A Boca Raton man nick-named Jungle Mike has the distinction of being the first person to be convicted by a jury under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Jungle Mike - Thomas Michael Whitehead, 38 - now faces up to 30 years in federal prison and fines of up to $2.75 million having been found guilty of one count of conspiracy, two of selling unlawful decryption devices and three of violating the DMCA, says Assistant US Attorney James Spertus in Paul Festa's CNET News.com story here.

The jury found Whitehead bought software to reprogram DirecTV access cards to circumvent their security features, reports Festa. Whitehead then sold reprogrammed DirecTV access cards nationwide, violating a DMCA provision that bans the dissemination of technology whose main purpose is to get around copyright protections.

"Whitehead was first indicted as part of the FBI's 'Operation Decrypt' undercover investigation, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles," he goes on.

"The operation, announced in February, targeted Whitehead and 16 other programmers suspected of selling wares that bypassed satellite TV systems provided by DirecTV and EchoStar's Dish Network."

Several other accused DMCA violators pled guilty, says the Computer Crimes Section of the US attorney's office in Los Angeles.

"The fact is that many people believe the DMCA is overreaching in the copyright area," Evan Cox, an attorney who specializes in copyright issues, is quoted as saying in the story.

"But hacking a DirecTV feed simply to avoid paying for it is not going to arouse the sympathy that you got for hacking an eBook reader that let you put it on a different machine, or making copies for personal use."

I'm not usually one to do be on the side of the law, but...

Good for the FBI. Way to go.

Cable piracy is a definite crime and should be punishable.

As for this thing with the RIAA, I'm not quite as sure...

Stryker, absolutly Yes I agree, this was piracy and stealing and should be punished. however if he would've wanted a smaller risk he should've grown marijunia for sale to our kids. he'd be out of prison quicker

this is a sad sad day for america where people are punished for being more intelligent than others....

I was thinking. Everywhere you go you are bombarded with signals. Radio, satilite, televison, etc. How can it be wrong to steal air? It's on your property and if you are smart enough to why not attempt it? Selling it was wrong tho....

Jungle Mike was/is a true pirate, making someone else's money thur illegal means. I find the penality way too severe and I wonder if a lighter sentance would have been given if he did all that for free.

It's the same line that makes actual music piracy illegal -- greed and profit.

Sharing is one thing, commercial exploitation for profit is another. Unfortunately, the RIAA is too dense to distinguish the difference.

This is the reason I have intentionally become to dense to realize that any new music has been released by the major labels this century.

Stupidly is becoming king around the world these days, there are now apparently punishments to oppress the intelligent.

I do support the law on this one, but 30 years and 2.75 million? I'm sorry, but that just seems... excessive? First of all, I don't think in 2 generations he could accumulate 2.75 million.

Our prison systems are crowded enough without adding somebody who didn't actually hurt anybody(physically)...

This case is disgusting, just as the very concept of copyright itself. If radiowaves penetrate my property, I should be allowed to do with them whatever I wish. And I should also be allowed to exchange this kind of information with others.

I hate all content providers such as cable, publishers, and labels. They deserve to go out of business as soon as possible, because what they sell is more than a service; they now try to sell information. Information can not be sold; it can only be kept secret or spread freely.

P.S.: I am getting free cable. Suck my dick. Cable companies and their affiliates not only deserve to go bankrupt, but also to die of starvation.

That is true, but I have to agree with compmore on this one in some ways. I have seen prison sentences for crimes such as murder and drugs a lot less harsh than this. You would be in less trouble it seems if you killed someone and stole the CDs vs. downloading them. strange world we are living in...

Good! Let him rot in prison.
The difference between this jamoke & the millions of p2p filesharers is, this guy tried to make money off of DirecTV's product, while filesharing is done with no money changing hands & for the love of music.

I'm sure Cary-Sue'em All Sherman will try to feebly link this loser with the filesharing community as bretheren of the same criminal cloth, but it just ain't so.

although i agree with what he did was wrong, the penalties are waaaaay to stiff for his crime.. I could literally go out and sell mass amounts of cocaine which has the potential to destroy hundreds or even thousands of lives and get a lesser charge from the court.. Something is wrong in this picture, by giving someone free tv is much less of a crime of killing people and/or destroying lives of people.. This goes to show you that the Gov't and Big business values their bottom lines more than the lives of their fellow human beings!!! This man shouldn't go to prison at all, instead he should have money taken from his paycheck every week just as child support laws do. By putting this man in jail with hardended criminals who have murdered, raped, been child molesters, ect... , the gov't is saying that this crime is even worse than those others combined!! I highly disagree, he should be accountable for his actions, yet should not be treated like an outcast from society.. Hail Hitler!! (I mean American Politics and Laws)!!!

