DirecTV suing pirates...and others (1 Viewer)

[Jan Strnad]

Interesting article in the July 18 issue of The Register.



DirecTV is suing people who have purchased Smart Card programmers from known piracy sites. Nearly 9000 lawsuits have been threatened against these purchasers, even without any evidence that the devices were used to steal DirecTV.



Even people with no satellite dish, who bought the devices for legitimate reasons, are being sued. The people sued are offered a "settlement" for $3500 plus surrender of the device. Many people are settling, despite never having pirated DirecTV, because it's cheaper to pay the settlement than to hire an attorney.



A class action countersuit against DirecTV has hit a judicial roadblock.



Complete article here: [url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31793.html]http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31793.html[/url]



Jan

 

[dan fritzen]

My friend was one of them, he was actually pirating it though. I am glad I never let him talk me into it.

 

[JohanD]

I hate these type of blanket lawsuits.. is there a way if you were not pirating.. that you could sue them for at least your court costs?

 

[Jeremy Little]

That story gave more than 1 legitimate use for the smart card programmers. I think the whole situation is crap. If it is a DirecTV lawsuit, don't they need a burden of proof? Also, if they are sending letters and being accusatory I would think that you have a VERY firm basis for a libel/slander lawsuit.

I think that this country is getting way to litigious, people getting sued all the time at the drop of a hat. I'd like to say hurray to the guy they mentioned who was standing up to them in that article.

 

[Allan Jayne]

What else are the smart cards in question used for?

If the smart cards and programmer were purchased only from a brochure that prominently indicates that one primary purpose is to hack Direct TV, then Direct TV may have a case. But if the smart cards and programmer were generic and the printed or on-line literature leading to the purchase said nothing about subscription TV hacking, the purchaser probably should have not settled and written back to Direct TV explaining his position and perhaps suggesting a counter suit.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

 

[Richard Paul]

The problem is that DirecTV made there dragnet to broad when they should have at least confirmed that these people had satellite dishes. At the same time, from the sound of this article, ALL of these programmer devices were bought from pirate outfits, which is why DirecTV assumed that all of these people are pirating there signals. The truth is a majority of these people are pirates and DirecTV is simply getting back at them. I do pity the people who legitimately got those devices since there only crime was the mistake of purchasing devices with certain features they didn't need.

If everyone pirates satellite they would go out of business and we would be left with our "friendly" cable monoplies once again inflating their profits to whatever they want. So I do want the pirates caught, but if DirecTV can't even proof the person owned a satellite dish then they should consider them innocent.

 

[Colin Davidson]

This will probably be the next tactic the music industry uses to stop song pirating. Everyone with a CD burner is now a defendant....:rolleyes

 

[Chris Derby]

you have to remember that the smart cards used by directv aren not a proprietary technology. there are many uses for the smart cards themselves. the apartment complex that i used to live in uses smart cards for laundry and vending machines on the property. The new department of defense ID cards are based on the same smart cards.

directv should have developed their own technology for this if they didn't want people to be able to easily purchase tools that can be used to pirate their programming.

 

[Philip_G]

directv should have developed their own technology for this if they didn't want people to be able to easily purchase tools that can be used to pirate their programming.

that's a whole other lawsuit between NDS and DTV.

 

[Chris Derby]

that's a whole other lawsuit between NDS and DTV.

i thought that the nds/dtv situation was going to use different algorithms/programming but still use the current smartcards.

 

[Philip_G]

last I read it was, but they're both suing each other over the contract. DTV is in th eprocess of releasing their first in house access card, and doing away with all the NDS cards.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

After reading this, I'll never subscribe to DirecTV. I hope a lot of others feel the same way.

 

[Philip_G]

After reading this, I'll never subscribe to DirecTV. I hope a lot of others feel the same way.

isn't that what caused the problem in the first place?

I had read somewhere earlier this year (sorry, no source as it's coming from memory) that at the rate things are going DTV will have more people pirating their service than are paying for it.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> isn't that what caused the problem in the first place?

No, I didn't say I was gonna pirate their service, just never buy it. Note that one of the people they threatened was actually a current subscriber.

 

[Philip_G]

Note that one of the people they threatened was actually a current subscriber.

That doesn't mean they haven't reprogrammed the card for more services than they pay for

 

[KyleS]

People should be careful because if you pay the money then you are stating that you are in fact guilty.

KyleS

 

[Philip_G]

I assumed that would be an out of court settlement, pay the money and you get out without saying you were anything, like whem michael jackson got sued?

 

[greggor]

I guess this explains why all direcTV customers have to replace their smart cards with a new one. Still waiting on my new card even after my service was turned off two days ago. Customer service claims it was sent out a few weeks ago.

If it it wasn't for my addiction to the NFL Directv would have been history a long time ago.

Greg

 

[LewB]

I wonder what defending yourself in a lawsuit would cost ? If DTV wants $3500, how much would you have to fork over to a lawyer to defend yourself in the case? Can you actually get all your costs back if proven innocent? I wonder how long that would take? You could be bankrupted by something like this, or just pay them the money and be done with it. DTV can afford lawyers, can you ?

 

[Philip_G]

wouldn't it be a civil case? I assume you could counter sue or be awarded costs?
I would imagine any judge worth anything would throw the case out