Yosemite
June 9th, 2003, 07:01 PM
News
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Posted on Thu, Jun. 05, 2003
DirecTV takes aim at Ky. signal pirates
142 SUED FOR ALLEGED ILLEGAL USE OF SERVICE
By Louise Taylor
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
DirecTV, the satellite television giant, has begun aggressively pursuing Kentuckians who illegally intercept its programming.
By yesterday afternoon, the company, based in southern California, had sued 142 people in the eastern half of Kentucky it claims bought access cards and other equipment to descramble signals and get hundreds of channels without paying for them.
Nationwide, DirecTV has sued about 8,700 such people, and more are being added to suits every day. Just yesterday, the number of federal lawsuits pending in Eastern and Central Kentucky grew from 19 to 25, most of them with multiple defendants.
While some people think they are doing no wrong by unscrambling signals to get the programs beamed down from space, DirecTV spokes-man Robert Mercer said they are "really stepping into very new and very painful world of exposure to damage and criminal liability.
"There's the argument that 'the signal falls in my back yard' and the perception that it is OK to steal signals.
"Well, it's not OK," he said. "It's like walking into Blockbuster and stuffing a bunch of DVDs under your shirt and walking out."
The lawsuits are filed only against those who have failed to reply to a letter from DirecTV demanding that they stop stealing the services, surrender the pirating equipment and pay damages of about $3,500 per illegal device.
That's less expensive than duking it out with DirecTV in U.S. District Court, Mercer warns. Pirates face a $10,000 price tag for each violation of federal telecommunications laws the company proves against "end-users," or people who pirate for their own use, and $100,000 from those who sell equipment or share codes used to descramble its signals. Add to that the possibility of being ordered to pay for DirecTV's lawyers and punitive damages, and $3,500 looks like a bargain, Mercer said.
Derek Gordon, a Lexington lawyer who is representing one of the people sued, said he questions how DirecTV is going to prove the amount of time pirates stole the satellite signal.
If users unplug the phone line to which the descrambler is attached, DirecTV can't track them, Gordon said. "And the fact a person got a descrambler doesn't mean he ever used it. How can they prove damages?"
DirecTV is targeting people whose names it found on invoices, e-mails, credit card receipts and other documents seized during raids in May 2001 at businesses that distribute pirating devices, including Vector Technologies, DSS-Stuff, Shutt Inc., Intertek, Whiteviper and DSS-Hangout, according to the suits filed in Lexington and other federal courts in Kentucky.
The lawsuits are just one part of DirecTV's anti-piracy campaign, Mercer said. The larger targets are the distributors of the equipment, which stands to become extinct soon anyway, Mercer said.
Pirating satellite TV service involves the use of special computer equipment to rewrite the service's access cards. Satellite TV hackers can rely on regular but unpredictable blasts from DirecTV that sound a little like they hail from Star Wars: The company sends electronic codes over its satellite signal that strike every access card on the globe, including subscribers. While subscribers' cards are rewritten by DirecTV via a phone line, pirated cards are disabled.
But an organized network of hackers in Canada and elsewhere quickly posts computer codes on the Internet to repair pirated cards and reestablish illegal service.
The technological wizardry of the war between pay TV companies and hackers, reminds Gordon of stories about Fuzzbuster radar detectors: "The guy making Fuzzbuster was also working for the cops. He'd make a better Fuzzbuster, then he'd make a better thing for the cops, and it kept on going that way."
DirecTV wants to break that cycle.
"We're in the process of developing an access card that is built to be unhackable, and we're now distributing it to customers, but it will take a while because there are millions of cards to replace," Mercer said. "It is a system that changes the way we do business and will transform the pirate landscape."
Response by the 8,700 people sued thus far has fallen into "different buckets," Mercer said. One bucket is filled with people who settle almost as soon as they get served with the suit; another with people who continue to ignore court action as steadfastly as they ignored the demand letter that preceded it and have default judgments entered against them; and a small group that defends itself in court and goes to trial.
An even smaller group hires lawyers. Of the 142 defendants in Eastern Kentucky, fewer than five had informed the court by yesterday that they have hired attorneys.
