Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Pirate spotted

This is topic Pirate spotted - what should be done? in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=000178

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-16-2001, 06:29 PM:

OK folks, I need some advice.

I have become aware of a person in my area who is bootlegging satellite TV decoder cards.

The way I understand it is: You get yourself a satellite dish (DSS) and sign up for the cheapest package. Then, you take the decoder card to this person. He does something to the card with his computer (people say he "zaps" the card) which unlocks it so that ALL the DSS channels can be received free of charge. This of course means all those MOVIE channels.

At first I was just annoyed by this, but after thinking about all these people staying home watching free satellite TV when they might otherwise be coming to movies (not to mention the outright theft of service by people using these cards) I just got damn mad.

From what I've heard, this guy has done this with many, many of these cards. Everyone I've talked to says it's in the hundreds. So we're not talking about a small time thing here.

I looked at the DSS website to see if they had any kind of "report piracy" link, but found nothing.

So my questions are: Should I turn this person in? And if so, to whom do I turn him in?

What are your thoughts? If any of you want to comment off the public forum, my e-mail address is roxy@mcn.net. Thanks.

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 03-16-2001, 08:15 PM:

Not only do you have a theft of service problem but you may have a FCC situation. Could be a federal case. Call your local athorities and ask for the bunco division. They should have the answers you need.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-16-2001, 09:20 PM:

Well I'm not sure about the legalities on this one. If a person was modifying their own DSS boards, then that is their right, just as long as they own the equipment. It would be DSS's problem and they would need to find a new way to block the channels.

Say you have a PlayStation. You install a chip into it so it can play import and CDR games. Illegal? Hell no. It's your PlayStation and you can add chips, throw it around the room, pee on it, whatever you want. Of course you ruin your warranty. Sony decided to start making CD drives that cannot read CDRs and trying to change the innards of the PlayStation so it cannot be chipped (they still can be. People are smarter than companies, which is why it will always be possible to crack the DVD code).

Now if you rent a game and copy that to a CDR then that is illegal. So if the DSS user is using the modified card to watch movies he/she didn't pay for, then that is illegal. But simply modifying the card is not.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 03-17-2001, 05:58 PM:

If the satellite company doesn't follow-up on piracy complaints, perhaps the MPAA will:
http://www.mpaa.org/anti-piracy/
http://www.mpaa.org/anti-piracy/contact/index.htm
http://www.mpaa.org/anti-piracy/press/index.htm

AFAIK, cable and satellite providers usually offer rewards if the report results in prosecution of the pirate. Informants may request to remain anonymous.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-17-2001, 06:27 PM:

The legal question here is interesting. Obviously, the people who are having the guy modify the boards are violating the law if they then (as expected) use the hacked boards to commit theft of service. On the other hand, the guy who is doing the mods may or may not be in violation, depending on the circumstances.

In any case, I say: report it! Try the DSS people or the MPAA hotline as John suggested. At worst, they'll ignore you. At best, you might get a reward of some sort, and maybe people will get off their couches and start going to movies (once they get out of jail...).

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-17-2001, 07:13 PM:

I've got a kinda' strange view on this kind of thing:

Any radio signal that comes into "my back yard" is fair game... If other people have the right to broadcast a signal then I have the right to "listen" to it. If I can figure out a way to decode encrypted data I have the right to do that too.

Now, that having been said, there's still the theft of service issue. Is the guy doing the modifications "selling" theft of service? If the guy was selling the "knowledge" of how to intercept any given satellite signal then I would say NO. The part about people signing up for the cheapest subscription possible and getting the rest of the channels for free would lead me to believe that the answer is YES.

If you think this guy is doing something illegal. (And in this case, I'd think so too.) Then I'd call the satellite company and clue them in. If you're worried about being accused of "ratting" on him then I'd send an e-mail via an "anonymizer" exlaining that you are concerned about being retaliated against. You could also call the customer service hotline of one of these companies from a pay phone. Once you have given them the information it's up to the company whether or not to follow up on it. If it's as bad as you say it is, I'm sure they will.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 03-18-2001, 11:36 PM:

I know a guy in Louisville who was busted for doing this. They had him on the TV news getting arrested and everything.

Nothing ever happened with it. I don't remember the specifics, but it didn't amount to much more than a slap on the wrist (which, of course, wasn't publicized). We figured the main thing they wanted to do was have the arrest all over television, to scare other people out of doing it.

------------------
Better Projection Pays!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-19-2001, 01:17 AM:

More info:

From what I've been able to gather, this guy is selling these bootlegged cards for $400. If it's true that he's got hundreds out there, that's a nice chunk of money!

After a while, DSS gets wise to a person using scrambled channels without authorization, and disables that card. (I saw in an internet article somewhere that they never bother to prosecute "customers," they tend to only go after illegal dealers.)

When that happens, the "customer" simply goes back to the bootlegger and gets another card! Nice?

The person who clued me in to a lot of this told me that this guy is "amazingly open" about all this. Like he's not even worried about getting caught.

