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Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

telecom.csail.mit.edu

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Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#31

Post by thatoneguy »

I was a "broadband technician" around then and AT&T Broadband did not give AF if you were stealing cable or not. I only handled cable modem installs and quit after a year to go major in philosophy and because:

- Getting quietly threatened once (with AR-15 up against the customer's front door) on a troubleshooting call that I wasn't able to leave until "the internet started working".

- Having to increasingly go do cable TV disconnects because people were usually in a bad way and I had more than one colleague that had either had a gun pulled on them or straight-up shot and left to die up a pole for most of a day while trying to disconnect cable.

- Having to increasingly go on cable TV installs because people's shitty TVs backfeeding electricity into the cable line meant I was getting zapped at least once a week.

That said, I met a lot of cool people, gave out a lot of free TV/HBO because I didn't care unless the customer was a dick, wrote down a lot of funny stories and ultimately realized that I could go college in spite of dropping out of high school because I happened to install the non-traditional student advisor's cable modem.

My colleagues said they'd see me back at the shop in four years after I graduated with a philosophy degree. Jokes on them, I dropped out after getting a job at Google.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#32

Post by AaronM »

emodendroket wrote: post #15
Hizonner wrote: post #7

While Comcast should get plenty of blame here, it's also true that it's flat out dereliction of duty for a prosecutor to file a case based on nothing but an uninvestigated complaint from some random corporation. At least Comcast made some attempt to fix it... and also got stonewalled by the State's Attorney's office.

You know, I've had similar thoughts about the Hertz debacle where people were thrown in jail for having rented cars and used them as agreed. I don't think if I made a phone call to the local police department and told them so-and-so stole my car they'd throw them in jail without asking any questions (at least I hope not). Why is Hertz any different?

Growing up my best friend dated a girl with very strict parents, who did not approve of the relationship. He was pulled over and arrested for grand theft auto. Spent three days in jail until she was convinced to make a statement at the police station and they let him go. Parents reported the car, which they must have owned, as stolen, and gave my friends description to police

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#33

Post by mwint »

Larrikin wrote: post #18
cogman10 wrote: post #17

I thought this might be fiction because the amount of time for pirating cable seemed crazy.. However [1] there are indeed up to 6 month penalties for stealing cable. That's just ludicrous. How could copyright theft ever be anything other than a civil action? Jail time for stealing cable, that's just insane. Nobody gets hurt from stolen cable. We really need to look long and hard at what we allow jail time for. Jail t…

[flagged]

I wonder if it’s a thing where no one ever actually wrote “cable theft is a 6mo max sentence”, but rather a serious of things that seem reasonable on their own:

- Cable theft is fraud - Fraud is a Class Z crime - Class Z crimes have this sentencing range

I guess I can see how that happens.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#35

Post by 3-cheese-sundae »

incompatible wrote: post #29
3-cheese-sundae wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I suppose just about anyone could shrug off having their life ruined by an unsubstantiated criminal charge by simply framing it in the context of genocide or thermonuclear war.

Her life was hardly ruined. She just had to spend a few hours sorting out other peoples' mistakes, which is fairly routine in my experience.

You're correct, it was not, but GP was referring to those who weren't proactive or fortunate to have the bogus charges dismissed.

The original poster had the time, money, and wherewithal required to document the issue, pay for legal representation, fight the case, chase expungement, and absorb the damages to her character from the remnant records of her criminal charge that remained even after expungement of official records.

Far less has destroyed the livelihood of far more people.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#36

Post by ryandrake »

coding123 wrote: post #19
jonny_eh wrote: post #3

I feel like if something this dumb happened now, there'd be no way to get it resolved that quickly, and without hiring a lawyer. Getting Comcast lawyers to respond to you at all is the one bit in particular I can't picture happening.

You can't even get a lawyer to call you back anymore because they're working from home too - which means they are at the beach all day with the kids, and will maybe check their voicemail in the next few days.

Have you tried to get in touch with a handyman, or a building contractor, or a pool service guy, or a CPA, or a doctor’s office or basically any service provider lately? Nobody seems to be picking up the phone anymore in any profession. I had to leave a message on a home painter’s voice mail saying “I have a stack of cash right here that I want to give to you to paint my house! Please for fuck’s sake call me back!”

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#37

Post by incompatible »

3-cheese-sundae wrote: post #35
incompatible wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her life was hardly ruined. She just had to spend a few hours sorting out other peoples' mistakes, which is fairly routine in my experience.

You're correct, it was not, but GP was referring to those who weren't proactive or fortunate to have the bogus charges dismissed. The original poster had the time, money, and wherewithal required to document the issue, pay for legal representation, fight the case, chase expungement, and absorb the damages to her character from the remnant records of her criminal charge that remained even after expungement of official…

I suppose I'm just old, and people doing stupid things isn't going to make my blood boil any more. I've accepted it by now as human nature. If you want to actually annoy me, you need to do something purely evil, like harming innocent people just to advance some stupid agenda of your own. Russians firing missiles at apartment buildings in Ukraine is a current example.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#39

Post by owenmarshall »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #28
emodendroket wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article gives an estimate closer to $1000, which sounds likely in what sounds like a pretty straightforward case.

That is hindsight bias. How much do you need for the typical defense?

Part of the reason you call a lawyer early is so they can help steer things away from the point where you need a lawyer to mount a criminal defense. Cheaper that way, too.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#40

Post by derefr »

ryandrake wrote: post #36
coding123 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't even get a lawyer to call you back anymore because they're working from home too - which means they are at the beach all day with the kids, and will maybe check their voicemail in the next few days.

Have you tried to get in touch with a handyman, or a building contractor, or a pool service guy, or a CPA, or a doctor’s office or basically any service provider lately? Nobody seems to be picking up the phone anymore in any profession. I had to leave a message on a home painter’s voice mail saying “I have a stack of cash right here that I want to give to you to paint my house! Please for fuck’s sake call me back!”

Hypothesis: most service providers were previously operating on an interruptible work stack (LIFO), because persistently-annoying people could "jump the queue." Now with work-from-home they're doing strict FIFO (as they should!); and it turns out their queue is long.
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