199 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
199 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
(This article is from The Lowell Sun - May 5th, 1991)
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CABLE COMPANIES GETTING READY TO "ZAP" VIDEO PIRATES !!!
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BOSTON (AP) - Attention, cable television pirates: The Jig could soon
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be up!
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Cable operations around New England are cracking down on people stealing
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cable television, some with the help of "electronic bullets" - computer
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programs instructing converters atop TV sets to malfunction if they have
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been altered by "black boxes" or computer chips.
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The chips descramble so-called premium channels such as NESN, Sports
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Channel, HBO and Pay-Per-View. The bullets, fired from cable company
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offices, have no affect on legitimate customers.
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"We will be instituting new security stratigies to disable illegally
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used cable eguipment and prosecute cable theft," Continental Cablevision
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announced in recent newspaper ads.
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Continental, based in Portsmouth, N.H. serves about 550,000 subscribers,
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mainly north and south of Boston.
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On March 13, American Cablevision in New York City fired a bullet at
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people stealing its service and pressed and pressed civil charges against
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317 people who brought their their damaged boxes in for repair.
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Calls from those people effectively became evidence that could be used
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against them.
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"That's the beauty of the bullet," said Tom Steel, general counsel at
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the New England Cable Television Association in Braintree, told the Boston
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Herald.
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"It's great for court," Steel said. "There's the evidence. In essence,
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your case is made."
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Continental and New England Sports Network won a $35,000 settlement out
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of court in 1989 against three Quincy bars accused of stealing signals with
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a satellite dish.
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But the theft by residential cable customers is a tougher matter. Theft
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by residential customers cost cable companies about $3 billion a year,
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according to a national cable trade group.
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"Many people think of cable theft as a cocktail crime. It's not," said
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Charles Schueller at Cablevision of Boston. It's stealing and it costs
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regular subscribers money."
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He said Cablevision which serves about 115,000 customers in Boston and
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Brookline , plans to step up its pursuit of residential cable pirating.
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"We have been very successful in our efforts to stem theft in the
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commercial universe," Schueller said, "and we expect to be as successful
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in the residential universe."
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The cable bullet has also been used in Philadelphia. In Worcester and
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western Massachusetts, General Media fired bullets, but spokesman Richard
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Kirsche would not provide us with details.
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"It's a hard problem," said Kirsche, director of engineering at General
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Media. "You're dealing with kind of a Robin Hood factor here. It doesn't
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really work out that way. It costs people who are paying for the service
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legitimately."
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A black box or computer chip used to unscramble cable signals, which
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could cost between $200 and $400 , is ruined once the bullet is fired.
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<*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*><*>
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( A CABLE TV PIRATES POINT OF VIEW )
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"BULLSHIT and BALDERDASH!"
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July 16, 1991
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I have had a "Pirate Cable Box" for over two years and I want to set
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the record straight on what I feel is happening in the cable TV world.
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The fact is that cable companies are out to fleece every cent out of
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every subscriber that the law will allow.
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Seven years ago when I first got cable television, my monthly bill was
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about $8.00, including HBO. Today my basic cable bill is about $17.00,
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and I no longer pay for or subscribe to HBO.
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If a person decides to subscribe to HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and The
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Movie Channel, his bill will easily run $45 - $50 a month. If a person
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is also addicted to sports, then he MUST have The New England Sports
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Network (NESN) and The Sports Channel. He is now going to pay about
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$65 a month.
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Wait! This subscriber also has children. He needs The Disney Channel
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for those kids and must now pay about another $6 a month! He will now
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be dishing out approximately $75 a month to the cable company.
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In order for the cable subscriber to keep track of what he is watching
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the cable company will sell him "Cable Guide" for one dollar more each
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month. The book is actually worth its weight in gold to a cable pirate
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because it lists every program on every premium channel and on Pay-Per-
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View for an entire month. The irony of the book is that the publisher
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of Cable Guide kicks back 50% of that $1.00 monthly charge to the cable
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company.
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The first and largest misconception of the above article is that "it
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cost the cable companies about $3 billion a year." That is bull-shit!
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The truth is that cable companies DO have about $3 billion in premium
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programs stolen a year, BUT if people had to pay for premium channels
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and Pay-Per-View programs and movies, they would NOT get them. It is
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that simple. A good example of this fact is that I watched the James
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Brown Special last month for free. If the only way that I could have
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seen that show was to pay $19.95 for it, I would have gone to bed very
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early. The Razor Rudduck Vs. Mike Tyson rematch was on Pay-Per-View
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last week, BUT again if I had to pay $30 - $40 fto view it, I would
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have been playing with my computer that evening. My local cable company
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has had no monetary loss because of what I have seen and what I will see.
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Cable companies ALWAYS exagerate their losses in order to get the law
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enforcement agencies involved in their never ending battle to increase
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corporate revenues.
