[mod.telecom] HBO pirate

lauren@vortex.UUCP.UUCP (05/07/86)

The pirate "simply" captured the transponder with ordinary, unscrambled
video.  When the far-end decoders sensed the loss of scrambling, they 
switched to "clear" mode and passed the video directly.  The pirate almost
certainly was at a commercial uplink point and not using homemade 
equipment.  Finding him or her would be exceedingly complex unless someone
associated with the person starts bragging.

--Lauren--