Move over RIAA DirecTV sues 63 in FL and 12000 countrywide

[allisolm]

Article

DirecTV filed 63 suits in Northern District of Fl in 2003 and nearly 12,000 countrywide for receiving service without paying for it.

The suits say that the defendants got descrambling equipment from various outfits, including one called "Stinky Dave," to crack DirecTV's security and watch it for free.

The company says that "These devices have no other purpose but to steal (and) these lawsuits only target individuals we (can prove) purchased these devices."

A lawyer says"There may be some devices built to intercept DirecTV but many are usable for other things," including research in information security." I guess that a defendant would have to show that he was doing legitimate research in information security.

There was an thread predicting this in July, 2001 here.

 

[dman]

DTV is starting to get some pushback from Federal Court. So they are filing in state court. Since the laws vary from state to state it's harder for those being sued to defend themselves in masse like they have in the Federal filings. For the federal suits--There are a few good forums out there... will be harder to do for 50 different states...

 

[Analog]

What if you use one of these devices to download songs off the internet via your satellite dish???

 

[h8red]

DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

 

[Danman]

No surprise here.

 

[Zombie]

I doubt your regular highschool dropout joe wants the device to further his research on security.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: h8red
DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

 

[PowerMac4Ever]

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red
DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

 

[malbojah]

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red
DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

How about DTV prove that they're guilty instead??

 

[Aharami]

is DTV any good?

 

[royaldank]

This has been going on for about a year and half now.

BTW, some of the devices are solely used for DTV reception. Bootloaders were made to defeat the Black Sunday ECM that DTV sent down. These bootloaders have no other purpose in life than clone a portion of the card that was hit by DTV. These people are going to have a hard time in court. People with programmers have a case.

Either way, it's pretty low of them to do this. Especially since they can't prove you used them. Yeah for the DMCA or whatever it is.

 

[Nightfall]

I know someone who has a cheater card with DTV and it is an ongoing battle to keep his free service. I pay for DTV and I think it is an excellent value for the money. It is amazing how my friend, who makes $250,000 a year won't pay for DTV while I make $60,000 and pay for it. Simply amazing.

 

[royaldank]

Originally posted by: Nightfall
I know someone who has a cheater card with DTV and it is an ongoing battle to keep his free service. I pay for DTV and I think it is an excellent value for the money. It is amazing how my friend, who makes $250,000 a year won't pay for DTV while I make $60,000 and pay for it. Simply amazing.

Yeah, but he's getting free 596,597, and 598.

 

[spliffstar69]

Originally posted by: royaldank

Originally posted by: Nightfall
I know someone who has a cheater card with DTV and it is an ongoing battle to keep his free service. I pay for DTV and I think it is an excellent value for the money. It is amazing how my friend, who makes $250,000 a year won't pay for DTV while I make $60,000 and pay for it. Simply amazing.

Yeah, but he's getting free 596,597, and 598.

No.... if he doing it right, he is getting all 5 of them

 

[SoylentGreen]

Originally posted by: malbojah

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

How about DTV prove that they're guilty instead??

By purchasing said pirating equipment they have.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Originally posted by: malbojah

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

How about DTV prove that they're guilty instead??

By purchasing said pirating equipment they have.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: malbojah

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

How about DTV prove that they're guilty instead??

By purchasing said pirating equipment they have.

I guess if your purchase a gun you're automatically a murderer huh? You are aware that some of this equipment (card readers and programmers, etc) does have other purposes? I guess that's just too fine a point for you.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: malbojah

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

How about DTV prove that they're guilty instead??

By purchasing said pirating equipment they have.

I guess if your purchase a gun you're automatically a murderer huh? You are aware that some of this equipment (card readers and programmers, etc) does have other purposes? I guess that's just too fine a point for you.

That's a logical comparison.

Get lost.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Kiyup
That's a logical comparison.

Get lost.

Some equipment can be used only for piracy. Other equipment can be used for good purposes as well as bad. Your extreme generalizations are worse than his stretched analogy.

Edit: 1) By my "some" and "other" labels, both refer to equipment which DTV is suing over. One sort of makes sense, the other makes no sense at all. Oh, and it's tiring to see all these holier-than-thou people who have to assume that if a corporation says you're evil, you must be evil (and worthy of a US$1M or more lawsuit).

 

[Linflas]

I pay for DirectTV but that said I think these actions are ridiculous. As far as I am concerned you don't want me to watch your broadcast you have 2 options:

1. Don't broadcast the signal where I can stick up an antenna and receive it.
2. Realize that #1 is impossible so be good enough with your technology so I cannot descramble your signal.

 

[SoylentGreen]

Oh here comes all the little hypocrites that pirated TV defending their stance.

Go waste your energy defending yourself in court, not on AT forums.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Kiyup
Oh here comes all the little hypocrites that pirated TV defending their stance.

Go waste your energy defending yourself in court, not on AT forums.

Uh huh. I don't watch TV, let alone purchase (or steal) DirectTV or Cable. Nice try.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: Linflas
I pay for DirectTV but that said I think these actions are ridiculous. As far as I am concerned you don't want me to watch your broadcast you have 2 options:

1. Don't broadcast the signal where I can stick up an antenna and receive it.
2. Realize that #1 is impossible so be good enough with your technology so I cannot descramble your signal.

You forgot option 3:
Use your lobbying power to railroad a law through the legislature making it illegal to circumvent any encryption scheme. Today's post was brought to you by the letters D, M, C and A.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl

Originally posted by: Kiyup

Originally posted by: malbojah

Originally posted by: PowerMac4Ever

Originally posted by: jliechty

Originally posted by: h8red DTV seems to be worse than the RIAA. At least the RIAA has some sort of proof that you stole something. DTV does not. ISO 7816 programmers are legal.

True. This crap that DTV is trying to do is lower than low. They're basically accusing thousands of people of something that they may or may not have done, and saying "pay us lots of money unless you can prove yourself innocent."

Yeah, that's it, these people are buying descramblers for "research purposes." If they're innocent, let them defend themselves.

How about DTV prove that they're guilty instead??

By purchasing said pirating equipment they have.

I guess if your purchase a gun you're automatically a murderer huh? You are aware that some of this equipment (card readers and programmers, etc) does have other purposes? I guess that's just too fine a point for you.

That's a logical comparison.

Get lost.

Eat my ass you ignorant little bastard. It's illegal to USE this equipement to defraud directv. It's not illegal to OWN it. So unless you can prove that is WAS USED this is nothing more than heavy handed extortion. If you're to fvcking stupid to grasp onto that concept I'm really sorry for you.

 

[SoylentGreen]

You're too fvcking ignorang to grasp the concept that you're full of crap and can be seen through as easily as glass.

I repeat, get lost.