On April 27, 1986, American
electrical engineer
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
and business owner John R. MacDougall (using the pseudonym "Captain Midnight")
jammed the
Home Box Office
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
(HBO)
satellite signal on
Galaxy 1
Galaxy 1 was the first in a line of Galaxy communications satellites launched by Hughes Communications in 1983.
It helped fill a hole in satellite broadcasting bandwidth created by the loss of RCA's Satcom 3 in 1979. Unlike satellite owners ...
during a showing of the film ''
The Falcon and the Snowman
''The Falcon and the Snowman'' is a 1985 American spy drama film directed by John Schlesinger. The screenplay by Steven Zaillian is based on the 1979 book ''The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage'' by Robert Linds ...
''. The message, broadcast for four and a half minutes, was seen by the eastern half of the United States (accounting for more than half of HBO's 14.6 million subscribers at the time) protesting HBO's rates for
satellite dish
A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radi ...
owners, which he considered too expensive. MacDougall was working at his second job as an operations engineer at the Central Florida
Teleport uplink station in
Ocala
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.
Home to ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, and vied with a technician at HBO's communications center in
Hauppauge Hauppauge ( ) can refer to:
*Hauppauge, New York, a hamlet on Long Island in the United States
*Hauppauge Computer Works, a computer component company located in Hauppauge, New York
**Hauppauge MediaMVP, a network media player by Hauppauge Computer ...
,
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, for control of the transmission. The technician attempted to increase uplink power but gave up because of the risk of damaging the satellite. MacDougall eventually abandoned his control of the satellite.
Although the intrusion was a minor annoyance to viewers, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC), with assistance from the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI), investigated the jamming. After the FCC identified the transmitters and stations equipped with the specific character generator evidently used during the broadcast signal intrusion, MacDougall surrendered to the authorities, after which he was served with a
subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
due to a tourist having overheard him discussing the incident on a payphone off
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
. Under an agreement with the prosecutor, he
plea bargained and was sanctioned with a $5,000 fine, one-year unsupervised
probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration.
In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...
, and a one-year suspension of his amateur radio license. The jamming received much attention in the U.S., with one executive dubbing the intrusion an act of "video terrorism". As a consequence of the incident, the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
passed the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) was enacted by the United States Congress to extend restrictions on government wire taps of telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer ( ''et seq.''), added new ...
(
18 U.S.C§ 1367, making satellite hijacking a
felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
. The
Automatic Transmitter Identification System was also developed in response to this incident.
Background
Scrambling of satellite transmissions
Beginning in the late 1920s, when the first experimental transmissions began,
broadcast television
Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals.
Analog television systems were standardized b ...
was delivered for free over local frequencies in the United States. When the industry began charging viewers for access to premium services via
cable
Cable may refer to:
Mechanical
* Nautical cable, an assembly of three or more ropes woven against the weave of the ropes, rendering it virtually waterproof
* Wire rope, a type of rope that consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a hel ...
, free broadcasts continued. Starting in the 1970s, a small community of satellite television enthusiasts (mostly engineers) shared the technology and knowledge of how to construct
satellite dish
A satellite dish is a dish-shaped type of parabolic antenna designed to receive or transmit information by radio waves to or from a communication satellite
A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radi ...
es, as well as how to access pay television from the airwaves for free.
This was not illegal at the time, and restaurant and hotel chains made use of this technology to distribute programming to guests and patrons without charge.
[
In the mid-1980s, controversy erupted in the cable programming world as American media companies that owned pay television channels began ]scrambling
Scrambling is a mountaineering term for ascending steep terrain using one's hands to assist in holds and balance.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. It is also used to describe terrain that falls between hiking and rock climbing (as a “scramb ...
their programming and charging fees to home satellite dish owners who accessed the same satellite signals that cable operators received. Many satellite dish owners faced the prospect of having to purchase descrambling equipment at a cost of hundreds of dollars, as well as having to pay monthly or annual subscription fees to cable programming providers. Fees for home dish owners were often higher than fees paid by cable subscribers, despite dish owners being responsible for acquiring and servicing their own equipment.
When Home Box Office
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
(HBO) began scrambling its signal on a 24-hour basis on January 15, 1986, it offered subscriptions to home dish owners for $12.95 per month ($30.61 in 2020 dollars), which was either equal to or slightly higher than what cable subscribers paid. HBO also advised viewers that purchasing a descrambler for $395 ($933.80 in 2020 dollars) would (along with the monthly fee) allow them to continue watching HBO. Several satellite dish dealers across the U.S. closed their stores as a result of a reduction in dish sales, caused by the rise in signal scrambling. Dish owners began protests over keeping free access to broadcasts. One such protest was by members of the Satellite Television Industry Association, who converged on Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, in March 1986 to urge the United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
to protect access to satellite transmissions.
