Expectations as of current - Da Letter #1

[Doogie73]

Leaving.. Thanks for all your help :)

[Mechanic]

http://www.legal-rights.org/uslawyer.html

[BrainDamage]

So far, of the 4 people I know that have received the letter, 1 settled like a fool... the other 3 ignored the 1st letter.

Of the 3 that ignored the 1st letter, 1 of them never got a second letter and it has been over 3 months.

[Doogie73]

Leaving.. Thanks for all your help :)

[Doogie73]

Leaving.. Thanks for all your help :)

[JD490]

Here are your choices

1. settle with them for piece of mind for $3500.00
2. Get an attorney if you tell him you used the device, but are not using it now he will encourage you to settle. He can't in good faith try to convince them you are never used the devices for hacking.

3.Tell your attorney that you never stole any signals and you used it for legit reasons. Some call this going through discovery. This is done by you signing an affidavit that you didn't buy it for hacking, but for another legit reason. Only some have been successful in this. Search for "discovery" to find more info on this method. TTRK has written on this more then 1 time.
4. Ignore it basically roll the dice you don't get picked to be sued. Which I know 2 that has worked for. Its only been about 7 months for them although. Don't know if they are just waiting to sue them.
5. Call them or have your attorney tell them you do not attend on settling and if sue you will counter sue them. Wait and see.


From what I have heard if you do get sued they will offer a settlement of $1000 more then the original offer which is $3500 most of the time for 1 to 2 devices.

The length of time from when you purchased and when you received the letter means nothing. I got a letter from a purchase in may of 99 from Whiteviper a few months ago, so go figure. They are just slow.

Don't listen to fools that say they never sue because they do read the posts here some have been sued not everyone but enough to get their point accross. The second letter is just another scare letter to get you to call them.

If you want to settle don't waste your time with an attorney they will just cost you more. They won't get you anything differnt in your settlment then a person without an attorney.

Good luck.

[Mechanic]

Quote " If you want to settle don't waste your time with an attorney they will just cost you more. They won't get you anything differnt in your settlment then a person without an attorney. " Quote

From what I've seen of the standard agreement, I would say an attorney could do a LOT in that area. The agreements that I have seen gives you no rights, and DTV, everything they want.
Also if you give DTV the info that indicates that you did indeed steal signal, they may want to persue the issue further.
The attorney knows exactly what to say without admitting any liability, and how to word the settlement,(if that's what you want to do) to protect your rights.
I'm not saying that you couldn't defend yourself, if you do, I think it would be wise to at least have an attorney look at whatever terms you reach, before you sign it.
The choice to settle, ignore, or fight should be an informed choice, and you should be aware of the consequences of all, before making that choice.
Good luck.

[deepcrk]

if you got the first letter from the end user group, you will surely get a second. don't expect to get out of this cheaply, it's going to cost. whether it's attorney fees or settling with dave. you have to decide what's right for you and your family. at least an attorney will get you a better settlement then the one that the end users group will want you to sign, that's if your hell bent on settling.

as for me i'm going to fight them to the bitter end. i've told my attorney that i will not settle and if dave wants to go to court and will gladly see how he convinces a judge/jury that i stole his signal because he claims i bought a progammer. when i win or if they drop the case, i will countersue. i intend to stand up to the bully and then take the offensive.

long and short, my advice is get an attorney to settle for you. should only run a few hundred dollars more then the settlement anyway.

good luck

[Bowlero]

I for one got a letter just like yours last year sometime and i freaked. (didnt panic though). I asked around and found that my
sister in law's sister got the same letter and she did panic.
( i dont know if she did buy anything, she says that she knows nothing about it.)She is handicapped and has a heart condition. She however has a good friend who is a lawyer and she handled it
for her for free. My sister in-law said that the lawyer friend called
them up and asked for the proof on her client. They responded with this: " We are proccessing many of these cases right now and we dont
have the time to send everyone a copy of our files" . The lawyer
ripped them a new @#!-hole and told them that it was ridiculous
for them to extort money from her client witout proof. She told them to either send the proof or she would consider this case closed and if they harrassed her client again, they would sue. I spoke to her
myself because i wanted to hire her friend and she said that she
never heard anything from them again. I hired the lawyer and i got the same results so far. It has been well over a year for my sister
in-law's sister and over 5 months for me.

[Doogie73]

Leaving.. Thanks for all your help :)

[ELTORTERO]

I received second letter and 10 days have passed since.
Don't know if i should contact attorney or call end user myself.

i bought a smart card programmer 1 1/2 ago from a dss site but not for signal theft but for windows security login. It was cheaper there. found out i couldnt use this kind of programmer and threw it in the garbage.


what to do

[Boojer]

You need an attorney

[eeprom7777]

Originally posted by Mechanic

From what I've seen of the standard agreement, I would say an attorney could do a LOT in that area.

The agreements that I have seen gives you no rights, and DTV, everything they want.

Also if you give DTV the info that indicates that you did indeed steal signal, they may want to persue the issue further.

