guilt by gear association
directv has an interesting approach to piracy… a short interview with “enforcement chief” lucas graves in wired sheds a bit of light…
wiredThe company has filed about 10,000 lawsuits and mailed more than 100,000 “demand letters” giving suspected pirates a brutal choice: Pay $3,500 to settle or go to court. Problem is, the campaign targets anyone who bought smartcard programming gear from certain merchants; officials just assume it’s used for hacking.
[wired] Your letters don’t distinguish between pirates and people who program smartcards for legitimate reasons, like security systems. Why not?
[graves] If an individual claims to have a legitimate use, he or she can furnish information - a business plan, maybe schematics - and our staff will evaluate it. In at least 20 cases, DirecTV chose not to pursue the matter after the individual provided background.
i’m just not comfortable with the idea of providing a “business plan” or “schematics” to prove i’m innocent.
are any tech-legal groups stepping up to defend anyone yet? 100,000 letters is a wide enough net that there should be more noise on this.
>>i’m just not comfortable with the idea of providing a “business plan” or “schematics” to prove i’m innocent.<<
Not that I think DirecTV’s tactics are sensible, but…
No one is making you provide a “business plan” or “schematics” to prove you’re innocent. If you are not pirating DirecTV’s signal, you have no need to respond to them at all. They won’t have enough evidence to get around to filing suit. If they try to sue anyway, countersue for your time and legal fees “defending” against their frivolous suit.
Looks to me like DirecTV took a look at what the RIAA is doing and, for some bizarre reason, actually thought it was a good business model.
Pete
Comment by pete — October 29, 2003 @ 3:46 am
that’s technically true - and they have to anticipate some countersuits and judgements against them with 10,000 suits filed.
but someone’s done the math (despite claims otherwise…) and decided that this approach is cost-effective. but they’ve decided that $3500 from everyone who “settles” and whatever judgements they do win will more than cover any countersuits and losses - plus lawyer and filing and court fees.
regardless of the actual logistics and legalities, my problem is with the attitude of the “directv enforcer” that guilt is presumed and the burden is on the target. i don’t know how they picked their 10,000 lawsuits or 100,000 letters, but i’m given the impression they got customer lists from web vendors of smartcard gear and just hit everyone. there should be some burden (beyond paper and postage) to sending out 100,000 threatening letters.
the interview also has this quote: “We’ve never quantified the number who are stealing or quantified the losses.” - which i find completely implausible. what company would allocate resources to the “enforcer” without having some concept of the scope? what company would spend money upgrading their crypto and rolling out new gear periodically without some measure of cost-benefit?
i also don’t know the particulars or the statutes involved, but i do know that the riaa went forward with lawsuits in at least two (publicized, so far) of their famous 261 cases that were later shown to be quite erroneous.
these are dragnet approaches - neither the riaa nor directv is bothering with evidence or due process - it’s a tip or a list, a threat and a lawyer. that’s what makes me uncomfortable. you don’t have to be reasonable when sending your lawyers after people anymore - just do it enough and it pays for itself.
that and the fact that it’s spreading…
Comment by roj — October 29, 2003 @ 5:03 am