wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (08/02/84)
I read in the paper the other day that a pay-TV company in the San
Francisco Bay area has sent nasty letters to several thousand people in
their area, accusing them of pirating HBO signals via illegal satellite
dishes. The accused pirates have been told to dismantle their receiving
equipment, sign an agreement to stop illegal interception of signals,
and pay a $300 "out-of-court settlement", or else they will be sued (for
a lot more than $300, I assume).
The company claims that the "pirates" were identified via an "electronic
and photographic survey", details of which were not disclosed.
What I want to know is:
(1) Does a private party in the U.S. currently have a legal right to own
and operate his own satellite dish? I assume the answer is a quali-
fied "yes" (provided he restricts the set of stations he receives),
since at least one company here in the L.A. area has been advertis-
ing private satellite-dish installations on the radio for some time.
(2) Assuming that a dish is not inherently illegal, how is it possible
to figure out what the owner of a given dish is listening to without
invading the residence and conducting an on-site search? Or is the
pay-TV company in question simply saying to itself, "Mr. Jones has a
dish pointed at satellite X, and HBO is one of the signals broadcast
by satellite X, therefore Mr. Jones is probably pirating HBO"?
I do not currently own a satellite dish, by the way.
--
Rich Wales
UCLA Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024 // (213) 825-5683
ARPA: wales@UCLA-LOCUS.ARPA
UUCP: ...!{cepu,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!walespdbain@wateng.UUCP (Peter Bain) (08/03/84)
My impression about satellite receivers is as follows: If the broadcaster puts the signal in MY back yard, I can do anything I like with it, provided I don't screw up the satellite, rebroadcast (violation of CRTC (Canadian Radio, Television and Telecommunications commission) and copyright regulation) or sell it. It is up to the broadcaster to either a) get the signal out of my back yard (if you can design an antenna to do that, you'll be more famous than Dr. Yagi) or b) scramble the signal. Does anyone know what the legalities are in this case, and if my arguments are valid? -peter (I don't even have a TV) bain
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (08/04/84)
Ownership of receive-only satellite equipment is completely legal. The only restrictions, indeed, apply to what you happen to be watching. However, there is no practical way for anyone to make the determination (remotely) as to whether or not you are watching a "pay" transponder. In fact, there are various satellite broadcasters (some on the same satellite as HBO, for example) who will gladly send you (on request) written permission to watch their transponders. This applies particularly to the religious broadcasters. --Lauren--
ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (08/04/84)
Ron's Soapbox Time: They tried this trick in Denver. What we did is ignored the letter as an hopeless fishing expedition by the cable operator and it work. The letters state questionable legal principles and should probably themselves be illegal. -Ron
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (08/05/84)
Ah, now I know what's going on. Rich Wales asked about SATELLITE antennas. From the more recent message, I see we are actually talking about MDS (multipoint distribution) microwave antennas. These are receivers for terrestrial microwave feeds (most commonly) of pay TV channels. It's sorta the microwave equivalent of STV (subscription TV -- scrambled UHF) though usually not scrambled since the receiving equipment was (at one time) considered to be rather esoteric. It is much easier to do an independent survey of people who have THESE sorts of antennas, since most people who have them quite openly point them in the directions of the transmitter (line-of-sight transmission) and it is usually VERY obvious which way they are pointing. Since the transmitter locations are very well known, it is a fairly simple assumption that if someone has a small dish (or other type of MDS antenna -- some look like a horn or a long white dildo) pointed at the local transmitter that receives, say, HBO, that they are probably receiving the service illegally. Fairly recent law changes make such reception quite clearly illegal -- they specifically address this situation). Now, there IS ham equipment that looks very similar to the MDS reception equipment and operates at similar frequencies, so there are going to be some receivers around that wouldn't appear on the MDS company's books but still would not be illegal. On the other hand, these units also would normally not be pointed at the local MDS transmitter. This sort of situation would be more complex. In any case, the situation we are talking about (sending out of mass "threats" to people) sounds pretty fishy. It seems obvious that the company involved is attempting to avoid the hassle and cost of individually invoking the legal process (search warrants and the whole bit) against each individual location they suspect of illegal reception. --Lauren-- P.S. Driving around L.A., I fairly frequently see obvious "unofficial" MDS receivers on houses, including some of the homemade "snow sled and coffee can" variety. --LW--
wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (08/06/84)
In answer to one of your questions, it is very easy to determine whether or not you are watching HBO or any other channel. There are certain pieces of equipment which can be mounted in a van and driven down a street which will record the channel to which you have your tv tuned. They have been using this little device for some years now to gather ratings information. If you are receiving illegal HBO or Showtime or whatever, it can be determined by simply driving up to your house and recording your channel selections. Now don't start flaming, this is a legal operation since the FCC saya anyone can receive. We may not like it, but ho-hum, so what.
