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"The Great Computer" (A True Story)

Like all of man�s accomplishments, computer technology has both required
much refinement and taken time to evolve to a form that is now becoming
common to domestic household application. From the early processors found in
microwave ovens, to those found in satellite television equipment, and video
games; and now at last to the real power-packed Pentium based computers that
support the many applications intended to add convenience, sophistication
and organization to our modern lives. Early forms of the technology had
features that were at best only fore-telling of the many great things yet to
come.
I can recall my first experience with computer technology was that of
hearing first-hand of experiences my high school classmates were having with
a punch-tape storage medium and of their frustration. They did however
marvel at the computer�s ability for solving given problems. My responses
were generally pesimistic and telling of my adolescent disregard for man�s
intelligence. I had been shown the perforated paper tapes that were made by
my friend, Earl, for one of his homework assignments.
From that first non-experience, several years passed before my next
encounter with a computer. I went to a technical school in 1980 for a
broadcast technology program, and in the winter quarter of 1982, I enrolled
in university classes for digital electronics and microprocessor
applications. The then powerful 6502 microprocessor was introduced to me in
the form of the Rockwell AIM-65 mini-computer during the digital electronics
class. In addition to being required to program simple tasks for the AIM-65,
I was shown a few advanced applications that were being developed by one of
the professors. At the time, I was also given information about the
Commodore VIC-20 as being driven by the same 6502 processor and thereby
capable of similar applications to those I had seen.
As the complement to my 6502 experience, I also had classroom instruction
about the Intel 8088 microprocessor that covered two quarters and led into
an early, robotics-oriented application of the 8088. The 8088 was the
processor in the Tandy corporation's minicomputer of that time which I
thought imitated the Commodore product. My decision on buying the 6502 based
product over the other was a blind decision that I did not make consciously.
Both computers had implementations of BASIC and used NTSC compatible video
display. My requirements for the purchase really.
My response to my professors was to immediately purchase the VIC-20, and I
began intense learning about basic computer programming and expansion
hardware design. In a short time, I developed an 8K memory expansion module
with a neat timeclock/calendar feature. My first application was to read the
outdoor temperature and display it with the time during television station
breaks. I developed the software necessary to support that application but
fell short of having developed the genlocking capability required for
synchronizing with the television station�s �house� video timing signal.
These early experiences gave me a foundation for learning about the expected
role of the microprocessor in various new digital applications. There was
unmistakeably great anticipation and excitement conveyed by my instructors
about the future of the personal micro-computer.

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Two years passed while I took a job doing technical service work from which
I learned a great deal about evolving satellite television receiving
technology. When I again returned to the computer, it was to develop a
method for updating a Motorola 6800 based, "Intersat" satellite receiver�s
onscreen menu information about available services. The "Intersat" was by
far the most advanced receiver of its time. Unfortunately, the company had
gone out of business, failing to show a profit. For that application, I
wrote a disassembler utility and studied the routines of data loading ROM
chips that were used to update the information. As an addition to the
standard update, I also developed a means for calculating positioning values
needed for any given customer. This effort was largely an extension of
previous BASIC programming work to develop tables of compass headings for
all satellites as viewed from a given terestrial location. I did however
require assistance from my physics professors in determining the exact
trigonometric equations that I needed. To gain the needed information for
the equations, I developed a technique for associating information about
actuator pulse-counting to the physical dimensions of the mounting hardware
of the satellite antenna. Aside from having astounded my fellow employees
and my employer, I sent a pair of the updated loader ROM chips to a man in
Washington state along with the only known version of a software upgrade for
his GI copy of the Intersat receiver. In a short telephone conversation he
replied to my query about the positioning values that," They were just
fine." His satisfaction was my greatest reward.
From this exercise, it was a rather small step for me to later begin
analysis of the TMS7000 based MA/COM VideoCipher II descrambler's imbedded
system ROM software routines. During the summer of 1986, I returned my
damaged VideoCipher II main module for repair and received a new one for a
fee of $150. Having given up on my own feeble attempts to "defeat" the
VideoCipher, in February 1987 I came into possession of a borrowed pair of
new pirate ROM chips that were copy-protected. With my minimal experience, I
required just a few minutes to make file copies, and another 36 hours to
break the protection scheme by studying all the discrepancies between the
factory issued ROM and the pirate ROM. There was some difficulty in making
proper analysis of a seemingly garbled ROM section that hid key branch
vectors which were indexed according to the descrambler's unit identity
number.
While still thrilled at my success at defeating the pirate software
copy-protection mechanism, my first software addition to the pirate
community was a chip that allowed the illegal features to be either disabled
or enabled as needed. I took pride in straightening out the messy pirate
software and used much of the available ROM space to do so; still leaving a
copy protection scheme intact. Secondly, in March 1987, I made a rather
bright adaptation of applying the same pirate techniques to the newer
version of VideoCipher software that accommodated advanced hardware signals
for controlling VideoCipher II functions in new integrated
receiver-descrambler products. I later learned that this version of software
was not in use in Canada until August that year.
To protect my software, I developed a needed utility for the �Commodore 64�
computer to load branch vectors as indexed by manually entered VideoCipher
unit identification information. It took about two minutes per chip for me
to make uniquely protected versions of my software.
At a selling price of $200 per chip, I began making very good return on my
investment of only a few hundred dollars in computer hardware and support
tools. Over a period of about three years I had worked many nights
converting my primitive �Commodore 64� into the specific tool I required for
compromising the satellite television industry�s broadcast media decoder.
The world became a very cool place for me in May 1987 as I was able to put
$2000 down on a small cabin in remote northern Minnesota. I continued
driving my old 1976 Dodge truck for about a year even though I had been able
to visit Ohio, Florida, and Las Vegas by air during that time. I recall that
I was soon tempted to make modest investments in cloned IBM-286 XT computer
hardware and software. I first looked at MicroSoft �Windows� 1.0 in the fall
of 1987 on that platform.

