracy - there's no physical control over the infrastructure, and the signal is available everywhere. Did they really believe that their signal wasn't going to get hacked? The military learned a long time ago that when it comes to broadcast commo, key control is of the utmost importance. How DirecTV thought they could maintain a secure distro channel when they passed out keys to the general public remains a mystery.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
DirecTV has pretty much ended piracy with the killing of the HU stream this month. A new hack will probably appear for the new cards but who knows?
His lawyer Jeffrey Wilens keeps a website at lawyers.com that also shows the current status of his other class actions and etc. .. but a legal system .. the results tied with the bank account.
The US doesnt have a justice system
Edmund Burke said, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.'
Well, it sounds like there is a good man doing something.
Sick em. Remind Murdoch that in America, we have something called "due process". He can blow up all the nightclubs in Bali, and still not get past that.
I know I'm generalizing the slashdot community here, but I find it quite amusing that when someone posts something about how they freely download MP3s or games, a dozen anonymous cowards respond with some attempt at "You're stealing my job" or "You're a thief." The pro-piracy comments are often modded as trolls.
And yet, here, the highest modded comments on DirecTV stories are generally those that include some kind of variation of, "They're putting the airwaves in my backyard, I just happen to be catching them in my satellite dish!" Or, "It's not technically illegal to just capture it from the airwaves!" I think it's safe to say, this being slashdot, that some of these people are software engineers or the like. I wonder if these software engineers feel the same way about people in foreign countries who break no laws in their own countries but still pirate software.
Just because you can do something, even if it is not illegal, doesn't mean you should. I know this is unpopular to say, but you're still receiving something that the producers intended to receive compensation for. They are doing something, even if that is just retransmitting. Whereas FM radio and local stations do not expect compensation, DirecTV does, so the analogy that it's "in the air" doesn't really make sense ethically. If you think it's too much to pay for, patronize someone else or don't watch the TV. Just because DirecTV is a big company, or it's easy to take advantage of a service they're providing, doesn't mean it's right. Saying they're a big company and citing their scrupulous tactics is merely a justification, an excuse. It doesn't make stealing right. It might be cool to show off to your friends, it might even be legal, but receiving something you didn't pay for when the party providing the service fully expects compensation is stealing. I know DirecTV does some very questionable things, but like for like doesn't accomplish anything. Patronizing a competitor who does not utilize those tactics is ultimately far more effective than merely stealing service.
If I don't want to pay the cable company, they refuse to send signal to my house.
Ditto for electricity, gas, phone, water, etc.
If I don't pay the cell phone company, they can block signals from my equipment (well, outside of accepting 911 calls), just like pagers do.
Yet somehow satellite gets a free pass. I get signal sent to me, like it or not, just like TV and radio. I can't decide to not pay them and not receive their signal. But should I take the signal they provide me for free and do things they don't like, in the privacy of my own home, I'm somehow the one in the wrong.
This is bad enough. But now the signal people have noticed that people like me are buying equipment that could be used to manipulate their signal in ways they don't approve, and that mere possibility drives them nuts. We might be doing things in our homes they don't approve of. And so they invade our homes, threaten us, exhaust our bank accounts, just to make absolutely sure their accounts receivable is pure. Better that ten geeks lose their life savings than even one pirate gets to watch the Family Channel without paying.
And we have people defending them, as if somehow they have some kind of right to do this.
Well, fine. I might think it corrupts public morals for you and your significant other to have sex that isn't man-on-woman missionary position within marriage. If the CEO of DirecTV can have access to your office to protect something as stupid as his business model, why can't I get access to your bedroom to protect public morality? Certainly public morals are more important than a business model.
Just to be clear: my bedroom, my air, my equipment. Stay out of all three.
But, when you draw that cup from the water, someone else can draw that same cup independently. I've thought about ideas as islands in the sea. If you find one, make a map, and bury that map on the island--would you accuse someone who comes by of copying your map?
-I am an elective eunuch.
but receiving something you didn't pay for when the party providing the service fully expects compensation is stealing.
I expect you to pay me $100 for receiving this sentence in your retina.
"They're putting the airwaves in my backyard, I just happen to be catching them in my satellite dish!"
"But your just posting that sentence on Slashdot. I just happen to be reading it in my browser."
What would Lemmy do?
You missed the point. What I think he was trying to say was that the information in the scrambled signal and the unscrambled signal is exactly the same.
The compression of the information has nothing to do with the scrambling of the information.
