Coolsat in Convienience Store

[eurosport]

Today, a co-worker and myself went into a store near our workplace, to pick up lunch. I've been in there several times, but today I saw a flat screen TV on the wall by the door and the TV channel on it was WFXL, Fox 31, from Albany, Georgia -about 100 miles away. Then I noticed a Coolsat 6000 Premium, sitting on a shelf next to the TV, tuned to "channel" 7568 or something like that. Our local DMA is Tallahassee, so I knew this thing wasn't subscribed to that channel! Upon leaving I looked around, purposely, and saw a DirecTV Phase II dish...painted BLUE... on the building. I said to my work buddy "I think they're stealing Dish Network!" Should I call somebody about this or leave it alone.....?
...(If this post is in the wrong spot, or innapropriate, please move or delete)

 

[Anole]

The thing is, with a regular outdoor antenna, that HD TV set would probably pick up a number of local stations, in HD, and have amazing quality.

I don't involve myself in the morals of others.
That's on them.

As for the blue-painted Phase II dish, now that'd be a funny picture, if you snapped one!
I've heard guys talk about painting their dishes because they looked weather-worn.
I've heard guys talk about painting over the logos on their dishes, which were otherwise quite new looking.
But a blue dish? That's a good one!

And speaking of pix, who's the lady in your avatar?
If she's some sports legend everyone knows, well, maybe that's a sport I don't watch. . .

 

[eurosport]

It was SD and no outdoor antenna...I looked.

The blue dish actually had the DirecTV logo still showing through the paint!

She's Julianne Nicholson, she played in Presidio Med, on Ally McBeal and Law & Order. :

 

[Mr Tony]

yeah they're stealing...you could call Dish but honestly DIsh seems to not bother with the one-sies & two-sies....they go after the folks who sell the stuff

 

[melgarga]

Amazingly brazen that's for sure but it's possible that they are paying a dealer/hacker for the service. You are right, they would take the info, but would likely never follow up on it, too small potatoes.
I'm with Anole, what a waste of HD receiption potential. The govt issue $40 converter box and a set of rabbit ears would have done the widescreen much better justice.

 

[USDownlink]

Leave it alone, for more than a couple of reasons. I'm not exactly the religious type, but a slew of oft heard bible themes come to mind. Sinners casting stones*, judging not, idle hands and busybodies, and so forth. These are good ideas, even without a religious undercurrent. It's not an FTA/hacker issue. It's what I would loosely term a domain issue. If it isn't directly causing you damages, and you are not law enforcement with jurisdiction, then let it be.

I hold this opinion strongly. Perhaps not the most compelling examples of why, but a decent demonstration: Perhaps the clerk held you up too long at the register while he was taking a personal phone call. Someone else noticed your parking meter expire, and called the police. Where does righteousness exist in this instance, and what is fair? Or perhaps (as melgarga hinted at), they are otherwise honest, good, and decent people, and think they have simply paid an honest bill in order to receive a particular channel? You aren't able to determine with specific veracity that they know they are stealing. I would not want to be the one to ruin the life of that person, and I would suggest to others - unless you know the whole, entire, absolute truth, then do every honest person a favor, and do nothing.

*Not even coming close to accusing you of being a sinner.

 

[Cadsulfide]

Leave it alone, for more than a couple of reasons. I'm not exactly the religious type, but a slew of oft heard bible themes come to mind. Sinners casting stones*, judging not, idle hands and busybodies, and so forth. These are good ideas, even without a religious undercurrent. It's not an FTA/hacker issue. It's what I would loosely term a domain issue. If it isn't directly causing you damages, and you are not law enforcement with jurisdiction, then let it be.

I hold this opinion strongly. Perhaps not the most compelling examples of why, but a decent demonstration: Perhaps the clerk held you up too long at the register while he was taking a personal phone call. Someone else noticed your parking meter expire, and called the police. Where does righteousness exist in this instance, and what is fair? Or perhaps (as melgarga hinted at), they are otherwise honest, good, and decent people, and think they have simply paid an honest bill in order to receive a particular channel? You aren't able to determine with specific veracity that they know they are stealing. I would not want to be the one to ruin the life of that person, and I would suggest to others - unless you know the whole, entire, absolute truth, then do every honest person a favor, and do nothing.

*Not even coming close to accusing you of being a sinner.

:up:up
Well Said

 

[lumpkin666]

Reporting someone for illegal activities is not judging them. It's allowing them to be judged by the appropriate authorities, and it's also protecting our own rights and the rights of corporations. Frankly, I'm surprised by those who would turn a blind eye instead of investigate a bit more and determine if the situation merits reporting illegal activities.


