FBI Arrests Student Accused Of Stealing DirecTV Trade Secrets

from the in-trouble-with-the-law-again dept

I'm wondering if we're going to start seeing more criminal cases under the Economic Espionage Act since backlash against the DMCA has gotten much stronger. While only 35 cases have ever been filed under the EEA, this latest case seems similar to many DMCA claims. In this case, a student who was working part-time at a law firm who worked for DirecTV apparently, took documents that included technical information about their latest access cards and sent it to websites that try to crack those cards. While the EEA tries to make it illegal for people to benefit economically by selling trade secrets, they also say that you're at fault if someone else profits from the information you gave them. While the kid clearly stole documents that didn't belong to him, I still question the arrest. Sooner or later people were going to hack this technology with or without the documents he provided. Now, there's going to be some lengthy trial where DirecTV will make up numbers about how much this particular action cost them. It won't stop, or even remotely slow down, the piracy of DirecTV signals.

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