Perpetrator
John R. MacDougall was born in Elmhurst, Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, a western suburb of Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. He is the youngest of five children to building contractor Robert MacDougall and his wife Thelma, a homemaker. Shortly after his father's retirement in 1970, the family moved to Fort Lauderdale
A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...
, Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, where MacDougall was educated at American Heritage School. Having spent his childhood years tinkering with cars and CB radios, MacDougall spent two years of studying in a management engineering program at Worcester Polytechnic Institute
''
, mottoeng = "Theory and Practice"
, established =
, former_name = Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science (1865-1886)
, type = Private research university
, endowme ...
. He eventually abandoned his studies and found employment installing satellite dishes in Ocala
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.
Home to ...
.
In 1983, MacDougall opened the satellite dealership MacDougall Electronics in Ocala. The company initially turned a healthy profit, but following the scrambling of HBO's signal on January 15, 1986, its turnover declined. Consequently, MacDougall reduced his expenses where possible and in the same month was offered a part-time job at the Central Florida Teleport uplink station (which uplinked services to satellites) as an operations engineer to help him pay his bills. As he was not receiving any customers, MacDougall pulled all company advertising and saved money by switching off his air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
. He became increasingly reclusive during this period, watching television and reading magazines. MacDougall later said of the experience: "I have been watching the great American dream slip from my grasp."
MacDougall wrote protest letters to legislators, and spent a large amount of money to raise awareness about wanting to keep the market free from excessive charging of its services. At 12:49 a.m. Eastern Standard Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small port ...
(EST) on April 20, one week before the jamming, MacDougall transmitted a color bar test pattern that was superimposed on HBO's signal for a brief period. HBO did not investigate this incident, as it had occurred during the overnight hours, and as a result, very few people had been watching at the time.
Jamming
On April 26, 1986, MacDougall worked at his shop as normal, and closed at 4:00 p.m. EST. After eating dinner, he reported to Central Florida Teleport with one other engineer on duty. The second engineer left at 6:00 p.m., leaving MacDougall to operate the building on his own. MacDougall oversaw the uplink of the movie '' Pee-wee's Big Adventure'' as part of the evening's programming for the pay-per-view
Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast.
Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...
network People's Choice, which used Central Florida Teleport's facilities. After the film ended, he went through his regular routine. Before logging off, MacDougall set up SMPTE color bars
SMPTE color bars are a television test pattern used where the NTSC video standard is utilized, including countries in North America. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) refers to the pattern as Engineering Guideline ( ...
and used a Quanta Corporation Microgen MG-100 character generator
A character generator, often abbreviated as CG, is a device or software that produces static or animated text (such as news crawls and credits rolls) for keying into a video stream. Modern character generators are computer-based, and they can g ...
that placed letters on the television screen.[ He spent a couple of minutes composing his message. MacDougall began his message with a polite greeting as he did not wish to be insulting. He selected the name "Captain Midnight" from a film he had recently seen, '']On the Air Live with Captain Midnight
''On the Air Live with Captain Midnight'' is a 1979 American comedy-drama, comedy-drama film directed by Beverly Sebastian and Ferd Sebastian with Tracy Sebastian as Marvin Ziegler, also known as Captain Midnight (not to be confused with the Capta ...
'' (unrelated to the popular ''Captain Midnight'' radio show of the 1940s).
Described by ''The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' as "a Reagan-era Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
", MacDougall swung the transmission dish back into its storage position, which aimed it at the location of Galaxy 1
Galaxy 1 was the first in a line of Galaxy communications satellites launched by Hughes Communications in 1983.
It helped fill a hole in satellite broadcasting bandwidth created by the loss of RCA's Satcom 3 in 1979. Unlike satellite owners ...
, the satellite that carried HBO. Locating the satellite coordinates was not of great difficulty for MacDougall as frequencies were widely published in manuals and enthusiast magazines.[ As a protest against the introduction of high fees and scrambling equipment, MacDougall transmitted a signal onto the satellite that for four and a half minutes overrode HBO's telecast of the 1985 film '']The Falcon and the Snowman
''The Falcon and the Snowman'' is a 1985 American spy drama film directed by John Schlesinger. The screenplay by Steven Zaillian is based on the 1979 book ''The Falcon and the Snowman: A True Story of Friendship and Espionage'' by Robert Linds ...
