Direct TV

[mad max]

A friend of mine bought an unlooper online 2 years ago. Yesterday he received a letter from a law firm in Seattle saying they represented Direct TV and that his name was on a list of business records surrendered to their office showing purchase of illegal theft equipment used to gain unauthorized access to Direct TV programming.
Bottom line was he could surrender all illegal cards and equipment and pay a one time fine to Direct TV of 1,000.00 or a fee of 500.00 and subscribe to total choice for 1 year. If he does not, they say they will go after him for 10,000.00 per violation.
How the hell can they prove this. Should he pay the fine and turn in his unlooper? Any lawyers out there? Thoughts please.

 

[Phil Turcotte]

How can they prove it? I am guessing its pretty easy, they bust a business for selling illegal equipment, run a list of everyone who purchased from them and push 'Print.'

 

[mad max]

Good point Phil. But he bought it from a firm in Canada where it is legal to sell this type of equipment. I guess my question is how can they prove he was stealing cable. And why offer the option of buying Total Choice?

 

[Phil Turcotte]

Just because it is legal to sell it in Canada does not make it legal to posess it in the States.

Without knowing how the equipment works, my guess is there is some way they can trace the equipment from the manufacturer to your friend.

And I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but if you cant afford to pay for DirecTv, can you afford to be gambling? I mean how much is the cheapest package out there? $50/month? Less? I guess not paying is better than paying, this is just one of those things that really, really agrevates me, though I admit for no particular reason.

/end soapbox

 

[Red Raider]

Ethics aside, I believe they could "prove" he bought some equipment, but I sure don't know how they could prove he did anything with it, which is where the "crime" is commited.

I'm not sure if its illegel to pocess this stuff as most of it is computer parts. But, I could be wrong.

For all anyone knows, he bought it and never set it up, or couldn't get it to work. (which is very possible as EMU setups can get complicated)

My advice to your friend is to go to dssunderground.com and look in the forum for issues like his. I have seen some people talk about it, but I do not know the final result. My guess is that its DSS very inexpensive move to get people, to not only go legit, but to subscribe.

The only arrests I've heard of ANYWHERE are the dealers selling this stuff. Going after the buyers, would sort of be like the government going after everyone who bets, gambles, or used Napster online.

Best of Luck

RR

 

[loophole]

utter bs.

 

[Get Yo Freak On]

There Bluffing don't worry

There Bluffing don't worry

Direct Tv has to prove Posession of the equipment and also use of the equipment. Authorities really can't be bothered by Direct Tv as they are only after the sellers of this equipment, not the end users of this equipment.

My friend is a lawyer and laughed when I asked him can they prosecute people for this type of offense. He responded yah if we build a separate court house for Direct TV. HE said courts are back logged, and won't even listen to petty offenses like this. He also said Direct Tv is trying to send a message to all illegal viewers, but the bottom line is that police will not take the time to prosecute this, especially with the other major problems that the Us is facing, ie Terrorism.

 

[Fwizard]

This reminds me of a different and true story that happened about 5 years ago..in my county in Florida a bookie was busted and the police (sheriff) got a hold of a list of people who in the past or present was betting with this bookie...the police really had nothing but a "black book" with names on it and phone numbers..well what they decided to do is to send a letter to all the names in the Black Book saying " we know you have committed a crime but are willing to forget about it if you pay a $500 fine to us within 30 days...if you dont we will prosecute " I remember because I got a letter and so did a lot of buddys of mine. Some people did indeed go and pay the $500 to "get out of it" --I was not one of them..needless to say the people who did not pay never heard from anyone again..