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After the first six months, the business was not as good as anticipated
because of counter measures taken by General Instrument to curb satellite
signal piracy and because of skepticism for the integrity of my product.
Doing business required repair skills for managing all sorts of repairs to
the decoder modules that were usually not installed with adequate surge
protection. My customers were businessmen who enjoyed making profits from
easy sales of the expensive electronic hardware and a broken satellite
descrambler to receive the seemingly endless supply of the best
entertainment programming the world had ever known. My fortune at first
having used a good fix for the decoders had given me the opportunity to
establish a reputation for my services and my product.
Most of my earliest customers enjoyed uninterrupted premium programming from
the summer of 1987 right through the fall of 1992. This meant they received
a whopping five years of entirely free pay-per-view programming after paying
the up-front dealer fee.
This free ride was so unbelievable for many, that I was given the perception
that customers just began taking for granted that they would always have
programming. It had not been my intention to convey this sort of expectation
about my product. I expected that consumers were being told that there was
an element of risk that they would for at least a brief time (a few months)
lose service while some solution would be found to remedy their situation if
it ever occurred.
From my perspective, I found that it was difficult but important to relate
to my previous low-budget lifestyle. I believe it was partly my good fortune
to have had to deal with an alcohol-related misdemeanor 1989 so that I came
down to re-establishing my ideals.
Finally in retrospect, I can see that what I did on a personal level was
similar to my having played a game of chess with the "sort of big bucks
business" of satellite television. I merely used my skills to take advantage
of a situation that I judged to be eminent and through the work of many
others, the technology and I finally collided in the right place and time.
During my employment, it was learned by MA/COM, the maker of the VideoCipher
descrambler product, that I could copy ROMs to upgrade misfunctioning
satellite dish positioners. Had I in fact planted a seed that may have
actually given that company enough reason to predict that a technical crime
based on copying of ROMs could lead to a boom in the satellite TV business?
Engineers of the time were not very comfortable when confronted with the
task of programming ROM chips and I distinctly recall of one who was
surprised when he learned of a lowly field technician (myself) who had
aquired the skill and tools.
Because its thought that getting heavily involved with assembly language
programming of any processor leads to structuring of one's programming
innovations for later applications, astute computer software developers of
the time may tell you that the 8088 was the clear choice of preference over
the 6502 processor for its orientation of having far greater register
selection. From personal experience, I found programming the 8088 somewhat
dull compared to programming the 6502. Now I think I understand that I
simply did not ever develop any dynamic applications that required fast
access to many registers with high level boolean instructions. In many
applications however, microprocessor performance was critical and it was not
unusual for engineers to make comparisons of the times required to
accomplish specific tasks before the processor part of a design was
selected. This is exactly the reason my professors had chosen the 6502
processor. It had superior performance to that of the 8088 in the task of
reading an input latch and logging the received data. My own programming was
merely an effort to be concise and when possible used fast zero-page
addressing, the stack and only two registers. After finding the M6800 to be
very similar to the 6502, I later found programming the TMS7000 more
exhilarating with its many easy to use bit-test and jump instructions.