'', which had begun two minutes earlier. The five-line text message printed in white capital letters that appeared on the screens of HBO subscribers across the eastern half of the U.S. (accounting for more than half of HBO's 14.6 million subscribers at the time), starting at 12:32 a.m. EST (05:32 UTC) on April 27, appeared as follows:[
]Hughes Communications
Hughes Network Systems, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar. It is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland and provides satellite internet service. HughesNet has over 1.3 million subscribers in the Americas.
History
Hughes Communications ...
, owner of the Galaxy 1 satellite, immediately noticed the jamming and threatened to shut down HBO's satellite signal or alter the satellite's course, with executives believing the hacker was a domestic terrorist
Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims.Gary M. Jackson, ''Predicting Malicious Behavior: Tools and Techniques ...
.[ HBO's technician, working at the company's communication center in ]Hauppauge Hauppauge ( ) can refer to:
*Hauppauge, New York, a hamlet on Long Island in the United States
*Hauppauge Computer Works, a computer component company located in Hauppauge, New York
**Hauppauge MediaMVP, a network media player by Hauppauge Computer ...
, Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
,[ telephoned Hughes Communications, but officials there could not offer an explanation to the jamming. The HBO technician attempted to regain control by increasing the uplink transmission power from 125 watts to 2,000 watts.] This was unsuccessful, as MacDougall increased his power in a control battle that lasted about 90 seconds, during which it was feared that a further power increase would damage the satellite. MacDougall became scared, abandoned his control of the satellite, and went home. He felt guilty about his actions the following day, but hoped the jamming would not be noticed by anyone not working for HBO. MacDougall was later surprised to see his actions being reported on network television. Thus, when he returned to work that night he pretended to have no knowledge about the intrusion, and asked questions about what had happened. MacDougall only told close friends, and had visions of federal agents visiting his home.[
]
Investigation
Galaxy 1 carried HBO on transponder 23 at a rate of 125 watts, with relay signals sent out at 6,385 MHz
The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...
. ''Mother Jones'' magazine determined that MacDougall could have potentially taken over the signals of three additional satellites. He could have taken control of the network feed of CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
had he positioned his satellite dish at the Telstar 301 satellite, operated by AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
, tuned at 6,065 MHz. He also could have taken over the foreign language feed of the Voice of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content ...
network by aiming his satellite dish at 72 degrees west longitude. The final theorized hijacking would have been aiming his satellite dish at 100 degrees west longitude, above the Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...
, with a frequency setting of 293.375 MHz, thereby jamming the signal of United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
satellite Fleetsatcom 1. The magazine also posited that an amateur hobbyist could hijack the satellites that alerted U.S. military forces to Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
actions, creating confusion for world leaders and placing the world at risk of nuclear destruction
''Nuclear Destruction'' is a play-by-mail (PBM) game. It was published by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo Inc. in 1970. As the first professional PBM game, it started the commercial PBM industry. Offered by postal mail initially, the game is avail ...
.
Although the intrusion caused minor annoyance to viewers,[ HBO contacted the ]Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) and announced that the hijacker would face prosecution
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...
. The commission's chief, Richard Smith, assembled staff in his office for an emergency meeting at the FCC headquarters eight hours after the intrusion to discuss how the culprit should be caught.[ On April 28, the chairman of HBO, Michael J. Fuchs, wrote to the FCC saying the company had received calls threatening to place Galaxy 1 into a different orbit,] but the company was unable to determine whether these were credible threats or not. Fuchs's letter additionally urged the commission to use all of its resources to capture the culprit. In the days after the jamming, more than 200 people called the Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
(FBI) to "confess" that they were Captain Midnight.
The Department of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
made indications of its desire to get involved, and the FBI was called in to assist the investigation.[ One hundred FCC field offices and monitoring stations across the U.S. were actively involved in the investigation, with no fewer than six FCC employees working on the case.][ Oliver Long, the head engineer of the FCC's ]Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
field office, oversaw the investigation, and the commission assigned agent George Dillon to the case. The case first led investigators from the FCC to focus on the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex
The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, officially designated Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, is a conurbated metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Texas encompassing 11 counties and anchore ...
, after an anonymous tip accused an amateur radio operator residing in Lewisville, Texas
Lewisville ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, predominantly within Denton County with a small part lying within Dallas County. As a suburban community within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the 2020 census tabulated a population of 111 ...
, of being the culprit.
