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On January 21, 2001, a bloodless, faceless war broke out in cyberspace between the satellite television service, DirecTV, and the video pirates who snagged all of the sports, all of the movies, all of the porn, and all of the hundreds of channels without writing a monthly check. This is the true, untold story about the weekend before the Superbowl when DirecTV reached out and fried the brains of the pirate's set-top boxes without harming the legitimate customers.

Read all about this in a new pay-per-view report by Peter Wayner

To order: Use Paypal to send 75 cents ($0.75) to the email address satstory@flyzone.com. When payment arrives, you'll get your own 31-page copy in Acrobat format delivered to your email box. If you have questions or problems, write info@flyzone.com.

Pull Quotes:

The most heinous damage inflicted by DirecTV's terribly swift vengeance was a sentence to spend the night without satellite TV. The beer was still cold, the chips were still crispy, the couch was still inviting, but there wouldn't be any flickering light from the screen. If the piracy spreads far enough and wide enough to threaten that flow of cash, the new material stops flowing. The actors go back to their day jobs in the restaurants, the agents scramble for other schemes and the Networks start shopping around for more low-rent game shows to fill the time.

The secrets to DirecTV's signal are locked away in a tamper proof smartcard hardened against attacks with radiation, heat, razors, diamond paste, scanning electron microscopes and other tools, but the pirates succeed. They found a backdoor in DirecTV's smartcard and they can now reprogram it to do anything they want. The business can be quite lucrative and dangerous. Reg Scullion helped many customers in Canada receive DirecTV without paying until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided his home and confiscated more than 10,000 smartcards and more than $6 million dollars. All of the charges were dropped, though, and Scullion is now battling to get his money and equipment back.

It's a very different world. It's a subculture that has a different view of responsibility, rights, freedoms than the general populace. I believe that some people truly believe what they say. I think others hide behind those statements to justify their criminal acts. There are true revolutionaries and there are anarchists who have no agenda except to cause disorder. DeeEssEss, for instance, refused to divulge any information about his personal life. Anything might be used to track him down and put him in jail.
Alientech, on the other hand, was happy to tell me about the test card business he runs out of his home near Toronto with the help of Aliengal, an office assistant, and Alienprincess, his 27 year old daughter. His three sons (21,19 and 17) aren't interested in the family business, although they may change their mind.

To order this 31 page article in Acrobat format, use Paypal to send 75 cents ($0.75) to satstory@flyzone.com. You will receive a personalized copy of the article for your enjoyment.

Write us at info@flyzone.com with questions, remarks, complaints, congratulations and anything else you might consider.

FAQ:

Q: How do I purchase a copy of the article?
A: Send 75 cents ($0.75) to satstory@flyzone.com with PayPal.

Q: Is it worth it?
A: I think so. Books, magazines and newspapers cost much more and don't come with as much text. But this is just an experiment. I want to create more articles and try them at different price points. Write us at info@flyzone.com with your thoughts about cost.

Q: What do I get for my money?
A: One copy with 31 pages and more than 15,000 words describing the on-going battle between DirecTV and the video pirates.

Q: What about copyright and licensing?
A: The article is copyright. You get one copy for 75 cents ($0.75). You can read it yourself, read it aloud, pass it on to a friend, or just store it away. If you give it to a friend or sell it to someone else, you must destroy your own copy.

Q: So it's like a book?
A: Exactly. Think of it like a book. Treat it like a book.

Q: What format does it come in?
A: Adobe's Acrobat (.pdf) format.

Q: Do I need an Acrobat Reader?
A: Yes. You can get one at Adobe's website although one is probably already installed on your computer.

Q: Do you use Adobe's copy protections?
A: No.

Q: Do you use any copy protection?
A: The documents come with a personalized watermark. Every copy is different. If you distribute your copy, you could be caught and identified.

Q: Is it a strong watermark?
A: No. There's no perfect watermark so we didn't even try. This watermark is easy to defeat if you know anything about the Acrobat format. Most software will just let you delete it. Circumventing it won't make you a 133t h4x0r.

Q: Not much to it?
A: No. Adobe's own Acrobat software will help you.

Q: So why is it there?
A: Well, the personalization is a nice touch. I read somewhere that mass personalization was the future of business. :-)
Seriously, it's there to keep you honest. If you go through the trouble to delete the watermark, you're taking a positive step to circumvent it. You're not casually forwarding it to a friend or a mailing list. If you can live with yourself, well, more power to you. I honestly believe you'll spend more than $.75 on sleeping pills.

Q: Can I get my money back?
A: Sure.

To order this 31 page article in Acrobat format, use Paypal to send 75 cents ($0.75) to satstory@flyzone.com. You will receive a personalized copy of the article for your enjoyment.

Write us at info@flyzone.com with questions, remarks, complaints, congratulations and anything else you might consider.

The most heinous damage inflicted by DirecTV's terribly swift vengeance was a sentence to spend the night without satellite TV. The beer was still cold, the chips were still crispy, the couch was still inviting, but there wouldn't be any flickering light from the screen.	If the piracy spreads far enough and wide enough to threaten that flow of cash, the new material stops flowing. The actors go back to their day jobs in the restaurants, the agents scramble for other schemes and the Networks start shopping around for more low-rent game shows to fill the time.
The secrets to DirecTV's signal are locked away in a tamper proof smartcard hardened against attacks with radiation, heat, razors, diamond paste, scanning electron microscopes and other tools, but the pirates succeed. They found a backdoor in DirecTV's smartcard and they can now reprogram it to do anything they want.	The business can be quite lucrative and dangerous. Reg Scullion helped many customers in Canada receive DirecTV without paying until the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided his home and confiscated more than 10,000 smartcards and more than $6 million dollars. All of the charges were dropped, though, and Scullion is now battling to get his money and equipment back.
It's a very different world. It's a subculture that has a different view of responsibility, rights, freedoms than the general populace. I believe that some people truly believe what they say. I think others hide behind those statements to justify their criminal acts. There are true revolutionaries and there are anarchists who have no agenda except to cause disorder.	DeeEssEss, for instance, refused to divulge any information about his personal life. Anything might be used to track him down and put him in jail. Alientech, on the other hand, was happy to tell me about the test card business he runs out of his home near Toronto with the help of Aliengal, an office assistant, and Alienprincess, his 27 year old daughter. His three sons (21,19 and 17) aren't interested in the family business, although they may change their mind.