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EFF: Innocent Customers Potentially Dragged Into Legal Battle Over Satellite TV
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:26:15 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: EFF Press <press () eff org> Date: August 18, 2008 1:52:54 PM EDT To: presslist () eff orgSubject: [E-B] EFF: Innocent Customers Potentially Dragged Into Legal Battle Over Satellite TV
Reply-To: press () eff org Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release For Immediate Release: Monday, August 18, 2008 Contact: Fred von Lohmann Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation fred () eff org +1 415 436-9333 x123 (office), +1 415 215-6087 (cell) Matt Zimmerman Senior Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation mattz () eff org +1 415 436-9333 x127 Innocent Customers Potentially Dragged Into Legal Battle Over Satellite TV EFF Urges Court to Protect Customers' Privacy San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked a federal court Friday to reject efforts by Echostar to get the names and addresses of every customer that purchased a free-to-air satellite receiver. Echostar claims that the receiver can be modified to pirate DISH satellite TV programming. EFF argues that Echostar's demand, which seeks all purchasers regardless of whether they actually pirated DISH TV, would violate user privacy and leave innocent purchasers vulnerable to bogus legal threats. The demand for customer records came up in a lawsuit between Echostar, the company behind the DISH satellite TV service, and Freetech, Inc., the manufacturer of Coolsat free-to-air satellite receivers. As part of the suit, Echostar subpoenaed 17 distributors of Coolsat receivers, demanding the names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and other information of every person who purchased a Coolsat receiver over the last five years. "Innocent customers should not be dragged into federal litigation just because they bought a product that other, less scrupulous purchasers may be hacking for unlawful purposes," said EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann. "The court should recognize the privacy interests of these customers, especially since Echostar does not need these customer lists in order to have its day in court against Freetech." In recent years, satellite TV companies, record labels, and movie studios have all engaged in dragnet litigation tactics that threaten individuals with costly lawsuits unless they pay significant financial sums to "settle" the dispute. These mass litigation campaigns leave innocent consumers trapped between paying a "settlement" for something they did not do or facing even higher legal costs to prove their innocence. Satellite TV provider DirecTV pioneered this approach in 2001, threatening more than 120,000 individuals with legal action and commencing more than 24,000 federal lawsuits, often with no evidence other than the fact that the individual purchased multi-purpose devices that could be used for piracy. "Once the names of Freetech customers are disclosed to Echostar, there may be little that any court can do to protect these people from harassment, settlement demands, and legal expenses," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. "This may be the last chance the court has to protect the privacy of these individuals." For the full amicus brief: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/echostar_v_freet/EFFamicusEchostarvFreetech.pdf For more on Echostar v. Freetech: http://www.eff.org/cases/echostar-v-freetech For this release: http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/08/18 About EFF The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/ -end- _______________________________________________ presslist mailing list https://falcon.eff.org/mailman/listinfo/presslist ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- EFF: Innocent Customers Potentially Dragged Into Legal Battle Over Satellite TV David Farber (Aug 18)