Interesting Reading - USA Today on Satellite Piracy

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is an interesting read.

http://usatoday.com/news/acovmon.htm

[Jacob S]

I dont think it helps that they give links to sites to buy the products from in the news, or that they mention it on the news, because it makes it even more aware that it is possible to do so, and to be done so easily at little cost.

It is almost like they knew that this was going to happen, having smart cards in the systems in the first place.

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would not be suprised if the websites they gave out are actually run by DirecTV or Dish Network, and are part of a sting operation. This type of thing has been done before.

[zimm0who0net]

I personally never really understood why this is such a challenging problem. They whole idea behind the smart card was that it was an inexpensive enough key generation technique that if someone were to compromise it, it's economically feasible to replace all the cards. When was the last time E* did a wholesale card swap?
Personally I think that E* & D* just don't care about piracy because most of it takes place in Canada where they can't sell service anyway. Interesting turn-about in that the biggest losers from Canada's own laws that restrict distribution of E* & D* to Canadian citizens are probably the Canadian cable & satellite companies....

[Karl Foster]

I know D* is changing all of their cards at present (I got mine two weeks ago). I assume it took five minutes for a hacker to compromise the new cards as well.

[Mark Holtz]

Not necessarily. The P4 card is backwards compatible with the exist Hu stream which is still active.

[Ryan]

An interesting read about the DTivo's having problems with the new cards. I've switched two DTivos plus two older RCA receivers to new cards, plus my mom has switched her one DTivo. None have shown any problems.

BTW DTivos new 3.x software requires a new P4 card.

[Surfer Joe]

Very interesting read. A question...Is it illegal to sell a smart card that hasn't been hacked? I've got one from an old receiver that got hit by a power surge, is it worth anything?

[scooper]

If you'll read the fine print on the card, you are NOT the owner of the card - you are merely granted a license to use it. Much like other softeware...