Federal jury has convicted a Florida man of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, in the first jury-trial conviction under the controversial law, according to a U.S. attorney’s office.
The Los Angeles jury found 38-year-old Thomas Michael Whitehead guilty on Friday of selling hardware that could access DirecTV satellite broadcasts without paying for them, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Whitehead, who was also known by his computer name “JungleMike,” was convicted on one count of conspiracy, two counts of selling hardware that unlawfully decrypted the broadcasts, and three counts of violating the DMCA.
Legal analysts predicted that Whitehead’s convictions would fail to elicit support comparable to that seen for Sklyarov.
“The fact is that many people believe the DMCA is overreaching in the copyright area,” said Evan Cox, an attorney with Covington & Burling in San Francisco who specializes in copyright issues. “But hacking a DirecTV feed simply to avoid paying for it is not going to arouse the sympathy that you got for hacking an eBook reader that let you put it on a different machine, or making copies for personal use.”
Source: Cnet
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