I’m curious why the thread was closed. I understand we do not want to encourage hacks or any illegal activity, but it did raise in interesting question. I suspect the activity described is likely illegal, but should it be? I can understand in the case of cable where they bring a wire to the house that there is a contract involved in what you get. I can even understand a satellite customer having to abide by their agreement. But how about a non-customer? For satellite, or any other type of broadcast medium it’s a case of it’s raining soup (broadcast) so why shouldn’t I be allowed to catch some? All signals are encoded, though not necessarily encrypted. Why shouldn’t I be allowed to decode it if I want to? If they don’t want me to have it they should stop sending their signal into my property. If someone wants to broadcast a message generally accessible and they don’t want everyone to read it, it should be up to them to use sufficient encryption. If I can read your smoke signal why I am I at fault? Just posing an idea, not advocating theft.