david@tekig.UUCP (David Hayes) (08/06/84)
The EXACT same scheme was tried up here in Portland Oregon. Same letter, same 300 bucks etc. A lawyer downtown said he would represent you for a flat fee of 75 bucks in a class action suit against the tv company that broadcasts HBO here. I haven't heard a thing yet and it has been a year. Photographic and electronic evidence would seem not to hold up in court. To pick up your local oscillator, and have a verifiable method of determining it was your antenna, and you happened to be watching at that time, on that date, etc., doesn't sound to good to me. What ever you do, do not pay!!! The communications act of 1934 has not been adequately cited in these cases. Besides, why shouldn't I be able to pick up any signal I can, that is irradiating my house?? dave
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (08/07/84)
Actually, the "little devices that can tell what channel you're watching" aren't of too much use anymore. Since so many consumer cable company converters and other equipment convert all channels to 3 or 4, you find a large percentage of people always seemed to be tuned to one channel! You cannot as easily determine the channel being tuned by the (relatively passive) converters used by most cable companies, for example. You look for local oscillators, and all you see is 3! --Lauren--
cwc@mhuxd.UUCP (Chip Christ) (08/08/84)
If it's legal for someone to drive down my street and receive signals radiating from my TV, why is it not equally legal for me to receive signals eminating from someone's satellite? Perplexed in NJ
mat@hou4b.UUCP (08/09/84)
The info that I have (which may or may not be reliable) is that
the legality of picking up the transmission depends on whether the
transmission is a broadcast (Ok) or a point-to-point link (No-No).
A reciever aimed at a ground station is probably illegal. On the
other hand, if the satellite is sending a largish footprint (like
1/4 of the contiguous 48) down, can they really be considered point-to-
point?
I have neither a TV nor a dish, but if I did, I would think about
putting it under a fiberglass roof in a wooden building ...
--
from Mole End Mark Terribile
(scrape .. dig ) hou5d!mat
,.. .,, ,,, ..,***_*. (soon hou4b!mat)bytebug@pertec.UUCP (roger long) (08/09/84)
> In answer to one of your questions, it is very easy to determine > whether or not you are watching HBO or any other channel. There > are certain pieces of equipment which can be mounted in a van > and driven down a street which will record the channel to which > you have your tv tuned. They have been using this little device > for some years now to gather ratings information. If you are > receiving illegal HBO or Showtime or whatever, it can be determined > by simply driving up to your house and recording your channel > selections. Now don't start flaming, this is a legal operation > since the FCC saya anyone can receive. We may not like it, but > ho-hum, so what. Hmmm... it's okay for them to listen in on my "broadcasts" (the oscillator in my TV), but I get in trouble for watching theirs? Seems like they're invading my home twice - first in broadcasting their silly signal, and again to figure out if I'm receiving their silly signal. I think the "laws" that prohibit me from receiving their signal should be thrown out. If they don't want me to watch, then do something to the signal that makes it significantly more difficult to watch, like the DES encryption stuff that HBO and others are finally going to with their satellite feeds. I liken it to parking my car in downtown LA and leaving it unlocked with the keys in the ignition. Certainly it would be against the law for someone to get in and drive off in my car, but what do *you* think is going to be the policeman's reaction when I inform him what I did? Silly me. -- roger long pertec computer corp {ucbvax!unisoft | scgvaxd | trwrb | felix}!pertec!bytebug p.s. I might as well add a disclaimer that while I feel that anyone should be free to use any electronic signal that enters their home in any way that pleases them, I have chosen to go the more conventional route to pay my $$$ and get said services legitimately. All that anyone who cares to go poking around the outside of my home with some electronic signal sniffer is likely to find is an earfull of RFI from my IMSAI.
ix21@sdccs6.UUCP (David Whiteman) (08/09/84)
Wales@ucla-cs recently posted an article questioning the legality of the acts of a firm trying to eliminate pirating of subscription T.V. signals. This firm apparently identified people who had microwave antennas by various photography techniques; this firm then told these people to desist and pay $300 as an out of court settlement or be sued. According to news today Wales is not the only one to question the legality of this program. The famed lawyer Martin Belli has called these actions "extortion," and has started filing a class-action suit against Premier Television on behalf of those in the SF area who have microwave antennas. David Whiteman