Personally, I would not report the place unless they were very obviously flaunting their illegal actions. But my reason is just because I'm too darned lazy to bother for such a small infraction. I wouldn't bother to report a litterbug either, but I'd report a shoplifter, or drug dealer just because I personally put the those crimes in different categories which the greater crime merits my time. Certainly if I was not a lazy bum, I'd report people flaunting illegal activities (yet I'd be busy all day long doing so, I suppose).

 

[brentb636]

You DO want to be sure of your facts, of course. This brings to mind a story about one of my friends ( a fellow electrician, but sometimes a little impetuous) . Every day , he saw the same woman, speeding by his suburban home, considerably above the speed limit. He tried to signal to her to slow down, get her attention, all in vain. Finally, he called the cops and reported her regular violations in the area. The sheriff sent out a radar car, and waited to trap the miscreant. When the woman came "speeding by" this time, the sheriff pulled out of his spot and followed along. He stopped at my friends house and reported that the woman was , indeed, only doing 25 mph , and that was the speed limit in the subdivision.
Wasn't the first time, his judgement was wrong either. I DO have other stories about him, but none of them pertinent to this discussion.

 

[empiretc]

Reporting someone for illegal activities is not judging them. It's allowing them to be judged by the appropriate authorities, and it's also protecting our own rights and the rights of corporations. Frankly, I'm surprised by those who would turn a blind eye instead of investigate a bit more and determine if the situation merits reporting illegal activities.


Personally, I would not report the place unless they were very obviously flaunting their illegal actions. But my reason is just because I'm too darned lazy to bother for such a small infraction. I wouldn't bother to report a litterbug either, but I'd report a shoplifter, or drug dealer just because I personally put the those crimes in different categories which the greater crime merits my time. Certainly if I was not a lazy bum, I'd report people flaunting illegal activities (yet I'd be busy all day long doing so, I suppose).

some people ........

 

[guapoharry]

OP:

You might ask the guy about his nice TV. Then, talk about how TV programming is expensive. And then ask him how he likes his system. Ask the guy how many channels he gets. You get the idea... correct?

It seems people are prone to go out of their way to speculate, making up possibilities to explain how there are legal explanations as well as questionable ones. Then the worst possible case of ruining this poor guy's life is offered.

Generally speaking, one of my peeves is where people are made to feel guilty about their moral questions. Then it's not suprising if they are judged for being told they are making a judgement.

Even if you find out the guy is getting away with something, it sounds like pay TV providers are too busy going after the big fish. The cops might decide that the situation is a civil matter. Regardless, if you felt morally obligated to make a report to the local authorities, don't fall victim to the bogus arguement that you would be guilty of judging the guy.

If it were me, I would seek to find out a little more about what is going on. If the guy is stealing, I would not support the guy's business anymore at the least.

You can not judge the guy by making a report. If law enforcement were to see fit to act on a report, and the county attorney saw fit to press charges, I believe the defendant would have the opportunity to have judgement made in a court of law.

 

[gillham]

FWIW I have seen at least one person advertising Dish Programming for $20/month on Craigslist, using FTA receivers.

I think the best thing in this case would be follow the advice above to ask them about their programming and see if you can steer them towards legal FTA channels that might be more interesting for them. Nothing wrong with introducing them to the real world of FTA!

 

[lownote2]

Read this the other day, but didn't get a chance to respond. I know everyone here has mixed views. I would actually personally perhaps report this. Before doing so though, I'd want to ask some probing questions like guapoharry suggested. Though I wouldn't be looking to bury the guy at the store, a coolsat in plain sight with a direct tv dish and dishnet channels is pretty blatant.
I'm almost wondering if the guy really knows what he's doing. Which leads me to why I'd consider reporting it. My guess is anybody knowingly stealing satellite isn't going to flaunt it like that, so my guess is whoever put it in is the real culprit. If this guy did it here, where else is he doing it?
Too many people have the mindset that stealing sat/cable is no big deal. But if everyone starts doing it, guess what? Less subscribers....equals...higher rates for those of us who pay.....even less subscribers means bankruptcy, means no signal at all for those who pay and those who steal. It hurts everybody. Those people who offer to get you hooked up for "free" really cause trouble.

Maybe that's a bit extreme, but that's my take.

 

[truckracer]

I think it speaks volumes about the store owner's morals and values. I would probably simply not shop there anymore. You can do more good by just taking your business elsewhere.
Dish is pretty irresponsible with their signal security in my personal opinion.
I think if Dish really cared that much, they would really bump up signal security or simply change the delivery format to something similar to directv uses.

They could thwart the hackers if they would step it up.
Like said above..... A good UHF antenna they store could have had some real HD and legal at the same time.