On topic, I boycott as much big business as possible, if you don't feel like you're getting a bargain when you buy something, don't buy it!! I buy clothes from old navy, shoes that cost a max of $70 a pair, I don't buy videogames that cost more than 20- 30 dollars.. I'm sick of getting ripped off when my generation will probably not have enough pension/social security to even support our own lives!! I wonder what it was like to own your house, have penisons, have health car, and a car paid for back in the good old days when people were considered valuable beings rather then the trash that America and Big cooporations seem to think we are...!!!

30 years??!

Seems excessive to me tho I agree he was a theif.

Murderer and rapists go scott free and pirates gets 30 years. The priority is about copyrights over violent crimes.

Man..our country is REALLY fucked up. Sorry. Or maybe its our society as a whole everywhere.

PEOPLE!!! It says he "faces up to 30 years". It does not say he was sentenced to 30 years. That probably means that 30 years is the max penalty under the law, the defendant has not been sentenced yet.

This guy deserved it....but the punishment is WAY WAY too harsh. it should be less of a sentence than someone who raped a woman..

plus DMCA should be abolished and the copyright laws should be burned rewritten.

He should serve three at the most.

This guy committed an actual crime and has been punished. The DMCA is a great law in regards to stuff like this. I hope it makes other people think twice before stealing something I fork over money for every month.

He won't get the maximum sentence OR fine people, non-violent criminals usually never do. I think he'll get a year or two and a couple thousand dollars fine.

The downside of the DMCA is of course it's jurisdiction over internet "crime".

Hey M1, don't get me wrong here, this man committed a crime and should be punished, but the punishment should = the crime... and the DMCA is a crappy law because it's so vague that it gives every media giant the power to financially destroy anybody they even suspect of piracy without a warrant and without any jurisdiction whatsoever. Bottom line is that this DMCA law gives too much power to the Media moguls while it destroys the rights of ordinary people in this country..

What amazes me is that he could have gotten off on a lighter sentance had he killed someone. It seems the society today, especially the laws and governments, put more value in corperate dollars and economic stimulation than in human life. although i guess that was always the way (going to war to stimulate the economy). I agree he did wrong, but i know someone who got 5 years for selling crack/cocain. 5 years. That is it. Perhaps a 5 year sentance would be better suited. and why the hell do you fine people when you put them in jail? it's not like that can make much money there to pay it off. It is a stupid concept and should be done away with. Either jail OR fine. Not both.

its interesting what the lawyer said

" But hacking a DirecTV feed simply to avoid paying for it is not going to arouse the sympathy that you got for hacking an eBook reader that let you put it on a different machine, or making copies for personal use."

did anybody else catch that..or making copies for personal use.

I think the general consensus (sp?) here is that the man is an idiot for doing this, but that the max punishment seems a little on the harsh side.
Irrespective of that, that is not our fight. What should be commented on here is its application to p2p (obviously none, but SpinMyster Sherman may want the public to think otherwise).

I thought about this for a little bit, and it seems like the more and more desperate the RIAA gets as it dies, the more sympathy it will be able to generate via last-ditch ad campaigns. They'll point to all their stores closing and yell "P2P did this!"... and unless we make it known that we didn't, there's a chance they could still do a lot of damage to people on their way out (I doubt they would shy away from criminal prosecution towards the end).
We need to keep bombarding the media, the senators, and the representatives with our letters and concerns.
The last thing I would want to see is a near-dead RIAA manage to generate enough sympathy to get a ludicrous "save me" law passed.

Press on the fight my brothers...

