Stealing satellite

[gfretwell]

So show them a picture of a tent. I see guys in the camp ground here with a dish on a tripod pretty regularly. I think they are missing the point of camping but who am I to say.

[aemeijers]

Supposedly they charge the extra five bucks, at least for fixed-address accounts. (Although people at work have told me they dropped their landline after the box was installed, and never got charged.) My box phones home at 0300 every few days. I thought it was to get guide data and firmware updates, but maybe it is just to say 'Hi Ma!'.

No idea how dish handles accounts set up only to an RV. At one time you had to have a real address, I am told, not just a PO box.

aem sends....

[fxsage]

I neither condone nor condem the interception of satellite tv signals that are for sale.

I don't know about the established case law. It would be interesting to see.

What has been discussed here has been about how people FEEL about the morality of decoding sat tv signals.

I suggest that you look at CFR (code of federal regulations) part 96 or 97 I believe, which governs the use of public airways.

People have been intercepting and decoding radio signals for years (our own government does it). It is a common practice for reporters to monitor police and fire frequencies and to profit from what they hear there. People intercept and decode cell and wireless phone and wireless computer communications. You can legally monitor and decrypt (if necessary) military and law enforcement signals. Try marine channels 21 and 23 which the Coast Guard uses (in some cases) for law enforcement.

The FCC says the airwaves and signals transmitted therein are part of the public domain.

Now lets look at how those signals are gotten in the first place. Your cable company gets them via a 3rd party satellite. You can legally get those same signals yourself. Where do you think NBC gets them? From a satellite. Several years ago I watched Wimbledon from a satellite of the originating signal. It was broadcast without sound and many companies got it and added their own commentary in any number of languages and then redestributed to cable networks and satellite TV. Are the local police going to break my door down and arrest me? No, because I broke no law. I did not retransmit or sell the picture. That would be a violation of copyright law. So where along this whole (and large) path from origin to final destination(s), did it become illegal to intercept the signal?

An interesting case, one of the cable networks audio channels is in the 2 meter ham band. Is it illegal to listen to? No, and quite the opposite, the cable companies have been sued for malicious interference.

If you have a LEGAL (and not a moral or logical) basis for a rebuttal, I would like to hear it.

[Dave Bugg]

To whom or what are you replying? You need to quote a bit of the text you are referring to so that you don't look like you're talking to thin air. BTW, this thread died a while ago.

[gfretwell]

I agree 100% that when the signal lands on your roof you own it. They sprayed it into the air and lost control at that point. Their protection is only in the encryption. I suppose if you used "clean room" technology to decode any broadcast signal there is no legal issue involved but if you used any patented or copyrighted material in building your decoder, (or stole/cloned one from the sat com) you are breaking the law. The reality is, they have a pretty secure system and it is not that easy to crack.