The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the
Center for Internet and Society (CIS) Cyberlaw Clinic, have somehow convinced
satellite television giant DirecTV to back down from litigating against innocent
users of smart card technology. They are promising to no longer sue or
threaten to sue people merely for possessing smart card devices.
and hobbyists shouldn't have to fear legal action merely for possessing new technologies that have many legitimate uses," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "We're also pleased that DirecTV has agreed to stop targeting general purpose devices in its campaign and will investigate all substantive claims of innocence." Over the past few years, DirecTV has orchestrated a nationwide legal campaign against hundreds of thousands of individuals, claiming that 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. Because DirecTV made little effort to distinguish legal uses of smart card technology from illegal ones, EFF and the CIS Cyberlaw Clinic received hundreds of calls and emails from panicked device purchasers. |
DirecTV will also change its pre-lawsuit demand
letters to explain in detail how innocent recipients can get DirecTV to drop
their cases. EFF and CIS will monitor reports of this process to confirm
that innocent device purchasers are having their cases dismissed.
Source: Music Industry News
