"DirecTV sends signal to thieves of service"

[IndyMichael]

"DirecTV sends signal to thieves of service" (http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/6/027028-7436-103.html)

DirecTV is suing 132 Hoosiers accused of pirating the company's satellite television service so they could view hundreds of channels for free.

[raj2001]

The California company filed 16 lawsuits in federal court late Tuesday, claiming the defendants ordered equipment that allowed them access to DirecTV's programming.

In the past two years, the company has raided major distributors of such equipment. Seized shipping records and credit card receipts have allowed DirecTV to track down people who bought illegal access devices.


I was reading on a hacking site (for informational purposes only of course) that some of the hackers have gotten a lawyer and started a defense fund for those of them who have received "the letter" from "Dave" for buying "smart card readers/writers". It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

[RJS1111111]

Hey you! Yes YOU, RJS1111111, what are YOU lookin' at?


Just DISH AT 150, Locals, Supers, and Sky Angel so far...

Why?

Although ExpressVu is looking attractive with
Seattle and Boston locals in high definition...

[Richard King]

Hey you! Yes YOU, Rking401, what are YOU lookin' at?Who? Me?

[DCSholtis]

quote:
---------------------------------------------------------

Hey you! Yes YOU, DCSholtis, what are YOU lookin' at?
---------------------------------------------------------
WTF is that about?!!!!....LOL.....

[raj2001]

Originally posted by Rking401
Who? Me?

No, I was referring to [you].

[Phil T]

Who? Me?

[Ken Seeber]

Originally posted by raj2001


No, I was referring to [you].

Looks like somebody discovered a cute new vB code trick, which, as we've seen, is distracting to the point of derailing the discussion at hand.  You may want to reconsider using this particular trick in your signature.

[waydwolf]

Originally posted by raj2001





I was reading on a hacking site (for informational purposes only of course) that some of the hackers have gotten a lawyer and started a defense fund for those of them who have received "the letter" from "Dave" for buying "smart card readers/writers". It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

    Well, you generally have to prove the equipment was actually used to intercept service. In cable, as long as there was a drop that was active and they find you with a box, that's all they need. With satellite, you'd need a dish. But they're going after them in civil court instead of criminal where burden of proof ranges from minimal to nonexistant in some courtrooms.

    Interdiction with addressable LNBs and switches is the only real option given that every scrambling system can be broken eventually if you have a receiver, cards, and enough knowledge and equipment to throw at it. Not to mention they should not make it so easy to buy receivers all willy nilly the way you can't buy cable company compatible digital boxes direct.

    One other option is of course to go beyond looping and create cards with fusible internal links that are actually physically trashed when the shutoff signal arrives and require a whole new card be FedEx'd.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

While I am and anti pirarcy person I must admit that DirecTV's tactics here seems to be almost illegal.

There is NO PROOF of any of these people EVER using these devices.

What ever happened to being innocent until being proven guilty?

DirecTV's scare tactics are to send letters to these individuals asking them to sign a statement promising not to use such devices again and pay restitution.

The article state "If they don't respond, we take them to court,"

So now we could have innocent people here getting pulled into court having to pay legal fees when they may not have done anything wrong?

What's wrong with this picture.

I know a few electronics guys who own what can be considered "card programmers" yet both of these folks do not even have a Dish. Because they have one of these programmers does that automaticly make them a theif of DirecTV?

[Zane26]

How did my user name get dragged into this thread? I usually post in the sports forum.

[apc1]

Me? What about me? How'd I get brought into this?
Waydwolf is right. I don't think it is illegal to possess the device. Only if that device is used for hacking does it become a crime. If DTV is demanding people to pay restitution without actual proof of improper usage, doesn't that qualify as extortion? And isn't extortion a crime?

[psycaz]

raj2001
How did I get into this conversation???
I just found this thread today....

[Richssat]

Pretty neat BB trick.


The trick inserts the username of whoever is looking at this thread into the post. Dunno how, but pretty cool.

Smart card programmers have many legit uses. They are used for access control among other things. But I am betting the majority of legit users buy their programmers, software and such from legit retailers, not "DISCOUNT CANADIAN CARD SUPPLY".

But once again, it is up to D* to prove that. For a multi billion dollar company it will be no big deal if they drive a few innocents into the poor house by getting judgements against those who can't afford to defend themselves. Acceptable loss to them, just like the ECMs that they send to shut down hacked cards. If they happen to nail a few legit subs in the middle of a high $ PPV event and the customers lose their signal, they could care less.

While I don't care much for people stealing anything, it seems like a bad PR move for D*. But then again what do I know. I just work here.....

RR

[Mike500]

Originally posted by raj2001


No, I was referring to [you].

Sounds like a case of libel. I don't know why this kind of baiting and flaming is allowed. I am a legitimate satellite dish installer. A lot of individuals ask me about hacking. I send them out the door.

[waydwolf]

[you] looks great today!

[you] inspires joy-joy feelings in all that surround him/her!

    It's a function of the bulletin board code. It's just silly, huh?

    Extortion is only a crime if a criminal court says so. Fat chance that anyone will ever get Hughes or Echostar into a court on this or any of the civil judges will refer it for prosecution.

    The cable companies do a similar thing by lying and claiming you can't legally own descrambler boxes when you can, you must merely tell the cable company and pay for any and all services the box can receive. Splitting hairs, but they use it to scare people silly.