The attorney knows exactly what to say without admitting any liability, and how to word the settlement,(if that's what you want to do) to protect your rights.

I'm not saying that you couldn't defend yourself, if you do, I think it would be wise to at least have an attorney look at whatever terms you reach, before you sign it.

The choice to settle, ignore, or fight should be an informed choice, and you should be aware of the consequences of all, before making that choice.

Good luck. The mere act of an individual calling and not an attorney, will probably weaken that individuals case to some degree. If the individual should begin to speak, they will add about a 98.9%+ chance of further weakening thier case... (imho)

Weakening your case could cost thousands of dollars. 500 for a lawyers advice and possible phone call is trivial by comparison..

[Salty Jizm]

Originally posted by eeprom7777
The mere act of an individual calling and not an attorney, will probably weaken that individuals case to some degree. If the individual should begin to speak, they will add about a 98.9%+ chance of further weakening thier case... (imho)

Weakening your case could cost thousands of dollars. 500 for a lawyers advice and possible phone call is trivial by comparison..


I agree, but I would change the words. If an individual calls, they know the individual is cost sensitive and that is who they prefer to target. If an attorney calls, it suggest the defendant is going to dig thier heels in and if the attorney is acting aggressively, they may feel there is easier money else where.

[JD490]

I can only speak from my experience. I got the letters back in may of 02 everyone here said get an attorney. I did off the list on legal-rights.org. In the end I got the standard agreement my attorney said it was fine, and got the standard settlement amount of $35xx.xx, and I paid my attorney $700.00. to call them for me. Now I know 2 others that settled with them by calling them listening to there speech asking how much they say the standard amount $35xx.xx. Sent over the agreement it was the same thing as I got. They signed it sent the money in and that's it. There's nothing to admit to if you want to settle, and if you want take the settlement to your attorney have him look it over. "END user group" reads from a script when you call them they are only interested in getting that money out of you. I'm not saying you should call them and admit things, but if you have half a brain its not hard to do this. I only suggested this if you plan on settling not if you plan on doing other things. And to the person with the security business you need to do the "discovery" process.

[ELTORTERO]

should i go or not??

so the only thing he will do ,, is call them and hear I have to pay the same amount of money?? and then pay the attorney???

[mesh]

so if you decide to settle, what are the terms? besides the money, what do YOU get? do you get a guarantee that they will no longer pursue you for any more 'violations' for a cetain period of time or what? can they still try to sue you later if they bust someone else you may have bought a device from?

[deepcrk]

generally, the agreement has a date on and says something to the effect that as of this date if you purchase anything you can get popped again. However DTV does not guarantee that the feds won't come after you if your a major player, more so if dtv finds that you are continuing to pirate signals after the agreement with equipment purchased earlier, they could say you broke the agreement. Remember the agreement is with you a DTV, not you and the feds.

[Mechanic]

http://www.legal-rights.org/DTV/dtvagreementjuly2002.html
This is an agreemant without an attorney, if you think this is a good agreement, go for it,I think it STINKS!

[eeprom7777]

Originally posted by JD490
I can only speak from my experience. I got the letters back in may of 02 everyone here said get an attorney. I did off the list on legal-rights.org. In the end I got the standard agreement my attorney said it was fine, and got the standard settlement amount of $35xx.xx, and I paid my attorney $700.00. to call them for me. Now I know 2 others that settled with them by calling them listening to there speech asking how much they say the standard amount $35xx.xx. Sent over the agreement it was the same thing as I got. They signed it sent the money in and that's it. There's nothing to admit to if you want to settle, and if you want take the settlement to your attorney have him look it over. "END user group" reads from a script when you call them they are only interested in getting that money out of you. I'm not saying you should call them and admit things, but if you have half a brain its not hard to do this. I only suggested this if you plan on settling not if you plan on doing other things. And to the person with the security business you need to do the "discovery" process. I did not mean for any of my comments to conflict with anything that you have said. I know that you have been through this and hold your comments in very high regard. I have not been involved in this. Others have indicated that a certain level of negotiation in terms of a settlement may be possible. I believe that if this is the case you may have a huge chance at benifiting from an attorney.

(Salty Jizm has summed up my point about calling exactly right.)

[JD490]

I guess in the end I felt I got screwed by my attorney and daves, but oh well That's life some unexpected money came my way and I have already paid off all that stuff. The "discovery" process will only work if you truly never used the device for hacking, or you lie to your attorney and tell him you never used it for that purpose. He can't really go through that process if you say to him you used it to hack Dave TV. If you can't do the "discovery" process then you have to either settle or run the risk of getting sued. The higher risk of getting sued might pay off. They might think you will be too much of a fight to bother with. If you do get sued it will cost you way more in legal fees to fight it. They know they have a very weak case, but they also know it will cost you more then 3k to fight them off in court. The few they go up against and look like they might loose they just drop the case. Settlement is where they make all there money to pay for this sham. Zakarian's Flat rate deal is the best around if you want an attorney to handle the settlement I would go with him. I didn't use him and paid more, but should have. Although I'm not sure if he is still doing that. Good luck to everyone dealing with the letter.