Later, the FCC determined which teleport uplink sites out of the 2,000 licensed transmitters in the U.S. had the capability to override the HBO signal.[ That narrowed it down to 580 uplink sites that had sufficiently large antennas that had the capability of broadcasting the signal. The manufacturer that produced the character generator graphics model used to generate the typeface on the television screen was also identified after studying footage of the jamming.] Investigators from the commission obtained copies from an FCC engineer and HBO viewers, as tape machines were not running during the jamming. The FCC removed stations from the list of 500 that were inoperative on April 27 or transmitting other material. This method brought the number of potential stations down to twelve.[ After FCC investigators visited these stations, there were now three prime suspects which included MacDougall.][ The commission later learned an accountant from ]Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
had overheard MacDougall bragging about the jamming at a payphone in a rest area off Interstate 75
Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from S ...
in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...
, and obtained a license plate number of a car owned by MacDougall.
Arrest and prosecution
Prior to the jamming, the FCC warned that anyone interfering with television signals would be harshly dealt with, and MacDougall was charged after surrendering to the authorities following media and industry pressure.[ Investigators from the commission spoke to MacDougall in July (he lost his job at Central Florida Teleport beforehand due to the closure of People's Choice), asking him questions that led him to believe that the commission was aware of the incident.] Two FCC agents visited MacDougall's house two weeks later along with U.S. Attorney
United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal c ...
Lawrence Gentile III, who served MacDougall with a subpoena
A subpoena (; also subpœna, supenna or subpena) or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of ...
to appear in Jacksonville
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
's U.S. District Court
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...
.[ In their meeting, MacDougall claimed not to have committed any crime. According to MacDougall, Gentile tried to make an agreement that if MacDougall discussed the incident, Gentile would be willing to recommend a small fine and ]probation
Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration.
In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...
to the judge. At that time, MacDougall stated that he started to feel that there was not enough evidence to convict him, and despite continuing to protest his innocence, MacDougall told Gentile he would attend court.
MacDougall contacted attorney John Green Jr., who advised him the chances of him winning the case were 70 percent and that a trial would be risky and costly. He faced being fined up to $100,000 and being sentenced to one year in prison if he was convicted. Furthermore, MacDougall was worried about going before the jury and lying to get himself acquitted. He thus changed his mind and agreed to cooperate fully with the FCC.[ At his first hearing on the afternoon of July 22,][ he pleaded guilty to the charge of "illegally operating a satellite uplink transmitter",][ a violation of 47 U.S.C.br>§ 301]
[ Under an agreement with Gentile, MacDougall plea bargained and received a $5,000 fine, was put on unsupervised probation for one year, and had his amateur radio license suspended for one year.][ Later, he was ]arraigned
Arraignment is a formal reading of a criminal charging document in the presence of the defendant, to inform them of the charges against them. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Acceptable pleas vary among jurisdi ...
and freed on a $5,000 bond
Bond or bonds may refer to:
Common meanings
* Bond (finance), a type of debt security
* Bail bond, a commercial third-party guarantor of surety bonds in the United States
* Chemical bond, the attraction of atoms, ions or molecules to form chemical ...
.[ MacDougall's plea bargain was confirmed at his sentencing by Judge Howard T. Snyder on August 26.] Lawyers for Hughes Communications subsequently reviewed the option of taking MacDougall to civil court
Civil law may refer to:
* Civil law (common law), the part of law that concerns private citizens and legal persons
* Civil law (legal system), or continental law, a legal system originating in continental Europe and based on Roman law
** Private la ...
,[ but chose not to take any further action.
MacDougall was approached for interviews by major U.S. news stations after his arraignment, but Gentile advised him to not appear on television until his sentencing.][ MacDougall held a news conference in which he stated he did not contest the rights of cable companies to scramble their programs, but asked the government to allow the marketplace and not corporations to set prices. He revealed he was aware of a year-old magazine that spoke about the type of signal interference he caused, but affirmed the article was not influential on his actions.
]
Reaction
MacDougall's jamming of HBO's satellite signal generated much publicity, and attracted attention from several sectors of society. The jamming was described by various press publications as either the first instance of high-technology terrorism, or the most widely watched instance of electronic graffiti
Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
in the world. The House Communications Subcommittee planned to hold meetings concerning the issue of satellite jamming. Members of Congress showed interest, with those coming from states with extensive rural areas showing more sympathy to owners of satellite dishes. The hijacking raised concerns over satellite-borne communications: that data transmitted by business and military users would become potential targets.
