Probably my first piracy experience (it was great)

So I've heard of this a bit before but never really got it. Is the idea that the cable could access all of the channels, but the box had some sort of DRM on it that prevented it from actually tuning into those channels?

15

You could tune in to any channel you wanted, but the ones you weren't subscribed to would be scrambled. These boxes would unscramble the signal letting you watch paid content for free.

31
- Goes to show that security through obscurity is no security at all.
  
  17
- I remember before scrambling they just put blocks that prevented you from going to certain channels. I somehow figured out if you ran the cable box through the VCR first and put it on channel 2 while the TV was still on 3, it would shift all the channels down one. Cinemax was channel 14, which our box just would not go to. But it would go to 13, so doing my little trick teenage me got to watch a lot of skinamax.
  
  10

Mine was the VCR. I could record Postman Pat and watch it again any time I wanted. Blew my mind.

14

Time shifting is legal.

2
- True, but I believe technically the recording should only be viewed once (which of course would have been impossible to enforce). I wore those tapes out.
  
  Whilst it wasn't piracy in the strictest sense, it instilled the desire to collect media for as cheap as possible in me whilst I was still a pre-schooler.
  
  2
- True, but I believe technically the recording should only be viewed once (which of course would have been impossible to enforce). I wore those tapes out.
  
  Whilst it wasn't piracy in the strictest sense, it instilled the desire to collect media for as cheap as possible in me whilst I was still a pre-schooler.
  
  2
- True, but I believe technically the recording should only be viewed once (which of course would have been impossible to enforce). I wore those tapes out.
  
  Whilst it wasn't piracy in the strictest sense, it instilled the desire to collect media for as cheap as possible in me whilst I was still a pre-schooler.
  
  1

I was a padawan to a piracy Jedi back in high school and he opened my eyes and showed me the the way with piracy and emulation. I saw him watching Star Wars Attack of the Clones in a DS and my mind was blown away. He also gave me an invite for "blackcats-games.".... shortly after this I got a Supecard SD and flashcart and a Nintendo DS.....oh and a superkey later. Oh and GBATMW. Taught me about emulation and Project 64 and 1964 emulators

Unfortunately he got in trouble by the school for changing his grades. He put a USB keylogger onto a techers computer keyboard (when they had USB ports) and with the login credentials , he was able to change his grades. The school district got involved and one day the police came during class and took him away without warning....never saw him until the last day of school.

I think he works for the Navy now. I wonder what I would have been if I never met them and was opened to the "scene" on the Internet.

10

Back in the day C64 game packs on cassette tapes were a thing in the former Yugoslavia. You could order them via mail for small change. I bought a number of those, I didn't even know it was a thing called piracy. 😅

4

When I was 3 years old I pirated Barney all over the recording of our trip to Alaska. My parents were so proud.

3