Autoroll (also Key Autoroll) refers to TV-signal decryption software that automatically updates a video receiver's or DVR/receiver's
IDEA
In common usage and in philosophy, ideas are the results of thought. Also in philosophy, ideas can also be mental representational images of some object. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being ...
keys when the transmitting signal provider changes its block cipher algorithm.
Mention of ''autoroll'' software often figures in discussions of
free-to-air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the FTA Receiver, appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring ...
satellite TV receivers, for which it is a vital component. Some form of autoroll software is also a standard component in pay-TV providers'
smart cards
A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...
, which allow subscription TV services to guard against signal piracy. However, the term is most prevalently used by illegal TV pirates who attempt to use free-to-air hardware to view pay-only programming.
Often TV pirates will
hack
Hack may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* ''Hack'' (Unix video game), a 1984 roguelike video game
* ''.hack'' (video game series), a series of video games by the multimedia franchise ''.hack''
Music
* ''Hack'' (album), a 199 ...
a TV subscription-service provider's smart cards and reprogram them with an autoroll for all the subscription service's channels. Though providers like
DIRECTV
DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. It ...
and
DISH Network
DISH Network Corporation (DISH, an acronym for DIgital Sky Highway) is an American television provider and the owner of the direct-broadcast satellite provider Dish, commonly known as Dish Network, and the over-the-top IPTV service, Sling TV. A ...
have attempted to use weekly
ECMs, or "electronic countermeasures," to disrupt these illegal cards, many websites provide updated autoroll codes impervious to ECMs and offer this software for a monthly subscription fee less than the service provider's monthly fees.
Because subscription TV providers tend not to discuss the methods by which they encrypt and decrypt their signals, mention of "autoroll" software and "autorolling" on a website usually indicates that the website's owners are engaged in illegal TV piracy. Normally such sites claim they are not legally bound to reveal customers' identities; often enough too, such sites will claim their activities are completely legal.
Yet according to both U.S. and Canadian laws neither claim is true. In fact, the U.S.'s Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 compels equipment and coding providers to turn over their customers' records to subscription-service providers if the former is found to have engaged in or aided in stealing the latter's services.
See also
*
Television broadcasting
A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...
References
{{Portal bar, Television, Electronics, Science
Cryptographic protocols