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Reach Louise Taylor at (859) 231-3205, 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3205, or ltaylor@herald-leader.com. :K :K :K :K :K
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Posted on Thu, Jun. 05, 2003
DirecTV takes aim at Ky. signal pirates
142 SUED FOR ALLEGED ILLEGAL USE OF SERVICE
By Louise Taylor
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
DirecTV, the satellite television giant, has begun aggressively pursuing Kentuckians who illegally intercept its programming.
By yesterday afternoon, the company, based in southern California, had sued 142 people in the eastern half of Kentucky it claims bought access cards and other equipment to descramble signals and get hundreds of channels without paying for them.
Nationwide, DirecTV has sued about 8,700 such people, and more are being added to suits every day. Just yesterday, the number of federal lawsuits pending in Eastern and Central Kentucky grew from 19 to 25, most of them with multiple defendants.
While some people think they are doing no wrong by unscrambling signals to get the programs beamed down from space, DirecTV spokes-man Robert Mercer said they are "really stepping into very new and very painful world of exposure to damage and criminal liability.
"There's the argument that 'the signal falls in my back yard' and the perception that it is OK to steal signals.
"Well, it's not OK," he said. "It's like walking into Blockbuster and stuffing a bunch of DVDs under your shirt and walking out."
The lawsuits are filed only against those who have failed to reply to a letter from DirecTV demanding that they stop stealing the services, surrender the pirating equipment and pay damages of about $3,500 per illegal device.
That's less expensive than duking it out with DirecTV in U.S. District Court, Mercer warns. Pirates face a $10,000 price tag for each violation of federal telecommunications laws the company proves against "end-users," or people who pirate for their own use, and $100,000 from those who sell equipment or share codes used to descramble its signals. Add to that the possibility of being ordered to pay for DirecTV's lawyers and punitive damages, and $3,500 looks like a bargain, Mercer said.
Derek Gordon, a Lexington lawyer who is representing one of the people sued, said he questions how DirecTV is going to prove the amount of time pirates stole the satellite signal.
If users unplug the phone line to which the descrambler is attached, DirecTV can't track them, Gordon said. "And the fact a person got a descrambler doesn't mean he ever used it. How can they prove damages?"
DirecTV is targeting people whose names it found on invoices, e-mails, credit card receipts and other documents seized during raids in May 2001 at businesses that distribute pirating devices, including Vector Technologies, DSS-Stuff, Shutt Inc., Intertek, Whiteviper and DSS-Hangout, according to the suits filed in Lexington and other federal courts in Kentucky.
The lawsuits are just one part of DirecTV's anti-piracy campaign, Mercer said. The larger targets are the distributors of the equipment, which stands to become extinct soon anyway, Mercer said.
Pirating satellite TV service involves the use of special computer equipment to rewrite the service's access cards. Satellite TV hackers can rely on regular but unpredictable blasts from DirecTV that sound a little like they hail from Star Wars: The company sends electronic codes over its satellite signal that strike every access card on the globe, including subscribers. While subscribers' cards are rewritten by DirecTV via a phone line, pirated cards are disabled.
But an organized network of hackers in Canada and elsewhere quickly posts computer codes on the Internet to repair pirated cards and reestablish illegal service.
The technological wizardry of the war between pay TV companies and hackers, reminds Gordon of stories about Fuzzbuster radar detectors: "The guy making Fuzzbuster was also working for the cops. He'd make a better Fuzzbuster, then he'd make a better thing for the cops, and it kept on going that way."
DirecTV wants to break that cycle.
"We're in the process of developing an access card that is built to be unhackable, and we're now distributing it to customers, but it will take a while because there are millions of cards to replace," Mercer said. "It is a system that changes the way we do business and will transform the pirate landscape."
Response by the 8,700 people sued thus far has fallen into "different buckets," Mercer said. One bucket is filled with people who settle almost as soon as they get served with the suit; another with people who continue to ignore court action as steadfastly as they ignored the demand letter that preceded it and have default judgments entered against them; and a small group that defends itself in court and goes to trial.
An even smaller group hires lawyers. Of the 142 defendants in Eastern Kentucky, fewer than five had informed the court by yesterday that they have hired attorneys.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reach Louise Taylor at (859) 231-3205, 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3205, or ltaylor@herald-leader.com. :K :K :K :K :K