    I rather doubt on the other hand that the public will much feel for the pirates either. More likely any defense fund would be seen like the defense fund for an accused cop killer, drug dealer, or any other bad guy.

    Safer all the way around to be a legal above-board customer and not own any such hacking equipment.

[timf]

This is a freaky code.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Looks like I need to remove that feature tommorow morning. Oh well.

[waydwolf]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Looks like I need to remove that feature tommorow morning. Oh well.

    You sure? It is kind of fun. Maybe once the word gets out it will go out of fashion until the next silly trick is found.

    One other thing. Piracy is rampant in cable as well. Not full digital given the encryption and lack of boxes, but there are many systems running one hundred plus channels analog and analog boxes are easy to get. The two largest groups of pirates are satellite installers who will brazenly go to the strand to hook people up for their RF and former contractors who couldn't cut it but kept installation supplies and now go around hooking people up. I've audited the illegal work of both, and had face to face run-ins with both.

    One of the problems in satellite is the ease of buying satellite parts and equipment. When you literally have nearly every installer out there with an account at Perfect 10 and many willing to sell anything to anyone no questions asked so long as they get their mark-up, something is not going to go right.

    On the other hand, the standards-based movement that gave us DOCSIS may yet give us a digital cable standard and a DBS standard and make equipment purchases by end users at electronics stores ubiquitous. One thing is for sure. Hughes and Echostar are in deep trouble for not being as successful in deterring piracy as cable, they're feeling their oats with their successes so far with suits, and no one has yet produced a compromise or bulwark that can stop them.

    Should be interesting to watch.

 

[Zane26]

I do not have a hacked access card. I never accused anyone of stealing Direct TV service. Please keep my user name out of this. Thank you.

(By the way, Zane is a guys name. I was named after the western writer, Zane Grey.)

[DogCow]

OK, what did I do?

[MarkB49]

Here i am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[The Tophinator]

Thanks for letting me pull my hair out of my head before I figured it out! First thought, who did I piss off? second I got popular fast...ohh wait a minute...?...?...? whew, cool, funny who else did this piss off?

[Richssat]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by waydwolf
[B][you] looks great today!

[you] inspires joy-joy feelings in all that surround him/her!

Looks like someone has been watching "Demolition Man" today. Actually it's on right now.

As for supplies and equipment being available to anyone. That is the joy of living in the internet age.

I was browsing ebay the other day and in additon to the usual piles of access cards and old receivers I found.

Can wrenches for accessing cable and telco pedestals

Tap Lock removal tools

Fittings and crimpers used by the local cable co

For about $75 I could have access to cable tv pedestal (convienently located on my front lawn), remove the locking terminator on the tap and make the connectors look exactly like one installed by the local cable company, right down to the correct fittings and line tags. It might even be overlooked during the next system audit.

Tempting, but I don't have to, they never did get around to shutting it off when the last person moved out. I never bother watching it since the local cable co stinks, but it is there. Probably will be until the next system audit.

Then again some of this stuff could come in handy for work.

I was running some phone lines the other day for a buddy of mine. He had just bought a new house and had cable installed that morning. The cable tech had put a splitter up in the attic and placed locking terminators on the unused ports on the splitter. I asked my buddy about it and he told me that the cable company charges an extra $3 per month for each outlet. We are talking about a non decoder, analog feed here. The cable tech even told him it would cost an extra $3 for a line to the #2 tuner on his PIP tv. Now would it really be illegal to hook up extra tvs in his house since he is paying for the service already and the wiring to do so is contained within his home? That would be like the electric company charging you if you added outlets in your house or the phone company trying to charge you per phone.

I think about every 5th customer asks me about "black cards". I have had serious inquries about them from all walks of life, including law enforcement, lawyers and judges. I explain the pitfalls, and remind them that it is illegal but I have a feeling that some people take it from there. These are folks who would never dream of walking into a bank and robbing it.

There is always going to be piracy, just like people are going to speed and run red lights regardless of what form of enforcement exists. It is now, always has been and always will be a cat and mouse game and I don't think anything can be done to totally stop it. The P4 card will be hacked, along with the P5 or whatever else they come up with. Digital cable will eventually be hacked too. Just a lot of smart people out there with fast computerslooking to beat the system.

The company that I started in this industry with told me they had a $500 bounty on pirates. They encouraged us to report anything we saw in the field (programmers, bootstraps, emulators etc) and we would get a reward. I dropped the dime on a few folks and never saw a dime from D* or the company I worked for. Who are the real crooks?

RR

[Steve Mehs]

Zane (and others who don't know), there is a hack [feature] that was installed, that when you type in a certain code, whoever you are and if your logged in, your user name will appear for you. Try logging out of DBSTalk, you won't see your name in any of those posts.

When you saw
"Hey you! Yes YOU, Zane26, what are YOU lookin' at?"

I saw
"Hey you! Yes YOU, Steve Mehs, what are YOU lookin' at?"

Nobody accused anyone of hacking, it was just some, what was supposed to be, harmless fun.

[Win Joy Jr]

[Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
There is NO PROOF of any of these people EVER using these devices.

That is for the court to decide.

What ever happened to being innocent until being proven guilty?

This is Civil Court. The rules are MUCH different. The accused pirates are not being proscuted in a criminal matter.

So now we could have innocent people here getting pulled into court having to pay legal fees when they may not have done anything wrong?

And this is different from criminal courts and traffic violations and drug possessions how?