"Cable guy" receives five years, 180 million (!) dollar fine

[Grojlach]

$180 million at $500 a month . . .

TAMPA -- A man who schemed to steal satellite television signals now has something much bigger than a cable bill to pay -- a whopping $180 million restitution order on which he is to make $500 monthly payments.
A full payback would take 30,000 years.
Steven R. Frazier also will serve five years in federal prison on a conspiracy charge. Frazier, 28, had pleaded guilty to a scheme to manufacture and sell devices that would decrypt satellite television signals and allow people to get premium service free.
"He will have to lead a long and healthy life," quipped Kenton V. Sands, Frazier's defense attorney.
Frazier is not actually expected to pay off the entire amount, Sands added, but the $500 payments are going to put a bite on his budget once he's out of prison.
"He'll never end up paying a million of that. That's not a realistic figure," said Tampa attorney Richard Escobar, who also represented Frazier.
U.S. District Judge James Moody ordered the restitution Wednesday, based on a formula of how much Frazier's intended victims, Direct TV and Echostar, would have lost if his scheme had succeeded. The television companies estimate they could have lost $900 million in business.
"I think that's the largest one we received," said Larry Rissler, vice president of Direct TV's Office of Signal Integrity. "We take this very seriously."
Frazier of Sacramento, Calif., was arrested in Dallas in October by FBI and U.S. Customs agents while trying to board a flight to Mexico. The programming device, called the Mikobu III, which he helped design and develop, was bound for about 5,000 customers.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Peluso said Frazier was no stranger to authorities when he was arrested. In 2000, he'd testified before a grand jury regarding satellite piracy and was allowed to return to California.
Instead of mending his ways, Peluso said, Frazier set out to create a better piracy system and soon was regarded among the upper echelon of international satellite pirates.
Frazier was in the middle of trying to hack Direct TV's latest satellite card and "he came within a hairbreadth" of doing so, Peluso said.
"He deserves credit for near-genius intellect," Peluso said.
Escobar disputes that his client is the masterful pirate the government describes.
Frazier was arrested in October 2002, when Customs agents tracking his operations found computer chips and hacking gear in his luggage on a flight from Canada.
Frazier again has agreed to cooperate. Peluso said there are 50 open cases stemming from the investigation.
An estimated 3 million people illegally watch satellite television using devices that unscramble satellite TV signals. The industry estimates it loses $4 billion a year in revenue.

Source: Orlando Sentinel

So what do you think... Is 180 million dollars a "fair" fine for someone to carry to his grave for this particular violation of the law? And does anyone know if this fine will carry on to his posterity? (I *hope* not...)
And I also wonder if he will regard the $500 installment as a warning to stay within the law for good with his dealings, or actually as a burden which forces him to (re)turn to crime just to be *able* to pay for it every month (even though I'm not sure how much money he's already made out of it, and if he already had to pay that back or not); as that's *quite* some money for someone who most likely won't have a job once he gets out of prison.

[Chewbacca]

I would hate to see the sentence if he hadn't cooperated. Kind of makes makes my head spin, the notion of 30,000 years of $500 a month payments for stealing T.V. He must have hooked up a whole lot of people with free dish!

[Yorick]

I think that is a stupid and unfair punishment that will encourage him to return to crime. There is no hope for his punishment to end. Ridiculous in my opinion. Just keep it to five years jail - bad enough - and be done with it.

And before the "oh five years jail is nothing" get's paraded, how would someone here feel spending ONE year in prison? One year of your life *poof* gone. Five years would be terrible. Say aged 25 - 30 were spent in prison. That's a huge deal in my book.

That $500 per month is ludicrous. Say he get's married, in two years, has a child, three years later gets divorced and is hit with allimony payments. Say $500 per month. If he's not, his kid will suffer right?

So that's $1000 per month down. Getting up to a New York rental figure.

Whatever, I don't agree.

[Faceman]

What I don't get is why US courts so easily agree with the fantastic numbers the victims calculate once they are big companies.
If some drunk guy for instance vandalizes my car I'd never think of sueing him

for 1.2mio.$ = the amount I would have won in high-speed chases with exactly this car (a 1989 Volkswagen Polo)

because I know (and the court knows) that there is NO way I'd have won even a single buck with this car.
But record companies can easily sue Napster for billions of dollars assuming that everybody who downloaded a song for free in a time of approx. 45 seconds would have taken 1 hour of his day to walk to the store and buy the whole album.
Same with this satellite companies. If he hadn't offered free/cheap service to all these people they would without a single exception all have bought the full price service.

[WillowIX]

Originally posted by Yorick: I think that is a stupid and unfair punishment that will encourage him to return to crime. There is no hope for his punishment to end. Ridiculous in my opinion. Just keep it to five years jail - bad enough - and be done with it. And before the "oh five years jail is nothing" get's paraded, how would someone here feel spending ONE year in prison? One year of your life *poof* gone. Five years would be terrible. Say aged 25 - 30 were spent in prison. That's a huge deal in my book.

My sentiment exactly. 5 years (or more?) in prison would be enough. It's not only the jail tinme that will punish him. Getting a new job afterwards will prove difficult etc.

The figure is based on what the companies could lose if he had succeeded. So if I tried to fool my government in the same way, I would have to pay Canada's entire budget? [img]graemlins/idontagreeatall.gif[/img] OK so the comparison isn't that valid.

[pritchke]

Originally posted by Faceman: What I don't get is why US courts so easily agree with the fantastic numbers the victims calculate once they are big companies. If some drunk guy for instance vandalizes my car I'd never think of sueing him for 1.2mio.$ = the amount I would have won in high-speed chases with exactly this car (a 1989 Volkswagen Polo) because I know (and the court knows) that there is NO way I'd have won even a single buck with this car. But record companies can easily sue Napster for billions of dollars assuming that everybody who downloaded a song for free in a time of approx. 45 seconds would have taken 1 hour of his day to walk to the store and buy the whole album. Same with this satellite companies. If he hadn't offered free/cheap service to all these people they would without a single exception all have bought the full price service.

I have to agree with Faceman if they are downloading from Napster they are unlikely to go to the record store and buy a full album. Same with satellite, if people getting their full service would likely only get the basic tier if they had no other alternative. What to stop piracy? Drop prices so they are reasonable to the normal consumer. If that means the high officials only make a few 100 grand as opposed to a few million per year so be it. I doubt it would affect there salaries though because more people would buy. The $150 million is crazy, 5 years should be enough.

[ 07-02-2003, 01:05 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Zero Alpha]

I still dont get what *exactly* he did that was illegal. so far as i can make out those signals are transmitted free through the air. after all i cant choose not to have their signals anywhere near me, even if i were to belive something like the signals are evil. (the electromagnetic spectrum gets everywhere, you would be supprised! these siganls even if inteded for america will still reach the rest of the planet ). so all he did was find a way to decrypt free signals! just because the companys didnt like it becase they were selling there own decryption, how does that warrant such a huge punishment? he should get a medal [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Night Stalker]

Unfortunatly for him it violates the Digital Millenium Copy protection Act.

[Zero Alpha]

Originally posted by Night Stalker: Unfortunatly for him it violates the Digital Millenium Copy protection Act.

the what? i understand there may be an act to cover this but i didnt know of one. any elaboration please ? [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Grojlach]

Originally posted by Zero Alpha: the what? i understand there may be an act to cover this but i didnt know of one. any elaboration please ? [img]smile.gif[/img]

DMCA
More info on the DMCA
And while we're at it, here's the Anti-DMCA site.

[ 07-04-2003, 07:38 AM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]