The digital TV service provider charges subscribers for the
privilege of decoding its encrypted programme transmissions, but
decoding devices that let users intercept pay-TV broadcasts for
free are readily available.
DirecTV, like entertainment companies around the world, has been
fighting an uphill battle against piracy for many years. Finding
that actions against the sellers of decoding equipment were not
having the desired effect, the company turned its attention to the
purchasers.
According to civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF), over the past few years the company has
orchestrated a nationwide legal campaign against hundreds of
thousands of individuals, claiming they were illegally intercepting
its satellite TV signal.
The company began its crusade by raiding smart card device
distributors to obtain their customer lists, then sent over 170,000
demand letters to customers and eventually filed more than 24,000
federal lawsuits against them. The suits created panic among
legitimate users of the devices (such as researchers), because
DirecTV made little effort to distinguish legal uses of smart card
technology from illegal ones.
One of the arguments used by DirecTV as a basis for the suits
was that the company had a private right to sue people who "possess
devices used to intercept satellite transmissions".
But on Tuesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this
argument, ruling that "Possession of a pirate access device alone,
although a criminal offence, creates nothing more than conjectural
or hypothetical harm to" DirecTV.
The case has now been sent back to the District Court, where
DirecTV will face the more difficult task of proving that the
equipment was actually used to illegally intercept signals.
"We're glad to see the court apply common sense to this issue,"
said EFF lawyer Jason Schultz. "Merely possessing a device doesn't
harm anyone and shouldn't give a company like DirecTV the right to
drag you into court without proof that you're actually stealing
something from them."
On Monday the EFF set out details of an agreement with DirecTV
and the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) Cyberlaw Clinic, in
which the television service provider agreed to make some changes
to its piracy campaign, including a promise to no longer pursue
people solely for purchasing decoding equipment, but to sue only
those it suspects of actually pirating its satellite signal.