I like the anonymizer e-mail idea. I'll start composing a couple of mails and will let you all know what happens, if anything. Thanks everyone for the advice.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 03-19-2001, 04:42 AM:

...and hope he's not into reading Film-Tech.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 03-19-2001, 05:00 AM:

I'm just gonna rant here, so bear with me:
Ever since those DSS things came out, I've thought they were a huge joke. You have to buy the dish and tuner (which were $700 when they came out, they can now be gotten for a lot less) then you STILL have to pay to unscramble ANY channels- absolutely NOTHING comes in for free like on the regular 'big' satellite dishes. Now you should be expected to pay for channels that don't show commercials, but even the channels that DO show commercials won't come in without paying for them. That's why I don't have cable- I had it for a while when I had a roommate who wanted it, but always felt very uncomfortable paying for advertiser-supported programming, plus I had NO say in what got shown.
The movie channels are a joke too, because they only show movies in pan-and-scan. I won't watch a movie that way, period. DVDs hadn't come out yet when I had cable but I already had a laserdisc player and there were a few places that rented laserdiscs too so HBO was of no use to me(don't need to rent DVDs now cause they're so cheap!) If pan and scan wasn't enough, during the end credits they'd sometimes put in voice-overs announcing what was coming up next, and since then I've heard they even squash the credits to half the screen to run show promos too!
Besides this, I blame cable for the proliferation of constant logos onscreen on all the broadcast networks. Since most cable subscribers don't seem to mind having their screens vandalized, they never complained and cancelled their subscriptions when VH-1 and other cable channels started this atrocious practice. So most other cable channels followed and I guess the people at the regular TV networks figured that's what people wanted so they started it too, making most of what I get on free TV unwatchable.
OK, sorry if I sounded a little p***ed off there; I'm just disgusted that people are paying to get commercial TV with logos on it and can't be too disturbed if I hear someone's been 'stealing' it.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-19-2001, 03:22 PM:

Well I don't have cable either!!!!! But my reason is basically that I'm not interested in watching that much TV. I wouldn't mind having the comedy channel, though. Though talking with Brad recently DirecTV sounds like it might have a decent deal. Plus the picture quality is even better than DVD going through an RF cable! Even when you hook up the DVD with component cables, nothing beats the RF! Just kidding. But anyway, these things are getting cheaper and cheaper all the time.

I hear digital cable has a delay when you switch channels. True? Do you share data with those unfortunate cable modem users?

Posted by Jerry Chase (Member # 660) on 03-19-2001, 04:44 PM:

Jesse, I agree with all you say. Bravo ran a Hitchcock film a few months back and cut off the end of the film with the f**king voiceover. Imagine. I hadn't seen the film in a while and was flippin' along, and at the final moment some twit starts screaming out "Next on Bravo, alligators get butt-f**ked!" or some such nonsense. I was livid, fired off a couple of emails, and decided enough was enough.

I'll watch movies on TCM or ARTS, but I check any Bravo movies ass end before I start watching. Mostly I ignore them.

Someone had the tv version of the original "Shaft" playing recently. It was a wonder that there was any dialog left. After about five minutes, I gave up on it.

The only reason I bother with tv any more is my Tivo box. It records those films I forget to set the VCR for, and the fast forward and other features are superior to video tape.

Praise Allah for sh*t tv and censored movies. It keeps people going to see the real thing.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-19-2001, 05:34 PM:

Speaking of TIVO and other hard disc recorders, how is the video quality? Can you see digital artifacting? Does it have inputs that you can record into? Do you HAVE to subscribe to a service to use it? Can you just tell it "I wanna record Channel 4 from 7 to 8" if you don't subscribe, similar to programming a VCR? What color is red? Do I ask too many questions?

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 03-19-2001, 07:51 PM:

Joe Redifer wrote:"Speaking of TIVO and other hard disc recorders, how is the video quality? Can you see digital artifacting? Does it have inputs that you can record into? Do you HAVE to subscribe to a service to use it? Can you just tell it "I wanna record Channel 4 from 7 to 8" if you don't subscribe, similar to programming a VCR? What color is red? Do I ask too many questions?"

I have a REPLAY box. I just love it. I could go on for many pages about it. I'll be glad to answer any specific questions via e-mail. But for now, answers to Joe's questions:

How is the video quality? Is there artifacting?

My box has 3 recording speeds: Standard, Medium and High. Standard has significant artifacting, but is fine for a show that you just want to see one time. I would compare it to slow speed VHS. My box will handle 30 hours at this speed. Medium is much better. Slightly better than SP speed on VHS. Good for archiving, but only about 15 hours available. High quality is excellent, but only 10 hours available. I record most things at STANDARD, and I'm OK with that.

One ANT/CATV coax line in, 2 RCA stereo audio/video (one with S-Video)

Outputs are 2 RCA Stereo audio/video (one with S-Video)

Roses are Red.

The channel guide is included in the price on Replay. It calls out once each night to update. Yes, I can tell the box to manually record.

One other nice feature is that it can record and play back simultaneously.

Contrary to what 60 minutes said, mine took about 1-hour to set up and configure. That included time to call Replay because my cable box was not listed in the book.

I especially like the little button on the remote that skips ahead 30 seconds everytime I hit it. Advertisers do NOT like me at all.

Mark Lensenmayer

------------------
"As a moral to young men who come down to the city, don't go round breaking people's tambourines."