Corp losses, fines... Discouraging/Encouraging? (Score 1)

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out this "third side" of the coin: We hear about the $170k fines imposed on the (simple) souls that got "voluntarily" caught (Can't believe they actually returned hacked units... um, duh!). If they couldn't afford premium channels, what makes CC think they can pay $170k? SO, for every one person out there who thinks to him/herself:

"Yowza! better not do that."

I'll bet there are at least two who are saying

"What idiots! I would never get caught like that! Let's see: Start with a third party converter. Add hack... Presto!"

At the same time, there are the masses who actually pay for premium services, who allegedly fit the bill for those who don't. They hear: "Theft of cable TV costs the industry an estimated $6 Billion a year." So this means there are thousands of people out there stealing cable, not getting caught! The cable co's are admitting this! If I was a premium channel subscriber, I'd wonder if I'm the dummy.

"Most of the people caught have already settled." I wonder how much the settlement was for. I'll bet much less than $170k.

So all this legal "sewage" may actually be encouraging people to do it after all. Luckily (I guess), I don't have cable. Though I can see how people would go to these extremes to aviod advertising.