Satellite TV Hacker Handed His Bill: $180 Million
from the pay-up dept
It's no secret that I can't stand legal cases that revolve around bogus, completely made up, numbers of "losses" that can't be substantiated. In the case of a satellite TV hacker, the story is even worse. The guy was trying to build devices to let people get satellite TV for free. He didn't complete the work because the FBI stopped him before he was done. However, the satellite TV companies still say he would have cost them $900 million is losses. This ignores the fact (of course) that most of the people who would have bought his hacked devices weren't likely to actually pay for the satellite TV service anyway. In response to the $900 million claim, the judge has sentenced the guy to pay back $180 million to the companies despite the fact that the satellite TV companies didn't actually lose any money. The guy didn't make a dime off of the boxes, since he never got to sell them. Now, clearly, the guy was doing something illegal - but he didn't make actually make any money off of it, and now he has to pay $180 million he doesn't have. To be nice, the court will let him pay it off in monthly installments of $500, which will take around 30,000 years to pay off (clearly, they're not expecting him to pay off anywhere near the full amount). However, for the rest of his life, this guy is going to be paying a $500/month satellite TV bill.
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Completely bogus legislation by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 3:17am
If you're free to irradiate me without my permission, I'm entitled to do whatever I want with those waves.
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No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 6:42am
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Be confident the fine will come down on appeal. Lawyers need to make their money filing more papers .... ie they want their piece of that 180 million.
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Shakespeare has it right. by Max Vincent on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 7:26am
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." From Shakespeare, Henry VI, part 2 as said by character Dick the Butcher.
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Re: crime=time by TM on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 9:08am
If you read the article, you'll see that he's doing time AND paying the "restitution." It makes no sense for DirecTV and EchoStar to receive compensation when they suffered no loss. If he's to pay money it should be a fine, so that the state is compensated for the cost of investigating and prosecuting the case.
That's assuming what he did should be a crime in the first place, which is not a given.
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Re: crime=time by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 9:31am
Not a question of whether is 'should' be a crime or not. IT IS A CRIME as currently seen by the US gov. He willfully and knowingly went about participating in actions which were against this law. So whether you agree with the law, or even the punishment as handed out, HE WAS GUILTY and the punishment was within the scope of the law.
With any luck he'll find a good lawyer (man, that's a oxy moron) or have a white knight come forward that will get the sentence reduced to something more reasonable.
Your going to see more of this as media companies look to put the fear of god into people for infringing on what they feel they own.
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Re: crime by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 9:46am
Something is wrong in America when a corporate entity can sue an individual for millions of dollars in punative damages.
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Re: crime by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 11:57am
By the same token, something is wrong when individuals can sue a corporate entity for their poor decision. Urks me to see smokers suing, fast food being sued, website operators being sued, ... hell wall street analysts being sued, because the 'individual' refuses to take the blame for their own actions.
Tis the land of litagation my friends and everyone, from the multi-billion dollar companies, to the dirt poor individual are suing each other because they think someone owes them something.
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Tough Choice by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 3:30pm
Get a real job and pay $500 a month for the rest of your life, or move to a non-extradition country, finish your work and simultaneously pay your living expenses and stick it to the man.
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Re: Tough Choice by Anonymous Coward on Jun 30th, 2003 @ 7:27pm
> [...] or move to a non-extradition country [...]
Perhaps you've been sleeping for the past two years, but there's no such thing any more.
If the USA wishes it so, you will be extradited... posibily to Cuba where you will get to play fun prison games with angry Marines for a largly indefinite period of time.
The reaility of the matter is that extradition is simply a matter of money and/or credibility of force.
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