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Here is an interesting little note in dollars & cents about how much
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a cable TV subscriber is worth. If a cable company wants to sell part
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or all of its subscribers to another cable company, for each cable
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running to a single television, the selling price is between $1500 -
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$2000 per subscriber. That means if you live on a street with 100
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other houses, the selling price of your street would be between
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$150,000.00 to $200,000.00 Continental Cable Company has 550,000
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subscribers. That adds up to $1,100,000,000.00. Thats over a billion
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bucks if you have a problem with big numbers.
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Pay-Per-View is the BIGGEST rip off. They charge $5.00 so you can
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watch one movie one time. If you fall asleep during the movie, tough
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luck. Pay another $5.00 the next day to see what you missed.
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The biggest rip offs that Pay-Per-View has to offer are live sports
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events such as WWF Wrestling. You get to see the likes of Hulk Hogan,
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Jake The Sake, Brutus The Barber Beefcake, and a multitude of others
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pretend that they are wrestling for a mere $35 to $40. The guy that
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really makes me sick is Rick "Nature Boy" Flair!" He looks like a God
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damn over the hill faggot.
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Can you imagine Mike Tyson being paid $40 million for fighting any
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other human being? Mike Tyson would gladly fight for $1 million if
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that was all he could get. Pay-Per-View has accelerated the overpaid
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athlete syndrome far beyond what closed circuit broadcasts had ever
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dreamed of.
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Since the conception of Pay-Per-View, a cable subscriber now has
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the opportunity to send $100 to $150 every month to his cable company.
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Those type of monthly bills are insane. Morons and millionaires are
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the only ones who would pay that much.
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The only sane alternative to battle these absurd monthly charges is
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cable TV piracy. If you decide that you are sick and tired of being
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gouged by your local cable company each month, then get your own pirate
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cable TV box.
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There are companies that sell "altered" cable TV boxes, and they
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work perfectly. They will descramble ALL the channels that your cable
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company offers. These companies are easily located by looking at
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advertisements in the back section of Popular Electronics and Popular
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Science. These companies are usually out of state, but they do have
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toll free 800 numbers. You can tell that they are not 100% legitimate
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because they will not sell a box to anyone in their own state. This is
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to avoid local prosecution and other legal ramifications. The people
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who work at these companies are a bunch of crooks so don't feel silly
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or embarrassed about calling and talking to them.
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Without going into a long technical discourse of addressable cable
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boxes, you should understand the following two paragraphs.
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It is true that cable TV companies do send out signals that tell a
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normal cable box what to do. This is called an "addressable system."
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The cable TV box atop of your television will respond to several commands
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that the cable company sends in a signal to your box. It can turn on or
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off any particular channel. It can also turn the entire box off if you
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do not pay your cable bill. There are several other commands that the
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boxes receives such as the time, but an altered cable box ignores the
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"scramble" and the "shut off" commands.
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A special chip is added to the altered boxes that you buy. This
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special chip keeps a "gate" open so all of the channels will be
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unscrambled. This extra chip also eliminates the addressable option
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so the cable company can not turn off any channels - they also can
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not shut off the box for non-payment of the cable TV bill.
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THE ELECTRONIC BULLET: As the above article explained, some cable
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tv companies are shooting "electronic bullets" at pirates in an attempt
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to burn out their pirate cable boxes.
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Gathering information on these bullets seems almost impossible
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because the cable TV companies want to keep their little weapon a
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deep dark secret.
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Unfortunately, the people who are selling the altered cable boxes
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do not understand or care about the bullet. They are very much like
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the cable companies in the respect that all they want to do is grab
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all the money they can, and they do not give a shit about you, or
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any future problems that you may encounter with their box. I called
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several of the toll-free numbers from my list of altered cable TV box
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companies in an attempt to gather some information about how to combat
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the bullet, but I received little or no help. One person told me to
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buy two FM Traps from Radio Shack and put them in line between the
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"in" cable and the altered cable box. This was a waste of time and
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money because it blocked the information signals the cable box needs
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to perform other functions.
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Every company denied that the bullet would affect their pirate box.
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They all said that their boxes were immune to the bullet. I was
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told that the bullet would only affect boxes that were owned by the
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cable TV companies that had been tampered with.
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This will not be proven to me until I read another article in the
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newspaper that my cable company has been sending out bullets and I
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see that my box did or did not burn out as the article said it would.
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The 317 people who had charges pressed against them in New York got
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exactly what they deserved. Imagine 317 people calling their cable
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company to complain that their illegal and stolen cable boxes had
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stopped working. It never ceases to amaze me about how utterly stupid
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people can be!
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This is a very unsettling situation because the cable company who
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brought charges against these 317 people did so in a Federal court.
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If you do not already realize it, the Federal Government is wants to
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have as much control over American citizens in every manner and way
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possible. Once again a Federal Magistrate and a Federal Judge have
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given themselves more power over its citizens by agreeing to hear this
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case. Each time the Feds get involved in such matters, a little bit
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more of our constitutional freedom is lost.
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To sum this article up in one sentence; "Knowing what I now know
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about cable companies, pirate cable TV boxes, the Feds involvement in
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enforcing cable company rights, and the possibility of what the bullet
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might do, if I did not already own an altered box, I would buy another
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one today!"
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