I think this guy should get something out of this, after all, he was clearly breaking the law, but let me put this in a little perspective: selling satellite tv descramblers = 30 yrs + 2.75 million YET...
On 9-29-02, not quite one year ago, my girlfriend and I were driving on the highway at about 4am when another driver came up behind us doing about 100mph and slammed into the back of our car. He then sped off and left us, our car rolled upside down on the side of the road. My gf's leg was pinned under the steering wheel and it took a rescue team to cut the car away from her leg before she could get all the way out of the car. She was then airlifted to Boston because she was having trouble breathing. I am still to this day having trouble with my neck and shoulder from the accident, had to cut back my hours at work and I'm still seeing doctors about it. Police and rescue who responded to the scene told me that it was a miracle I was even alive let alone able to get out of the car and walk away on my own. They were also pretty amazed that my gf's injuries were as "light" as they were. What kind of punishment did he get for causing this kind of accident then speeding away? A paltry fine (don't remember the exact amount, but it was chicken scratch) and ONE YEAR PROBATION!!! Considering that, I have a really hard time swallowing 30 years and 2.75 mil for doing something that did not physically harm anybody or endanger their lives and this is just one of my beefs with the DMCA, where is the justice in getting a harsher sentence for descrambling a tv signal than for almost killing somebody???

The sentence does seem excessive, but I agree that the dude was in the wrong.

PLEASE share our band's music via p2p all you like! Even burn it on CD and give it to your friends all you like! These things we encourage (it is GREAT advertisement for us)... but let us find out you are SELLING our songs and recordings for $$$ without our prior permission and we are comming after ya any way we can!

Electric Gypsy plays by the SPIRIT and INTENT of copyright, even if the LETTER of those laws are awry!

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!
Free CD 4 U at http://electricgypsy.iuma.com

eh, the way i look at it, a guy like JungleMike would make my Dish Network subscriber bill increase. I don't watch cable for the reason that a dish is much cheaper... Anyway, good for the F.B.I. Why should someone get a free ride at my expense? I mean, T.V. sucks, I get 100+ channels and nothing is on. It's noy worth 30 years in prison, man...it just ain't worth it. Now, the RIAA on the other hand would only benifit from technology, but they haven't caught on to the 21st century yet.

I relise that maintaining and upgrading a Cable TV (and/or cable internet) service costs some money, but its getting really expensive for a wire that comes into my house. On one hand privatly stealing cable is a really minor crime, helping someone for free a bit worse and charging people to help 'em steal cable is definatly pirating. Its hard for me to feel bad for the victim here tho', for $80/month I get low speed 'net, and nothing specail TV and the local repair guys have no idea what theyre doing so its down a lot. Worse thing is NO competion here in Redneckville.
To even consiter anything more then 90 days is outragious, fines depend on how much he actually made and/or stole. I find it hard to believe that such a minor crime can even hold such major penalities.

too bad that lax security measures on direct tvs part is his downfall

I don't agry with the profit end of his deal but as far as the punishment is concerned, I know a guy that only got 20 years for killing people, 30 years is too much. There seems to be an imbalance in punishment here. Oh yes!, I forgot Copywrite infrengement is so much worse a crime!!! I say Sarcasticly

... I wouldn't be in favor of hijacking a cable wire, but if someone is beaming radiowaves into your yard you should have the right to decrypt them, with or without their permission. From a physical standpoint, it's a hop-step away from making looking at the stars illegal.

I thought I read that in Europe the law says a person specificially does have the right to recieve any broadcast that comes their way if they don't have to physically trespass or damage other folk's property in the process. "Right to listen" or something similar.

Spica: I agree with you. Information cannot be protected by forcing someone to pay for it if they copy it by themselves. People may sell information if they want, but they can't say someone can't copy it once they have their hands on it. If the originally creator doesn't want their information to be copied, don't sell it to the public and keep it locked up and private. Plain and simple.

It is a little different with Cable Internet because you are actually stealing physical bandwidth if you try to get cable Internet through an ISP without paying for it because bandwidth is a limited physical thing for each ISP. If you found a way to connect to the Internet without going through an ISP and taking up their bandwidth, it would be your right to do so without paying anything. The same applies to Direct T.V. and cable T.V.

