Comments on: Annals of sweeping discovery: Dish Network vs. Coolsat

By: gitarcarver

gitarcarver — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 02:06:30 +0000

What would be the excuse / defense for a specially purchased electronic box whose only purpose is to decrypt satellite signals?

How about the defense that not all satellite transmissions of tv stations are encrypted to begin with?

DishNetwork / EchoStar is not the only satellite up there you know.

There are many satellites that broadcast in a simple mpeg-2 format that these receivers can receive and then be viewed.

By: Mark Biggar

Mark Biggar — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:28 +0000

How about the defense “I only use it to decrypt satellite signals that I’ve paid the subscription fees for”. Some of those boxes are both cheaper and have more features then the standard Dish Box. For example many (with DVR capability) let you hang additional disks on them to greatly increase recording capacity, which Dish won’t let you do.

By: Mark E

Mark E — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 22:19:31 +0000

Wasn’t the excuse / defense for napster that you could use it for legitimate file sharing of pictures, documents etc.

What would be the excuse / defense for a specially purchased electronic box whose only purpose is to decrypt satellite signals?

I think a better analogy than RIAA — napster would be someone who cuts into someone elses cable TV line or an electrical or water tie in upstream of your meter.

By: Mark Biggar

Mark Biggar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:00:27 +0000

This is exactly the same thing, just because you have a box that can decrypt IP belonging to Someone, does mean that you have actually used it to decrypt that IP. So this is really no different then “Napster on your computer” = guilty position that RIAA takes. Although the precedent of the charge “possession of bugler tools” might apply.

By: KB

KB — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 14:02:15 +0000

Not being a lawyer maybe I’m missing the distinction but what’s the difference between this and what the RIAA is doing concerning d/l songs. They’re sending the same settlement letters if someone merely has on their computer Napster or something similar without any proof of actually doing it.