Hacker Message on Dish Signal?

[bpasker8]

So I've been watching my dish this weekend and began noticing every once in a great while over the weekend that there is a message that begins to scroll over the bottom of my screeen. I get to see about 8 or 9 words and then a black bar goes across this area of the picture and I don't get to see the rest of the message? The message starts out something to the effect of "Dish Network is treatening to take away these channels", and then the black bar pops up.

Is this some hacker trying to get a message out to the general public about the CBS thing and Dish is catching the message and putting up the black bar?

If so that's bad arse, that someone has the ballz to do that. Takes away some of my picture for about 2 minutes, but its pretty darn funny!

 

[boba]

Maybe the hacker is Viacom I've seen a crawl on CBS onDirectv. Maybe DISH is blocking out their message to call DISH and tell DISH you want the Viacom channels.

 

[HokieEngineer]

What a bunch of babies. I was watching cbshd today and the message was on the top of the screen. "attn dish cust, blah blah call dish and tell them u want your chans" It scrolled once.

I am guesing dish has some monkey working at corp whose job is to put a black square up over the message. Isnt that censorship? I dont like the scolls or the black square but can echostar really censor someone elses content?

 

[beast37799]

for those who dont know the networks transmit there signal to large conmucation sats they are then beamed back to earth where all cable and sat companys recieve them with cable its then transmitted over the cable lines with sat they are then beamed to the sat companys own sats and transmitted to us however once its transmited by dish over their sats dish can do what they want with it basicly i mean where do u think the dish comercials are transitted from not the networks and if its something againts dish there not exactly going to let it pass

 

[GaryPen]

Hokie is correct. It is censorship. It also may be against the law, as the cable/satellite systems are supposed to pass the network feeds through un-changed.

Before the Dishies get their panties in a bunch, I agree with CE on the whole Viacom issue, but that doesn't excuse changing program content from the providers. I think most people are smart enough to realize it's just Viacom propoganda and scare tactics. Blacking it out after it starts scrolling looks petty, vindictive, and a little scared.

 

[Juan]

Hokie is correct. It is censorship. It also may be against the law, as the cable/satellite systems are supposed to pass the network feeds through un-changed.

Before the Dishies get their panties in a bunch, I agree with CE on the whole Viacom issue, but that doesn't excuse changing program content from the providers. I think most people are smart enough to realize it's just Viacom propoganda and scare tactics. Blacking it out after it starts scrolling looks petty, vindictive, and a little scared.

HOKIE IS WRONG!! censorship can only be done by a government(as per the definition of censorship)..what dish is doing is editorial control

 

[Gordon Small]

HOKIE IS WRONG!! censorship can only be done by a government(as per the definition of censorship)..what dish is doing is editorial control

I disagree.

Censorship:
The act, process, or practice of censoring.

Censor:
A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
An official, as in the armed forces, who examines personal mail and official dispatches to remove information considered secret or a risk to security.
One that condemns or censures.
One of two officials in ancient Rome responsible for taking the public census and supervising public behavior and morals.
Psychology. The agent in the unconscious that is responsible for censorship.

Doesn't necessarily need to be the government. Unless you mean that the person or organization doing the censoring is by definition governing the process and therfore is "a government".

 

[GaryPen]

Something E should do is broadcast their own "public service announcements" instead of all the PPV/Premium ads. CE could explain the situation in that "aw shucks regular guy" way of his, which would definitely work better than simply trying to censor the Viacom propoganda scrolls.

I'm sure he'll mention it in his CC on Monday. But, most subscribers don't watch it. They'll be too busy watching the Viacom channels. A direct address, playing on the Viacom channels would be much more effective.

 

[Juan]

I disagree.

Censorship:
The act, process, or practice of censoring.

Censor:
A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.
An official, as in the armed forces, who examines personal mail and official dispatches to remove information considered secret or a risk to security.
One that condemns or censures.
One of two officials in ancient Rome responsible for taking the public census and supervising public behavior and morals.
Psychology. The agent in the unconscious that is responsible for censorship.

Doesn't necessarily need to be the government. Unless you mean that the person or organization doing the censoring is by definition governing the process and therfore is "a government".

somebody OUTSIDE the organization would be a censor..Charlie OWNS dishnetwork therefore he is exerciseing editorial contro

 

[AndyMon]

CE could explain the situation in that "aw shucks regular guy" way of his, which would definitely work better than simply trying to censor the Viacom propoganda scrolls.

????? CE??? I didn't know Consumer Electronics was a person. :shocked

 

[GaryPen]

somebody OUTSIDE the organization would be a censor..Charlie OWNS dishnetwork therefore he is exerciseing editorial contro

Well...no. Gordon is absolutely correct. Apparently, you have never heard of the Standards and Practices departments of the broadcast networks, better known as the CENSORS. (Although, judging from network content these last few years, most notably on Fox and now Viacom/CBS, these departments may no longer exist.)

 

[SpenceJT]

it would be my opinion (perhaps someone can confirm this) that if Dish is paying Viacom for the rights to rebroadcast, they can certainly run a CGI crawl, or, in this case, black out a CGI crawl.

Particularly in this case, where it is specifically meant to circumvent their ability to negotiate by attempting to turn Dish subscribers against Dish Network.

 

[James Long]

Broadcast law makes the broadcaster the final authority that gets on their signal. That is why every CBS station, including those not owned by Viacom, was laid open to a $27,500 fine for the lewd halftime show that ended with Janet's reveal. Even though the producer fed the feed and the network retransmitted it, the penalty goes to the broadcaster.

Satellite providers are not broadcasters, per se. But they still maintain control over their signals. They pay the content provider for a content .. not lease transponder space for the content provider's use.

JL

 

[SignGuyDino]

I blame Max Headroom.

 

[bpasker8]

I love Max Headroom!