LOS ANGELES — A Florida man has been convicted of selling hardware to illegally tap into DirecTV satellite broadcasts, becoming the first person to be found guilty by a jury under a 1998 federal law against digital piracy.
After a four-day trial, a federal jury in Los Angeles found Thomas Michael Whitehead of Boca Raton, Fla., guilty of conspiracy, selling unlawful satellite descrambling devices and violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The DMCA makes it illegal to make or sell any technology designed to get around copy-protection measures such as the electronic cards used by DirecTV to give consumers access to its programming.
Whitehead, identified as a hacker who went by "JungleMike," was found guilty of obtaining the software codes needed to reprogram the DirecTV cards and paying an unidentified co-conspirator $250 a month for updates. He then sold the modified access cards to people looking to get the DirecTV programming for free.
Whitehead, 38, was indicted this year along with 16 others as part of an FBI probe of satellite service theft. Several have pleaded guilty to violating the DMCA, but Whitehead's conviction last week was the first to result from a trial.
Whitehead faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $2.75 million at his sentencing Jan. 26.