_______________________

In any business the experts will tell you that its not as important what you
know as is whom you know. I used to discount that bit of wisdom, but now in
retrospect, I would have to agree that my learned discipline of excluding
chances for unfriendly personal encounters has cost me something.
In the course of doing business over five years, I made many connections and
friends; some of whom I'll remember for the rest of my life. There was a
kind of situation comedy associated with the business in that I was like the
lead character (from my own perspective) and the funny part was articulating
certain details of transactions, work, and leaving with the money. Adding to
the situation was paranoia about getting caught. It was after all, my work
that the authorities were possibly going to be prosecuting in a criminal
trial. I was always as honest and sincere in my relationships as possible
and I never wanted to give anyone the impression that I could not handle the
work. All of my dealer clients were very good to me and with a couple we
shared rather bizarre lunches or dinners at restaurants. In these events,
the detail coming at me in conversation from the other side of the table was
quite amusing. There is something about a successful businessman that
suggests invulnerability. A couple of my clients were unusual characters
which supports general theory about risk-takers and their ventures. I on the
other hand had to sort of walk the highwire as if there was a safety net. It
always seemed possible that oneday there would not be any such net.
I made only a few contacts with others in the business of actually
compromising satellite TV decoders. These people all shared like myself a
sort of wariness (paranoia), but were honest and pragmatic in their
attitudes about doing the work. Ages ranged from late twenties to late
fifties. My two connections in Canada were very open. Those two were very
different from each other. One man ran a shop right on mainstreet doing
everything but advertising the sales of illegal decoders while holding a
supporting position with the Canadian national television broadcast
corporation. The other more successful Canadian preferred working behind the
scenes supporting multiple dealerships both in and out of Canada. Two of the
other men supported lower profile local businesses in the US. One, in
Florida, only dabbled in the illegal decoder business because the
competition in his area was pretty stiff. A connection in Ohio was close to
a source of innovation that actually worked to break the second generation
of the videocipher. I met the man in person only once and never had any
further contact. A similar contact in Minnesota had strong US military
background and claimed to be part of a group of about five that marketed the
original solution which I copied. This may be true, however I believe that
his group was merely one of the first groups contacted by the actual persons
who broke the VideoCipher and first attempted negotiations with General
Instrument or MA/COM before marketting their product.
The VideoCipher had its roots with the US military with a large portion of
the design being similar to that of an audio security system used in
communications during the Viet Nam conflict. In my opinion a break of the
VideoCipher II descrambler could only have come from within the ranks of the
US military or persons in contact or involved with development of the
technology. To my knowledge, none of the people really responsible ever came
to trial. I heard of jail sentences being given to those convicted of crimes
involving the VideoCipher product that were up to a year in duration. The
most severe penalties were for federal tax violations.

 I was mentally exhausted when I was busted in December 1992 while still
doing some consulting with satellite TV owners. At the time I was well into
upgrading contacts to the new VCII+ modules (I was participating in GI's
program) so that they could begin paying for programming. My home was
searched and a computer with floppies, some ROMS, and some twenty scrap VCII
modules were confiscated.

It was a pretty big deal in the news four months later when indictments came
down and the proceeding went to Federal court.

In June, I entered a plea of guilty to a felony charge for theft of
encrypted television services. In November I was sentenced. The fine was
only $50. However I was very close to doing prison time of two months and I
was fortunate to do the time confined to my home. I also served 100 hours of
community service and was on supervised Federal probation for 2 years. With
exception of my right to own a gun, my rights as a natural US citizen have
been restored; including my passport.

Thus from personal experience, I can relate that it is not unusual for the
FBI to operate with person's in the field making contacts and gathering
information over a long period of time. I still believe the FBI was looking
for those few person's most responsible for the illegal business activity
involving the VideoCipher product.

I kept records and I paid my taxes.
________________________________________________________________
{But believe in ourselves, and we can believe in many other great things as
well.}
________________________________________________________________

If you read this entirely true account, you must have found it interesting.
Now find
yourself presented with an amazing opportunity to become associated to a
MAGICAL LIST OF NAMES.

If you would like to see how many times you will receive five dollars in the
mail from people who have read this story, simply add your name and address
in slot number 6 while deleting the first name and reordering the numberring
so that 2 becomes 1, 3 becomes 2, 4 becomes three, etc. and pass this story
onto whomever you feel is hopeful.

Don't forget to pass your message back to those listed in the given list of
recipients with the plainly written message:

"PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR MAILING LIST."
"$5 US DOLLARS PROCESSING FEE IS ENCLOSED."

Your task is then to find five persons world-wide who are equally as lucky
as yourself who will benefit from the story, and who will then wish add
their names to the MAGICAL list.

BE SURE TO ALSO REMEMBER, you must keep a list of all persons who have sent
you a dollar as a result of your efforts to pass on this story. The list is
a remembrance of this amazing experience and of the hope shared by many
special people such as yourself. You may then use the list of names and
addresses for whatever purpose you deem is useful to the would be
recipients.

Get Started Right Now!