And, since you are kind enough to bring it about, according to general information-theory, the information in the compressed signal and the decompressed signal is exactly the same. (I.e. no actual information is added in the decompression process.)
But that is besides the point, and if you know your theory, you should know so. I'll call your theoretical bluff, and calls for double miss with decoys attached.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
I just made bobo in my pants!
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I researched the facts of the McDonald's case first. After looking at the facts, it is clear that it is utterly frivolous, without any merit, and a textbook example of a frivolous lawsuit.
I expect you to pay me $100 for receiving this sentence in your retina.
Oh geez. What a lame analogy. A correct one would have been an ecrypted sentence that said, "YOU CAN ONLY READ THIS BY PAYING $100 FOR A BROWSER PLUGIN TO READ THIS SENTENCE."
What people do to directv, with your analogy, would be to download the plugin off of kazaa for free, and then using it to decrypt your sentence. If had developed that sentence, and that sentence contained something of value to me, and you meant to be compensated, yes, yo should be paid $100. If didn't want to read it, the right thing to have done is just not read it, instead of downloading the plugin for free from kazaa.
Directv IS floating around in midair, but it is not like, "Whoops I accidently installed this dish on my roof. Oh dear, I must have set it to exactly the right azimuth and height. Oh oh! Look at this, my friend dropped of a dish receiver with -gasp- a decryption card that works that he must have dropped in here inadvertantly! Silly me! I seem to have fallen on the couch, I guess I have no choice to just have to sit here and watch tv I didn't pay for!!" Your sentence analogy has no bearing on DirecTV at all, and that's exactly the kind of illogical justification that directv pirates use to excuse their unethical behavior. By the way, what is your occupation, and if so, may I also accidently steal the results of your work?
If I don't want to pay the cable company, they refuse to send signal to my house.
So how does that analogy fit for the cell phone carrier waves that float through your house? What about CB radio waves? Riddle me this Batman: is it ethical for you to hack a neighbor's fully encrypted 802.11g wireless signal? I mean, it's floating through your house right? What about a cellphone signal that is going to his phone? Hell, it's in the air. Those signals are "invading" your house. Doesn't that piss you off? That your neighbor would have the nerve to set up an encrypted wireless signal that might float over into your yard? The nerve of him. And all cellphone carriers! Have they no decency?
They don't provide the signal "for free." No more than your neighbor provides wireless internet "for free." Even if it's in the air, and legal to intercept, there is still ethical and inethical. The legality of intercepting your neighbor's 802.11g signal is debatable, as is intercepting DirecTV signal not meant for you. However, while perhaps not illegal, it is unarguable that decrypting your neighbor's wireless signal is wrong. The same is also true of DirecTV.
I'm not saying their goon tactics for pirates are not dubious, or that they are justified in their coercion of potential pirates. But if that's the justificaion you're using to pirate the signal, pirating the signal of DirecTV accomplishes nothing except enabling you to watch WWE Cage Match XXXXIXI. If you truly believe DirecTV should not be around as a company, then what you should be doing is paying the cable company for television, or dish network.
And let's be honest here. Someone at Comcast is orgasming in his seat here as he (or she) reads over the Slashdot posts here. It must really float their boat to think that somehow they've managed to polarize public opinion against their competitor. So while you might think you're shafting it the man when you pirate DirecTV, the inevitable result is that you're hurting DirecTV, which is a competitor to another company. You're killing competition by pirating DirecTV.
And if you think the cable company is any better, I had a vist a month or two ago from a Brighthouse company representative (a new cable company here in town) who knocked on my door, accused me of stealing cable. I told him I was with DirecTV, and that the cable-coaxials were unconnected in the attic. He swore up and down that if I didn't stop pirating cable TV, he'd be able to fine me hundrds of dollars. I laughed and shut the door in his face, because I knew I was taking something for free that should have been paid for. Unlike, apparently, most of you.
After the directly commercial applications were persued (most notably, Marconi's radio telegraph), we moved to the period of finding other ways to make a profit off of radio ... such as stock fraud.
... broadcasts were made to sell radios. It's just that it was a short-sighted business plan, and once there was major market penetration, they had to move to something else to continue to make a profit.
We didn't have widespead broadcast radio until after World War One, as the US government has outlawed private use during the war. Radio came back after the war, but it took some time before we had the birth of RCA, and a little while later before other companies figured out how to make a profit off of radio.
