Set-top box modders sent to prison
Print storyTeach telly hackery, go directly to jail
Posted in Crime, 12th May 2008 11:45 GMT
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Two men have been sentenced for a total of 15 months for advising people how to bypass security settings on their set-top boxes.
Carl Morgan Davison of Llanfechell in Amlwch and Mark Taylor from Leeds got ten and five months respectively. The two were moderators of a site called modshack.co.uk. Davison used the aliases "Hairy Monster", "HM" or "H" and Taylor was known as "Novice Angle" and "Bubba's Boy".
The site including a link asking for donations which collected almost £27,000. The site was closed in 2006 following the arrest of Davison and Taylor.
Virgin Media and BSkyB complained to North Wales Police that between 2003 and 2005 the website helped people get services without paying for them, thereby defrauding both companies.
The two men were actually charged with providing a hacking advisory service contrary to section 296ZB of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. ®
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