Posts tagged Pirate at Switched

Posts with tag pirate

TV Pirate Gets Jail Time for Rebroadcasting DISH Network Material

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 23rd 2008 at 8:08AM

If you really needed proof that the statement "crime doesn't pay" had at least a semblance of truth behind it, here's your sign. Known satellite TV pirate Glenn White has been sentenced to a 14 month stint in federal prison after pleading guilty to illegally rebroadcasting DISH Network's programming.

As the story goes, Mr. White was doing business in Wagram, North Carolina under the name Wagram Cable, but rather than distributing material in a legal manner, he chose to crack DISH's encryption and then monetize it. Big mistake.

Oh, and DISH Network actually put this out on a press release in order to let the public know it "will continue to fight those who aid or participate in illegally breaking into encrypted DISH Network TV channels and set-top boxes." Don't say it didn't warn you.

[Image courtesy of FlatPanelTV]

Study Finds That One-Third of Consumers Copy DVDs

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 10th 2008 at 9:01AM

'Round these parts, we prefer to read the fine print first, so it should be noted that none other than Macrovision -- you know, the firm that purchased the now-cracked BD+ DRM scheme for $45 million last year -- financed this here study.

According to poll results from US and UK consumers, around 1 in 3 individuals admitted to "making copies of pre-recorded DVDs in the past 6 months, up over a quarter from the previous year's study." Predictably, males aged 18 to 24 were most likely to wear an eye patch and own a DVD burner (if you catch our drift), and while revenue loss due to illegal copying is certainly a valid concern, researchers did find that 62% of American respondents (and 49% in the UK) were duping flicks they already owned. Arrr! [Image courtesy of George Dillon]

Digg Users Revolt

by Terrence O'Brien, posted May 2nd 2007 at 2:01PM

In case you're unfamiliar, Digg is social bookmarking website. Users submit stories and then vote to "digg" or "bury" them. The most popular stories end up on the front page. This puts the power at Digg firmly in the users' hands much like at YouTube and other "Web 2.0" sites.

User power at Digg was put to the test when someone submitted a story that contained a magic little number, a hexadecimal string that just so happened to be the key to decrypting and breaking the copy protection on HD-DVDs. The story quickly shot to the top of the Top Digg Stories. Fearing legal issues, administrators deleted the story only to have a second story submitted and shoot to the top within minutes. Digg administrators also promptly deleted the second story, too.

The back and forth carried on for hours, but when it was discovered that the Diggnation podcast was sponsored by the HD-DVD Promotion Group, all hell broke loose.

The administrators were unable to keep up with power of their user base as they filled the front page with stories that had the HD-DVD key in the title, in the text, and even in photos of kittens. The users revolted over the censorship and perceived corruption, while the administrators were overrun in what one user called a "digital Boston Tea Party."

Late last night Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, threw in the towel: "After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."

The code is now readily available.

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