Clark Howard's Tips

Stealing satellite TV is wrong — and traceable

May 27, 2004

About three million households in the United States are stealing satellite TV today. Not surprisingly, O.J. Simpson is one of them. Authorities seized a bunch of pirated boxes from his home recently, but he has not been charged yet. DirectTV is instead using O.J. as a publicity stunt.

CLARK'S TIP TOPICS Consumer Tips Managing Money Banks & Credit Cards Technology Health & Healthcare Car Costs Homes Phones & Utilities Small Business Travel & Leisure Find more consumer advice in Clark Howard's book, "Get Clark Smart"

Just as the music industry is going after people stealing songs, the satellite industry is doing the same. But the satellite probe will be much more strict and unrelenting.

For a long time, the thinking was it was okay to steal music off the Web. It has never been okay to steal satellite service. It's very easy to get the pirated boxes, but you could face severe charges if you do.

Companies are now able to track households that are stealing satellite, so it's highly likely that you will be caught.

More Clark Howard Tech Tips CDs and savings again earning a decent return  GrooveShark offers legit free music downloads, streaming  Using technology to combat customer no service  Beat the keyloggers with this simple tip  Clark unveils his "Tech 101" guide  Internet coming to cars, airplanes  Sirius/XM merger can't hold a candle to HD Radio  Online and cable TV worlds delivering targeted ads  New tech developments from NetFlix, Hewlett Packard  Free e-mail providers differ on privacy issues  Full list