Yahooo!!!! These extortionist motherfuckers finally got what's due them. Hopefully this will cut down on the number of lawsuits issued for the "crime" of possessing card reprogrammers.
The Register wrote:A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday (15 June) that DirecTV cannot sue individuals for merely possessing technology useful for illegally intercepting the company's satellite signal, in the first significant legal victory for critics of DirecTV's aggressive anti-piracy campaign.
A three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the federal law criminalizing possession of wiretap equipment does not allow for civil lawsuits. District courts across the country have ruled both ways on the issue, and Tuesday's decision is the first time a higher court stepped in to settle the question.
Technically the ruling is only binding in the three southern US states covered by the Eleventh Circuit - Alabama, Florida, and Georgia - but DirecTV said that it would stop suing under the wiretap equipment statute nationwide.
The ruling affects only one type of action in the litigation cocktail that DirecTV brings to bear against suspected pirates. In addition to the possession of wiretap equipment charge, each lawsuit typically accuses a defendant of actually using the equipment to steal satellite service, in violation of federal wiretap law and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
"We've never sued anybody based on possession alone," said DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer. "We've always asserted that they've used the devices for the purpose for which they're intended, which is to steal our signal... We don't believe the court's ruling will have any practical effect on our litigation activities."
But the decision means that DirecTV will have to convince a jury that a defendant actually used the equipment to pirate the company's signal in any case that comes to trial.
"They will still bring lawsuits, and perhaps just as many," says Jason Schultz, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed an amicus brief in the case opposing DirecTV. "But I think this changes the situation dramatically... You can make a pretty good argument that a purchase record is proof of possession, but making the leap that you actually figured out how to program it and connect it to a satellite receiving system with sufficient technical skills to descramble DirecTV's satellite signals is a whole other level of proof."
DirecTV's end-user campaign is aimed at shutting down and collecting money from larcenous TV watchers who use smart card programmers and other equipment to get free or expanded satellite service. Because there's no way to trace people who are passively receiving DirecTV's signal, the company turned to a strategy of physically raiding equipment sellers that cater to pirates, using the authority of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The company then sends out threatening letters to equipment purchasers on the seized customer lists.
The letters accused the recipients of violating anti-piracy and wiretapping laws, and demanded a cash settlement beginning at $3,500, under threat of litigation. Since last year the company has sent out an estimated 100,000 letters and filed approximately 14,000 lawsuits against over 24,000 people who've ignored them or refused to settle.
DirecTV has faced criticism over the campaign after targeting some innocent techies with perfectly legal uses for the equipment they purchased. The company says the number of non-pirates buying the equipment is minuscule.
On Monday, the day before the Eleventh Circuit ruling, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society announced an agreement with DirecTV aimed at helping innocent targets disentangle from the company's dragnet: DirecTV promised to change its demand letters to explain in detail how innocent recipients can get the company to drop their cases, and to investigate every credible claim of innocence.
Personally, I lay claim to all EM radiation passing through my property. Way, way back in the mid 80's, a friend of mine buried a coil of wire next to a cable junction box that was on his property and obtained free (but blurry) cable thanks to the miracle of induction.
Korvan wrote:Personally, I lay claim to all EM radiation passing through my property.
Agreed... if they don't want people to get their signal, they should stop irradiating them with it from space.
Now here is the interesting bit. Back in the 70s the court systems rulled that you can view all data beamed into your property. This is what forced the cable companies (satelites were originaly designed for cable companies to get cable into more difficult to reach areas, they didn't start providing satelite TV until after it was being stolen) to encrypt their satelite transmissions. Now these companies decided to get around the legality of viewing the data by making it illegal to use certain devices thanks to the DMCA. Before the DMCA Direct TV couldn't do shit to people viewing their material except for changing the encryption.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
The same thing can't be done against Canadian satellite provider BellExpressvue,they even went as far as accusing some of their clients of stealing the damn signal,talk about fucking retards.
Jerry Orbach 1935 2004 Admiral Valdemar~You know you've fucked up when Wacky Races has more realistic looking vehicles than your own.
DirecTV are a bunch of bastards. A few years ago, we had a fire at my house and the Fire Marshall ordered the premises boarded up and sealed until sunrise the next day. Well during the night some yo-yos helped themselves to everything but (Chris Rock was right) my books. I immediately reported the fire to DTV and all the utilities.
A few months later, I got a nasty letter claiming that my access cards were being copied and used to pirate DirecTV and that they could take legal action, blah, blah, blah. I told them that I wasn't responsible and whoever has my cards must have taken them from my house after the fire. Their response: "Fire? What fire?" Then I got pissed and sent them a copy of the Fire Marshall's report and a photo of my burned and melted dish. My letter also told them I'd be switching to DISH Network.
Two lessons learned:
1)After a fire, remove EVERYTHING you intend to keep, because no matter what kind of neighborhood you live in and no matter what assurances you get from the police/ fire/ insurance reps, humanoids will pillage the premises that very night!
2) When a company tries to fuck you over, don't argue, bargain or complain. Take your business elsewhere immediately and tell them why.
That the thieves didn't steal your books is simultaneously good and bad. It's good because you get to keep the books, it's bad because it means that lowlifes really are stupid and not just immoral. They also breed alot, so their stupidity will carry on.
Sì! Abbiamo un' anima! Ma è fatta di tanti piccoli robot.
Alyeska wrote:Now here is the interesting bit. Back in the 70s the court systems rulled that you can view all data beamed into your property.
Do you have the relevant ruling on this? That's rather interesting ...
Now these companies decided to get around the legality of viewing the data by making it illegal to use certain devices thanks to the DMCA. Before the DMCA Direct TV couldn't do shit to people viewing their material except for changing the encryption.
Awhile ago before they started using litigation, they sent out new smart cards to everyone that was a legal subscriber of DirecTV. After a time period in which they could be reasonable sure that anyone legal was safe, they sent out a command which wrote to certain write-once areas on existing smart cards commonly used for hacked sets.
In addition to that, they uploaded new firmware that more or less said "while x is read off the smart card, do not function"
Alyeska wrote:Now here is the interesting bit. Back in the 70s the court systems rulled that you can view all data beamed into your property.
Do you have the relevant ruling on this? That's rather interesting ...
I read it in a communications technology book for one of my college classes. Basicaly the cable companies tried suing the people for stealing service and the government decided that the people had every right to intercept the information within their own property. This is what forced the companies to encrypt rather then litigate at the time.
"If the facts are on your side, pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, pound on the law. If neither is on your side, pound on the table."
"The captain claimed our people violated a 4,000 year old treaty forbidding us to develop hyperspace technology. Extermination of our planet was the consequence. The subject did not survive interrogation."
kojikun wrote:phong's report of their antipiracy methods show how proper antipiracy should work in this type of situation. Shame they started litigating..
For awhile DirecTV was going the "counter" route but it was becoming increasingly less effective, especially with emulation systems hooking into the receiver to effectively bypass many a security system.
SWPIGWANG wrote:There is enough EM leakage to allow cable to be stolen that way!?
It's also possibul to tap into a grounded phone line by the same method and in some case from more then a mile away. Though the shear volume of traffic would make picking out an individual conversation impossible these days. Those USN taps on Russian seabed cables also used induction, with the clarity to record data from dozens of separate lines at once.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