Whether this guy actually contributed to stealing physical bandwidth or not, facing up to 30 years in prison IS ABSOLUTELY BEYOND JUST INSANE and CRUEL!!!!!!!!!! Prisons are meant to hold people who are a danger to society!!!!!!!!! Rapists, kidnappers,and child molesters often only FACE 1/10 of that time in jail!!!!!! Murderers are OFTEN GIVEN less than HALF THAT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Government is REAL INSANE, FASCIST, REAL and FUCKED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree that the punishment should fit the crime. Violent and dangerous drug related crimes should have longer prison sentences. I do think prison time should be involved, but I think it should be calculated based on the amount of money was made illegally. This guy probably didn't (or wouldn't have) made that much from these cards (if they were real expensive you might as well pay for DirecTV) so he should get a realatively light sentence. However, the jerks from Enron should be in jail until the end of time.

.. seems to me that the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause would apply here in appeal.

The sentence was over definitely overkill. Had he not sold the cards for profit, he probably would have gotten less and probably would not have gotten caught. But DirecTV is over priced. And given the money they make from selling the hardware, they could afford to charge less for the service. I guess all rich companies will over charge for their service because people are willing to pay.

Where as I do think that he is in the wrong I don't think 30 years is OK. Dude will be in his 60s when he gets out. Fine him. Maybe send him to jail for 1-5 years. That would probably be more than enough to make him never ever ever want to do it again. This is a crime someone can easily learn to not want to do again. Its not compulsion drivin like say rape, or adicion realated like drug type crimes wich the person is going to always be drawn to.

Thats a huge problem with this county. People don't want to let people get up off the ground and learn from the past. Just knock them down an use them as stairs.

I can not in good consiense say that illegally accessing a satellite feed is acceptable behaivor. However, I can also not say that it is wrong to want to watch TV for free. I can not blame a person for taking advantage of an opertunity. Legal or not the oppertunity was there. However, this person not only used it for personal use, but he also made money off it. In my book that is not cool. Using is one thing. Odds are you wouldn't subscribe in the first place. But profiting is not right. If it was a matter of he was smart enough to figure it out and he did it himself, I think a fine to compensate the satillete provider for the losses had the person used it legally would be in order. This would need to be a reasonable fine. And could not exceed the cost of legally doing what he did. It should be focused on, had the person not circumvented the technology, how much would he have spent on the service. 30 year in prison is obsured. I personally do not want to pay for house, feed and cloth this person for 30 years because he broke the law. The state only requires us to do that for our children for 18 years. Why would they expect us to do it for a criminal for 30..... However, I am sure the actually penalties will not reach this high of a cost. Especially if he appeals the decision. And most certainly if we can get the DMCA repealed!! The DMCA is a mockery of our justice system. It shows nothing more than the ignorance of our government to the reality of the situations we face in this new age.

My personal opnion on DSS and Dish Network; If you want to keep your product secure do not use a universal mainstream technology to do it!! And certainly do not think that because you use the technology no one else can. Get real sattelite TV providers and build a better system.

This guy would have been better of rapeing or killing someone

I've been a cable (Tv+Isp) customer for a few years and can honestly say I'm sympathetic to Jungle Mike's plight. I've seen my rates raised several times in the course of a year (in fact, I've not once recieved a bill that was the same charge for same services). This month I recieved a flyer from Adelphia expressing that not only are they raising my rate by $11, they've also decided to take take out a number of channels and place them on another tier. So in essence, they're charging more and I'm recieving less. That alone is an insult, but add to this the fact that the flyer and their web site do not have any concrete display listing which channels are included with their "packages". I should sue them for making claims in their ads that they never live up to.

How does that relate to Jungle Mike? Simple, the providers of cable (and dish) services charge way too much for what they offer, rarely live up to their claims (Adelphia especially) and I 100% do not believe that theft of signal has any influence on the prices customers pay. If they did, you'd see noticeable drops in your monthly bills periodically.. not an ever-increasing rise. If you can recieve the service for free, and you're not an employee of, nor relataive thereof, then all the power to you.

I agree 100% with Purfus, the punishment has nothing to do with the crime. Likewise, I don't agree with the jailing of computer hackers, crackers or other tech criminals. The only thing they damage is big business (which needs a wake up call). I find it to be a travesty that the FBI would be working for (or with) DSS. In which category does DSS fit; drugs, tobacco, or firearms?

mroop, its the possibility of 30 years that scares us... We know he probably won't get that, but that is way too much for stealing cable(and selling it).

This sentence is too excessive and too expensive! Abuse of knowledge should be suppressed, not publishing knowledge. I've earned an Electronic Engineering degree. And I want to learn more!