DSS HU whats all this illegal stuff??:)

[zveruga]

I was reading the Sale/Trade forum guidelines and stumbled upon this:

* No H or HU (DSS cards) card sales. This includes software for enabling DSS emulation, which is not legal in the U.S.

Whats all this stuff?? Looking for information only (I lost the desire to break the law after being busted for using a red box at a hotel payphone....)

This topic has been moved from the HT forum.

AnandTech Moderator

 

[pm]

Odds are good that this thread will get locked. DSS hacking isn't HT and doesn't belong in the HT forum. A better fit would be Forum Issues, and/or Off Topic. In essence, you reprogram or emulate the DSS decoding card so as to enable free satellite TV access. It's legal in Canada and a whole host of other countries. It's illegal in the US. For more details search google for "DSS hack" or "DSS HU hack" or something along those lines.

A better HT subject would be whether people think that it should be legal or not, and why. The basic thought for the countries that have it legal is "if someone broadcasts something at me, and I can decode it, it's the broadcaster's problem. The signal is appearing on my property. Essentially they are trespassing on my property to deliver the signal." And of course the US has the DMCA and a series of legislation that essentially takes the broadcasters view and says, "we are providing a service. If there aren't laws against pirating the service, everyone would do it. If everyone does it, we can't make money. If we don't make money, we won't provide the service and customers will lose out." Depending on how you look at it, there are valid points to both, although I tend to lean towards the Canadian view - that if they want to throw a signal at me then it's none of their business whether I can decode it or not. To me this law is like saying that if you are in a restaurant and there is music playing in the background, that I shouldn't be able to listen unless I fork over money. But I do understand the broadcaster's view as well. Like most IP/copyright/content issues, this is not a black and white issue.

Still, it's not legal in the US and most AT readers are US residents. Not allowing H and HU card sales is consistent with policy in the FS/FT forum.

 

[zveruga]

My apologies if my question was inappropriate. I do not care to know HOW to do it, just wanted to know WHAT it is.

 

[pm]

I understand. I was just stating a fact - that the mods will most likely lock the thread. Or move it - although if they do move it, I hope they add a note to indicate that it has been moved. Otherwise all of the people in OT will say "but PM, this isn't the HT forum."

And I understand your curiousity - that's why I replied. I started reading about it after listening to a couple of my co-workers griping over lunch about the latest anti-hacking method from DirectTV and trying to figure out what they were going to do about it. I didn't follow the conversation at all and started reading up. The whole DSS thing is actually pretty interesting technically. I have absolutely no desire at all to try to hack DSS service - I don't watch television now and I don't want to get in the habit of doing so - but I did find reading about what it is, and how DirectTV responds, and then what the hackers have done in return to be fairly interesting. It makes for interesting reading, anyway. There are plenty of forums and websites out there who will tell you more on this subject than you ever wanted to know. Search on Google.