Take 6 pieces of paper and write the legal message on each piece of paper:

"PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR MAILING LIST."
"$5 US DOLLARS PROCESSING FEE IS ENCLOSED."

(Important: THIS IS KEY AS THIS IS WHAT MAKES IT LEGAL; SINCE YOU ARE
PAYINGFOR AND LATER OFFERING A SERVICE).

Now get 6 U.S. (or equivalent) $5.00 bills and place ONE inside EACH of the
6 pieces of paper so the bill will not be seen through the envelope to
lessen the risk of loss due to theft.

Place one paper in each of the 6 envelopes and seal them. You should now
have 6 sealed envelopes, each with a piece of paper clearly stating the
legal phrase and a U.S. $5.00 bill.

Mail the 6 envelopes with proper postage to the list of recipients.

Given list of recipients:

#1  ACRE
    P.O. Box 546
    Monmouth Junction,
    NJ. 08852-0546
    USA
#2  D. Bakeberg
    7230 West 34th Ave
    Apt#602
    Amarillo,Tx. 79109

#3  R.Pinckney Jr.
    BOX 1083
    Albrightsville,PA 18210

#4  Fogel Bobby
    Charlottalei 25
    2018 Antwerpen
    Belgium

#5  Huygens Pascale
    Heirbaan 196
    9200 Dendermonde
    Oost-vlaanderen
    Belgium

#6  Delcart Tony
    Heirbaan 190
    9200 Dendermonde
    Oost-vlaanderen
    Belgium

You can now delete the recipient in the number one slot and add your name to
the bottom of the list while also renumberring the list.

Enjoy the challenge of finding new ways to contact people who would gain
from this interesting true story and pass it along to whomever you can.

___________


The PAYOFF!
___________

Out of all the mailings, or postings that you make of this letter, lets
suppose you'll receive only 5 replies (a very conservative example.)

So you only received $25.00 with your name at #6 on the letter. You almost
got back the monetary portion of your investment.

But then all of the 5 persons who sent you $5.00 each find 5 persons who
learn something from this story and want to add their names to the Magical
List. They in turn respond by passing this story on to 5 others with your
name in the #5 slot.
Each of these (25) responses will bring you an additional 5 dollars in the
mail.

Now if those 25 hardworking people each succeed in finding just 5 more
people who will want to add their name to the bottom of the list of
recipients and circulate this interesting story with your name in #4, you
will then receive in the mail an additional $625.

When those 125 persons each turn around and pass the story onto five more
persons who want to add their names to the bottom of list and circulate the
list with your name in #3, you will then receive an additional $3125.

OK, now here is the fun part. When each of those 625 persons each pass the
stories onto 5 more readers with your name in #2 whom all decide to add
their names to the list, that just makes you (3125x5) $15,625 less poor!!!!

In reality with your name in the #1 spot, those 3,125 persons will all then
be delivering this message to several active internet newsgroups or bulletin
boards with your name in the #1 slot. They could even be placing ads in
newspapers or simply passing it along with other social, spiritual, or
business solicitations. (After all, it only takes the ability to believe
that it works.) If  each of the 3,125 new people with their names on your
list then work hard enough to get an average of only 5 responses, you will
receive in the mail a whopping(15,625x5) $78,125!

(When your name is dropped from the list, you and your post office will
probably need a break.)

All from an interesting story and an original investment of only $30.00 +
postage!

TRULY AMAZING!!

FULLY REALIZE that the numbers with only five new entrys per person is
pretty conservative! Average is probably 20 to 30! And consider the fact
that some people are real masters at doing this sort of thing!
At expansion of the list of just five new entrys per new entry, here is what
you will receive in the mail:
$25.00
$125.00
$625.00
$3125.00
$15,625.00
$78,125.00
You must remember the legal part: You MUST keep a list of responses and you
MUST use the PROPERLY WORDED response as well.

GOOD LUCK to all and please DO DECLARE your extra income.

You will also prosper.
_____________


LEGAL?
I sure hope so!
_____________

TIPS:
In some foreign countries, the export of the country's exchange is illegal.
But proper license can be obtained from the post office, explaining the
details (that you have an online business,etc.) An extra tax may be
incurred, but that's OK, since its proportionate the ammount of the incoming
money! Only a few countries actually have any applicable restriction.
You may also want to obtain mailing and e-mailing list for circulating the
story in the future.
Use Database or Spreadsheet software to track your list of respondents.
If you really doubt that this endeavor has credibility, please then print a
copy of this article and pass it along to someone who may be more inclined
to work for the money, and watch what happens. You can always try it out
later when he or she can pass on their acquired skills.
You should start getting responses within 1-2 weeks.
It may become neccessary to change your billing address to assure that you
do not lose important communications and business like bills and bank
statements.