Appeals Court Says Hacking Your DirecTV Not The Same As Commercial Piracy

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While piracy funds kills babies, we support the idea of people being free to modify devices they have purchased with they money they earned through blood, sweat and toil, so we were glad to hear that an appeals court said that hacking your DirecTV card shouldn't be penalized under a more punitive clause of the Federal Communications Act.

While piracy funds kills babies, we support the idea of people being free to modify devices they have purchased with they money they earned through blood, sweat and toil, so we were glad to hear that an appeals court said that hacking your DirecTV card shouldn’t be penalized under a more punitive clause of the Federal Communications Act.

Reading section 605 as a whole makes clear that Congress intended to treat differently individuals who played different roles in the pirating system… In contrast to subsection (a)? targeting of individuals who use piracy devices to intercept satellite signals, subsection (e)(4) aims at bigger fish–the assemblers, manufacturers, and distributors of piracy devices.

Ah, we yearn for the quaint days when stealing cable just meant slipping the cable guy a Jackson.

Appeals Court: Hacking your DirecTV not the same as commercial piracy [Ars Technica]

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