So why were they providing free broadcasts? To sell radios to people. You couldn't listen the broadcasts, without buying a radio. Well, you could go to someone else's house, but that'd be admitting you didn't have one. That's why RCA and the other radio manufacturers are the ones who are doing the broadcasts -- they spend money in one area, to make a profit in another.
The concept of 'toll broadcasting' [think of today's infomercials], came from AT&T, and the government came down on them, in a completely ineffective way. [Although, there are indications that there were other paid commercials before that point].
In europe, however, they wnt a different route -- which is why there are television taxes and the like today. The government provided the information broadcast, but they weren't going to do it at a loss, so they had to get some money for doing it.
Yes, there are problems with how the spectrum is sold to corporations. [for one, why is it 'sold', and not 'rented'... that was a major oversight on the Commerce Department]. And there are problems with the cable monopolies, and with the government being pushed by lobbyists who have the corporations, not the public's best interests in mind.
But it's just wrong to say that broadcast radio wasn't commercial
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
... better history lesson and linkages than what I provided, most interesting. the part about the early hardware is very good, and I had once known that but had forgotten it, and it IS a critical part of the discussion.
Not in radio but with television, my dad was a radio and radar tech guy during ww2, then after he got out, and went into mainframes on the hardware side. But on the side at home he always had a shop and was an enthusiast,did repairs and sold fixed junkers and whatnot,and because of his geekiness and skills and interest, we were the first people in our neighborhood to have a television, and it was common for the living room to be jam packed with many neighbors and relatives to watch some shows often on this teeny I *think* it was a 9 inch philco. "Paying" for broadcasting is five ways, government and redistribution of general tax monies, advertising, and like you said the hardware sales, subscription, and outright private subsisdy as some sort of community give away by the broadcaster on his nickle. ME, I like advertising merthod and community give away by volunteers. Hardware it's now into passing laws to restrict it, which I think is in long term error, why we have this discussion on hacking hardware, it's no longer needed to subsidise hardware because the technology is out there now, and cheap, so that shouldbn't bbe required. I think the law is bogus there. that leaves subscription, which weith a hard wired model works better, but with over the air random broadcasting I think is sorta dumb and won't work without highly restrictve laws in place. Advertising has been proven to work well enough for funding, and I don't really want government run broadcasting, because quite frankly I do not trust them to have a monopoly or near monopoly on such a valuable and important media. I also don't support automatic rubber stamping of "granted licenses" because fr4ankly the only ones they deny are newcomers, and the old megacorps are now carved in stone, they can do most anything and still stay on the air. In particular I am most incensed over all the major networks almost complete lack of third party candidates and partys with their "news", because it tends to perpetuate the "two parties we have now" moreso than what it should be based on their merits and deficiencies. Having two monopolies that control 98% of the political "market" is just about as bad as one monopoly, espeically when there is little practical difference in the long run over how the country is run and managed and how the government stays accountable to the people. Always been a news junky, so it's easy for me to see and state that it's obvious a "status quo",to keep the mega rich richer by controlling the info feed, ie, subtle but quite effective brainwashing. There isn't as much a left/right bias with the networks as an "established billionaires point of view" bias. Just for that I think the major networks ought to have all their licenses yanked and give the spectrum to someone else to use, and tough noogies on their investments. That's just me of course and an opinion, but it sure would be nice if it happened....
Remember when TV used to just rot your mind? Apparently it is busting kneecaps now (figuratively of course). All without even having to own a TV! Is that service or what?
I expect to be paid $1 for every person who views this post. If you don't pay me, then you are a thief, despite the facts that:
a) I can't tell if you read it.
b) You reading it doesn't take anything from the people who paid me.
c) I put it in a public place where anyone with the proper equipment (computer, at least one eye) can see it.
---- Hey now, hey now now, sing this kuro5hin to me
It seems to me because of their tightening down on the actual purchase of cards and equipment, that they are killing their own DVR and Tivo marketplace. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find channels that will readily sell or release equipment without Directvs approval directly. Could this trend and focus on security lead to an eventual stagnation of their market, or has it already? Kind of like that mark where certain people have no cell phone based on credit etc.
I promise to research this "paragraph" thing in the future. My apologies.
spelling on the other hand, oh well.. no promises there. I give it a once over, but then it goes. And me fingers don't work too well anymore, I'm lucky to type really.
zogger
This is simple
Find someone's address that already subscribes to what you want. (But close enough so the spot-beam still hits your house)
Call DirectTV
Change your "service address" (but not your "billing address" to that person's address, just change it to "apt #2" or something like that.
Steven V>
I patented screwing your mom. But it got revoked for "prior art."