CANAM Satellites

Mojo... that's the wrong CanAm. CanAm/Smalldish.com is based out of Vancouver, and was selling US programming to Canadians. I had Bell service beyond June 26th, and ordered my *C equipment in early Aug, but not from Smalldish.
 
I think they both are run by the same guy. Especially since both have the same name and both webs pages are down.

But I could be wrong

You are wrong. The Vancouver company was selling to DTV and Dish to Canada, which is why they were raided. And it's not their first time, IIRC. The company in this thread is not in Vancouver, and doesn't sell DTV or Dish at all. Not the same company.
 
So what exactly did happen? I have a *C receiver that has yet to be activated (just moved and waiting to install the dish). Am I to assume that if I call tomorrow to activate, I'll be S.O.L.? Those who were already activated -- did your programming go out?

My service didn't go out, per se. As instructed, I did my card swap. I called them to activate the card, and they can't because their system is down. Once doing the card swap, you can't undo it. So I have two unactivated receivers, for which Bell is still charging me.

CanAm has until tomorrow to get this fixed for me before I risk the account and work directly with Bell to get my accounts back.
 
CanAm has until tomorrow to get this fixed for me before I risk the account and work directly with Bell to get my accounts back.
At least they sent you your cards. I doubt if I'll ever see mine. And after talking to them, again, Tuesday, I doubt that they will be up tomorrow.
 
Absolutely nothing, because U.S. law does not prevent Americans from viewing foreign satellite. In fact, the 1st amendment probably protects it.
Also, no Canadian laws were being broken, as the viewing is occurring in the U.S., which is out of Canadian jurisdiction.

While Canadian law can (and does) prevent Canadians from viewing American satellite, American law does not prevent Americans from viewing Canadian (or anyone else's) satellite.

Actually, U.S. law does prevent people in areas covered by its laws from viewing scrambled canadian satellite. As the Canadian satellite providers are not licensed to broadcast to viewers within the borders of the U.S., technically they are not entitled to it. Descrambling any signal one isn't entitled to is illegal. The use of brokers circumvents the scrambling - but it does not alter the fact that the signal was scrambled initially. Ergo, viewing those broadcasts is illegal by the letter of the law no matter whether one steals it with a pirated card, builds a device to descramble the signal in their basement out of old computer parts and baling wire, or pays a broker to fraudulently report him as being physically located in Canada.

Which is a shame. It appears that a lot of the reasoning behind not wanting people to be allowed to subscribe to other markets' programming has to do with protecting advertising markets. It seems to me that this logic (should have) gone right out the window the minute that broadcasters start charging for the privilege of receiving the broadcasts.

I do not wish to come across as being against those who use brokers to receive Canadian satellite service. I certainly don't intend to sound like a Mr. Goody-two-shoes, lol. In fact, when I still lived in town I had cable with all the movie channels. I cancelled the movie channels and they only took away about half of them. I did not inform them of their mistake for almost an entire month.

But for someone to feel that they are doing nothing wrong because they are paying for it - even indirectly paying the actual entity that broadcasts the signals - is like the teenager who, upon being informed by the convenience-store clerk that he cannot purchase the case of beer, and so throws the correct amount of money at the clerk and runs out of the store with the beer. Seems to me the kid is still breaking the law, lol.

Although I welcome anyone who is able to convince me that this situation is different. I have recently learned that the real TechTV still exists and is available to Canadians. It would be wonderful to once again be able to get that station, but I just can not see me simply wanting such programming as a valid reason to get it via a broker - and I certainly wouldn't stoop to "stealing the signal" or whatever it's called that the pirates do.

Thoughts?
 
No problem, Mojo, honest mistake...

So it sounds like with their "systems down" they are unable to match their customer info to the actual receiver/subscriber info...? So even if they have your cards to swap, they have no way of matching them to your name/address? Have they mentioned any details, or do they just keep saying "our systems are down?"

I guess I'm lucky in a way since I'm not paying for monthly service at the moment, but I'd like to get the receiver activated. It's a 505, so it would be a rather expensive paper weight.

Having been with these guys for 5 1/2 years, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but my concern is rising. If the rain quits, I'll be on the roof and aiming tomorrow morning, ready to call for a "hit" while I'm at work in the evening...
 
Actually, U.S. law does prevent people in areas covered by its laws from viewing scrambled canadian satellite. As the Canadian satellite providers are not licensed to broadcast to viewers within the borders of the U.S., technically they are not entitled to it. Descrambling any signal one isn't entitled to is illegal
...
Although I welcome anyone who is able to convince me that this situation is different. I have recently learned that the real TechTV still exists and is available to Canadians. It would be wonderful to once again be able to get that station, but I just can not see me simply wanting such programming as a valid reason to get it via a broker - and I certainly wouldn't stoop to "stealing the signal" or whatever it's called that the pirates do.

Thoughts?
Since the U.S. code is based on Common Law, then generally things are legal unless a law says they arn't. There are NO laws in the U.S. code that prevent people from viewing foreign programming, and likely any laws to that effect would be deemed unconstitutional via the 1st amendment.

Therefore any illegality would have to be attributed to circumventing the encryption. For circumventing encryption, then to be illegal, an illegal method must be used. Subscribing to and paying for an account is not illegal. Feel free to find me any law that says it is. Cracking the encryption is, and violators do get prosecuted, but no one in the U.S. has yet to be even charged with having a foreign account that is paid for. Why not? because there is no law against it.
As for the beer analogy, there is a law being broken, purchasing beer while underage.
 
Frankly, just getting some information as to what's going on and why they're down would go a long way.

By hearing *nothing*, and *no word* on the progress, it makes me doubt that they'll come back at all. And, as stated before, I'm paying for my service, just not getting it. It's not worth over $75 a month to wait more than another day or two.

But I can't get any information out of them. It's positively ridiculous.

So, I think I'm going to have to call Bell and tell them I need to activate my smart cards (even though I don't know my address, account number, or phone number), or cancel stop billing me.

I think I've officially been burned by having a broker and am going to have to either go without or use a relative's address.
 
Well, I'll be away for the holiday weekend, but I'm not willing to give them too much more time to either get their act together, or at least, be forthcoming as to what is going on.

But just in case... anyone know if it is still possible to activate my "virgin" *C receiver without CanAm's intervention (i.e., using another account manager)? With Bell, my understanding was this was NOT possible, but maybe it is different with *C?
 
Well, I'll be away for the holiday weekend, but I'm not willing to give them too much more time to either get their act together, or at least, be forthcoming as to what is going on.

But just in case... anyone know if it is still possible to activate my "virgin" *C receiver without CanAm's intervention (i.e., using another account manager)? With Bell, my understanding was this was NOT possible, but maybe it is different with *C?

If you ordered the *Choice recvr from Canam, the answer is probably no.
 
So... has anyone had any luck getting through yet? I called this afternoon to activate, but it was getting late, about 4:50pm EDT, and there was no answer.
 
So... has anyone had any luck getting through yet? I called this afternoon to activate, but it was getting late, about 4:50pm EDT, and there was no answer.

Same here, bit it was also late. Will try again tomorrow.
The website is still down 'for maintenance'.
 
I`ve call and got them around 12:00.At least 2 or 3 times a week.thay just say computer is still down
 

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