Satellite - Hardware

Johnboy1951

I am not appealing a ban or such, but do wish to have this difference adjudicated on.
I have followed correct procedure as far as I can determine, by first appealing to the moderator in question, icdg, and then continuing the conversation with MiCr0. Unfortunately we failed to find common ground, which leaves me posting here for help in resolving this difference.

The issue concerns the locking of a thread and whether there was any real cause or not for doing so.
Did the thread breach any of the guidelines of Boards or laws of the country?
IMO, the answer is no, and I have searched as best I can but found no transgression.

First let me provide some links and quotes that I have received during the discussion so far:

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1990/act/24/section/9/enacted/en/html#zza24y1990s9
is about interception of services such as pay-tv.

(4) In this section “intercept” in relation to a service means receive, view, listen to, record by any means or acquire the substance or purport of the service or part thereof supplied by a licensee or service provider without the agreement of the licensee or service provider.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=295325
Satellite Forum Rules

DON'T Discuss hacking systems.
For the avoidance of doubt: DON'T Discuss any methods that allow access to a pay-television service, other than taking out a legitimate, paid, subscription to the provider of that service.

The thread
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=102260718#post102260718

There are two issues which I hope to have clarified.

1. There is no reference to re-purposing, hacking or modifying hardware that one owns in any of the references to Boards rules or the Broadcasting Act that I have been supplied to explain the thread being locked.

2. The reason given for locking the thread included ... "The software in the Sky+HD box, is as pointed out above, closed source proprietary software. There is absolutely no way we can allow discussion of hacking the box here."

What I would like:-

A. Clarity around the 'rules' regarding discussion of breaking apart hardware that one owns.

B. With that clarified, the thread to be re-opened for further discussion.

I went out of my way to ensure that anyone reading the thread would be assured that I had no interest in 'intercepting' any Sky channels in an illegal or doubtful manner. Neither had (or have) I any interest in cracking proprietary software.
I was, and am, only interested in (hardware) modification to enable the internal HDD to be used for recording, as originally intended.

If there is to be no discussion of hacking hardware on Boards then that will have widespread impact of a lot of things which are openly discussed at the present time ...... such as how to get into one's laptop to achieve some change in its performance; how to de-lid a CPU to get better thermal transfer; how to re-arrange the inside of an STB so that an internal HDD can be fitted for recordings, how to retrieve parts from unused hardware for reuse in other devices (recycle) and a heck of a lot of other hardware related things that are openly discussed at present. None of those actions are of a morally doubtful or unlawful nature.
It would be a shame to see all those threads locked or deleted.

I am sure the moderators I have had discussions with can provide details of our communications, but if you require anything from me, I will gladly supply it asap.

Because 'hacking' is sometimes confused with illegal acts like cracking proprietary software, I offer the following link for reference to a more complete explanation of hardware hacking than I could provide myself.
https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1314

My apologies if this has been too long.

I look forward to a definitive statement on whether discussion of hardware hacking is allowed on Boards or not.

Thank you.

Zaph

I'm afraid that this forum is only for appealing cards and bans. If you wish to discuss forum moderation then please do so in the Help Desk.