MacDougall's action led to him being immediately regarded as coming close to being a folk hero
A folk hero or national hero is a type of hero – real, fictional or mythological – with their name, personality and deeds embedded in the popular consciousness of a people, mentioned frequently in folk songs, folk tales and other folklore; an ...
amongst disgruntled satellite dish owners who felt unfairly treated. The Satellite Television Industry Association released a statement denouncing intentional interference, and a spokesperson for the organization called for the offender to be imprisoned. Showtime vice president Stephen Schultz dubbed the intrusion as an act of "video terrorism". A correspondent for '' Television/Radio Age'' wrote the jamming was similar to the plot of the 1976 film ''Network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics
...
'', in which a disenchanted news anchor broadcasts his frustrations with the negative aspects of commercial television.
Aftermath
As a consequence of MacDougall's jamming, and ambiguity about the federal misdemeanor charge made against him under 47 U.S.C. § 301, the U.S. Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) was enacted by the United States Congress to extend restrictions on government wire taps of telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer ( ''et seq.''), added new ...
(18 U.S.C.
Title 18 of the United States Code is the main criminal code of the federal government of the United States. The Title deals with federal crimes and criminal procedure. In its coverage, Title 18 is similar to most U.S. state criminal codes, w ...
br>§ 1367
which made satellite hijacking a felony
A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...
. The FCC subsequently implemented strict requirements that all radio and television transmitters must have an electronic name tag for tracking purposes. The Automatic Transmitter Identification System (ATIS) was developed in response to MacDougall's actions, allowing satellite operators to quickly identify unauthorized uplink transmissions. In 2009, HBO and Elmer Musser were awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...
for ATIS. Although HBO has not been targeted since the channel's signal power was increased to make it more difficult for hijackers to intrude,[ there have been multiple instances of uplink video piracy across the United States. One such incident happened in November 1987, when Chicago stations WGN and ]WTTW
WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The ...
had their transmissions briefly interrupted by a man in a Max Headroom
Max Headroom is a fictional artificial intelligence (AI) character portrayed by actor Matt Frewer. Advertised as "the first computer-generated TV presenter", Max was known for his biting commentary on a variety of topical issues, arrogant wit, ...
mask. The jamming did not appear to affect HBO's pricing policies in the long-term.
Richard Acello, the editor of the home satellite dish magazine ''Satellite TV Week'', stated MacDougall had not been able to achieve folk hero status as had been widely reported in the press:
"He didn't have any No. 1 records written about him or anything like that, and that's always an indication. The whole event was misunderstood. People took Captain Midnight to be a symbol of frustration people were feeling about scrambling. It made him seem a representative of dish owners, but he was not. There was no way a dish owner could do what he did."
The jamming was romanticized by the cartoon strip ''Bloom County
''Bloom County'' is an American comic strip by Berkeley Breathed which originally ran from December 8, 1980, until August 6, 1989. It examined events in politics and culture through the viewpoint of a fanciful small town in Middle America, wh ...
''. A group called the Captain Midnight Grassroots Cause was formed and sold merchandise to help raise money for MacDougall to pay his legal fees. MacDougall found the constant media attention difficult to deal with, and was regularly bothered at home. He shut his office because no work could be undertaken without him being asked about Captain Midnight. , he still resides in Ocala and undertakes consulting work under the MacDougall Electronics name. In a retrospective interview with ''Network World'' in 2011, MacDougall said he did not regret his actions but wished his motivations were more clearly understood:
I do not regret trying to get the message out to corporate America about unfair pricing and restrictive trade practices. That was the impetus for doing what I did; that's the reason I jammed HBO; that's the reason I sent them a polite message. What I do regret is that I was young and fairly naïve in the ways of the media. I didn't grasp the fact that no one understood my motives and that everyone would make assumptions. Had I known that up front I would have been much more fervent in explaining my motivations. I had no animus and I had no malice in my heart.
See also
* Southern Television broadcast interruption
The Southern Television broadcast interruption was a broadcast signal intrusion that occurred on 26 November 1977 in parts of southern England in the United Kingdom. The audio of a Southern Television broadcast was replaced by a voice claiming to ...
* Max Headroom signal hijacking
The Max Headroom signal hijacking occurred on the night of November 22, 1987, when the television signals of two stations in Chicago, Illinois, were hijacked, briefly sending a pirate broadcast of an unidentified person wearing a Max Headroom m ...
* Broadcast signal intrusion#Other incidents
Notes
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Captain Midnight
1986 crimes in the United States
1986 in American television
April 1986 events in the United States
HBO
Pirate television
Satellite television
Mass media-related controversies in the United States
Television controversies in the United States
Protests in the United States
Pricing controversies