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Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

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

#241

Post by bagels »

aidenn0 wrote: post #103
emodendroket wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If you lend a car to a friend and then report it stolen, your friend will absolutely end up in jail.

I don't think there is a guarantee either way. My car was stolen, the people caught, and no charges filed.

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

#242

Post by flir »

Gud wrote: post #226
flir wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First five UK-based examples I found via Google were three white men and two white women attacking paramedics. One used a meat cleaver. (All found with the search "attack on paramedic sentenced ") (Edit: full disclosure - one more search and the sixth had a common Turkish surname (no mugshot)).

First, the UK is a special case. I’m working right now in Liverpool and it is the most dysfunctional city I’ve been to in Europe. I’ve worked in most of Europe. Second, the nationality of the perpetrators is often masked in case it is a foreigner. Third, a random Google search isn’t exactly representative. Obviously native Europeans have attacked police, medics etc. But organized mobs attacking firefighters, paramedi…

So that's Poland and the UK that are special cases so far.

> Second, the nationality of the perpetrators is often masked in case it is a foreigner.

Ah, well, if we're going by nationality, I'm 6 for 6 - that last bloke with a Turkish surname was an ex-policeman, so I reckon he was probably a British national.

I think the random Google search is one up on a random internet denizen's unsourced opinion, to be honest. I kicked the tyres of your opinion with the most basic, cursory test and it came up short.

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

#243

Post by noduerme »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #191
diogenes4 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just watched someone do a sale of a fully loaded glock for a zip during a smoke sesh. Loaded straight into fairly skinny jeans without checking the safety. Bear in mind that handguns are by far the largest contributors to domestic gun-related homicide (intentional and unintentional) and that most gun control safety targets "assault rifles" and other scary shapes. I don't think this is a nightmare we can exit any ti…

"Registered to a different person" -- for the most part, guns are not registered in the USA. Was this in a state or city with a registry for AR-15s? "Loaded straight into fairly skinny jeans without checking the safety." -- Glocks do not have safeties. The idea with most newer striker-fired pistols, like the Glock, is that the gun goes in a hard-sided (molded nylon or kydex) holster. If it's not in the holster, it's…

My nightly bedside weapon is a Beretta 92 with the safety decocker. I know a lot of people think it's silly to have a safety on that gun, but I want to be awake enough to think about it twice if I wake up in the middle of the night.

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

#244

Post by bagels »

emodendroket wrote: post #25
owenmarshall wrote: post #16

I feel like this story could be titled “In Which a Smart Person Overestimates Their Competency With The Legal System” Always get a lawyer.

It does seem like it would have saved a lot of heartache to have just coughed up the money for an attorney but that in itself is unfair -- it's a significant enough expense and for some is likely to be out of reach altogether.

Unfair, but the practical solution.

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

#245

Post by concordDance »

Gud wrote: post #168
puchatek wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some European countries there's a recent trend to attack people perceived as "the state", such as firefighters and paramedics in certain situations. Afaik, this is usually done by low income, uneducated people that good stone grudge and then lash out. You can indeed be happy that they don't have access to firearms.

This is not done by “low income, uneducated people". This is done by 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants from the middle east and africa. Please be specific, otherwise these problems will never be resolved. I come from a low income neighborhood but native parents, this was unheard of up until the 2000s.

I agree with the principle that we need to stop flinching away from stating this kind of thing, but am unsure if it's actually true that it's ME and Africa for this specific type of antisocial behavior.

Checking out the "offences by outcome" uk gov spreadsheet[1] is a bit of a wash. Africans aren't any more overrepresented than they are for violent crime in general (less, in fact) and Middle Easterners seem to be lurking in the giant bag of "Not Stated" ethnicity. Though at least for assault of emergency workers in general (as opposed to predictable group attacks on entering an area) "White British" are still (barely) the majority.

[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/...

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

#246

Post by concordDance »

tzs wrote: post #134
Zuiii wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it can't be theft unless the service provider lost the channel being "stolen" to the "thief" which makes no sense. Things quickly become silly when we insist on using the wrong concept where it doesn't apply. Charges like disrupting business operations or unauthorized access I can see, but theft? nah.

