******** Trying To Get Info On Innocent Customers Of Satellite TV Receivers

[white_napalm2]

******** Trying To Get Info On Innocent Customers Of Satellite TV Receivers


You may recall a few years back, prior to the RIAA embracing the concept of "pre-litigation letters," that Direc-Tv was a huge proponent of using them. The company had sued some companies that sold smart card readers -- which could be used for a variety of purposes, only one of which was potentially unauthorized access of satellite TV signals. However, Direc-Tv was still given access to those company's full customer lists, and proceeded to send most of them one of those pre-litigation letters, demanding $3,500 or saying that a lawsuit would be filed. Of course, plenty of buyers had perfectly legitimate reasons for purchasing a smart card reader that had nothing at all to do with pirating satellite TV. But, no matter, pay up or go to court. And, in fact, many people just paid up.

Eventually, a court finally told Direc-TV to knock it off.

However, it appears that Direc-TV's main competitors, Ech*star never got the message. The EFF is pointing out that Ech*star is trying to gain access to the customer lists of a bunch of sellers of a satellite receiver even if there's no evidence that the individual buyers used the satellite receivers to pirate Ech*star's DISH Network satellite TV service.

C/O Michael Masnick of newsvine.in

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Some more details...

Innocent Customers Potentially Dragged Into Legal Battle Over Satellite TV

EFF Urges Court to Protect Customers' Privacy
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked a federal court Friday to reject efforts by Ech*star to get the names and addresses of every customer that purchased a free-to-air satellite receiver. Ech*star claims that the receiver can be modified to pirate DISH satellite TV programming. EFF argues that Ech*star's demand, which seeks all purchasers regardless of whether they actually pirated DISH TV, would violate user privacy and leave innocent purchasers vulnerable to bogus legal threats.
The demand for customer records came up in a lawsuit between Ech*star, the company behind the DISH satellite TV service, and Freetech, Inc., the manufacturer of Coolsat free-to-air satellite receivers. As part of the suit, Ech*star subpoenaed 17 distributors of Coolsat receivers, demanding the names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and other information of every person who purchased a Coolsat receiver over the last five years.
"Innocent customers should not be dragged into federal litigation just because they bought a product that other, less scrupulous purchasers may be hacking for unlawful purposes," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "The court should recognize the privacy interests of these customers, especially since Ech*star does not need these customer lists in order to have its day in court against Freetech."
In recent years, satellite TV companies, record labels, and movie studios have all engaged in dragnet litigation tactics that threaten individuals with costly lawsuits unless they pay significant financial sums to "settle" the dispute. These mass litigation campaigns leave innocent consumers trapped between paying a "settlement" for something they did not do or facing even higher legal costs to prove their innocence. Satellite TV provider Direc-Tv pioneered this approach in 2001, threatening more than 120,000 individuals with legal action and commencing more than 24,000 federal lawsuits, often with no evidence other than the fact that the individual purchased multi-purpose devices that could be used for piracy.
"Once the names of Freetech customers are disclosed to Ech*star, there may be little that any court can do to protect these people from harassment, settlement demands, and legal expenses," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "This may be the last chance the court has to protect the privacy of these individuals."

C/O The Electronics Frontier Foundation (magic-city-news.com)

[sodusme]

Good I hope they don't let them have access to any customer records. Every time these companys go after "pirates" its like a witch hunt.