It is defined as theft under the laws of several states. Here are links to a few states' theft of services statutes. Pennsylvania: https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/18/00.039.02... Texas: https://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-31-04/ New York: https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/165.15 Oregon: https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_164.125

There may be a mismatch between the common meaning of a word and what the legal definition is.

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

#247

Post by concordDance »

b112 wrote: post #165
kelnos wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Theft" doesn't just mean "physically taking something away from someone else, who now no longer has it". As much as you might like it to mean that, that's not what the law says.

On top of that, it takes equipment, hardware, personnel, infrastructure, power to deliver cable. The OP literally has no idea what they are talking about, and could use the same logic for electricity theft.

Nitpick: At least in the UK that last is not theft, falling under "abstracting electricity".

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

#248

Post by b112 »

notpushkin wrote: post #181
b112 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, it takes equipment, hardware, personnel, infrastructure, power to deliver cable. The OP literally has no idea what they are talking about, and could use the same logic for electricity theft.

There's a subtle but very important difference. Electricity theft does extract a resource from the grid (electricity provider needs to supply the energy you're using on the other end). Similarly, phreaking uses phone lines which is a finite resource too (and phone company would rather keep those available for paying customers). Cable on the other hand runs all channels to your household in the first place. By removin…

One might argue that when viewed, there is current draw, and that additional channels typically means more viewing.

But I was thinking of overall service theft, and did not think of the filter. That case is different.

This makes me think, though. I lived through this time, and adding the filter makes zero logistic sense. EG, why have anyone, who isn't paying, even connected?

Then I remembered something.

I lived in a house, where there was a shared box for 2 units. Someone had pried open the box, and removed the filters. As a result, the cable guy disconnected the wire at the pole.

This resulted in something different. Instead of a cutoff, most channels came through, just very fuzzy. And as a kid, I lived in a rural area, and we owned an antenna booster/amp, which had made signals poorer than this, crystal clear.

It seemed that leaving an uncapped end inside a box on the pole, with loads of signal, bled enough for a usable signal to get through.

So this is probably why a filter was placed. And of course, to prevent the long wire from picking up local over the air stuff too.

Ah well.

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

#249

Post by noduerme »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #175
noduerme wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, everyone I know in the US who owns firearms - which is basically everyone I know here - takes safety and knowledge of the laws around storing/carrying/brandishing/firing them very seriously. But the sheer scale of the US population and the absolute number of guns is just difficult to conceive of from a European perspective. We have something like 60 privately owned guns in this country for every person i…

I guess that seems reasonable, but now it makes me wonder about the graph - it can't be that the people who take gun ownership and security safety only know people who do likewise - how many people who take these matters seriously still have friends they hang out with who take it less seriously. Why? Well bad apples and stuff, it's hard to believe perfect discipline is maintained when some of those around you have le…

Just from personal experience among my friends and acquaintances - and anyone I meet who I chance to talk about guns with - there is a very strong self-reinforcing culture of safe handling and responsibility. People will come down incredibly hard on anyone who seems inept or who they even hear speaking about some kind of irresponsible behavior. Now, I'd say about half of these are ex-military people, but they set a standard and keep other people in line. Of course, perfect discipline isn't maintained in this country. But it's actually one of the few areas where pretty much everyone knows they must act like a responsible adult. People are well aware that it's their life or their freedom are stake if they mess up. I know guys who get drunk as skunks and get in bar fights, but who would never carry their gun when they go out drinking, or anywhere besides the woods.

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

#250

Post by b112 »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #194
b112 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, it takes equipment, hardware, personnel, infrastructure, power to deliver cable. The OP literally has no idea what they are talking about, and could use the same logic for electricity theft.

Many years ago the house I was living in had cable (foxtel, Australia) connected, but the residents who had paid for it had moved out and were no longer paying for it, therefore it sat as an unused plug in the wall for a good couple of years. I got one of those old "TV cards", so you could hook up an antenna and have TV on your computer (yeah, this was before "internet" was better than TV for moving picture entertain…

A good story, the only interest was in the hack.

A lot of older sci-fi books, eg Heinlein, had hacker types discovering some highly profitable thing, but being uninterested except it was fun to figure out. This was often to the mystification of "normal" people, who would plead for them to work the idea into profit.

Often they were tricked into making the process profitable, by being told how impossible it was.

I responded in more ontopic detail in another comment.

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