[yldstrk]

The dish company petitioned some idiot congreesman to pass same............

[eastforker]

Well the free flow of information should be available to anyyone wishing to pay for it don’t ya think?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

The dish company petitioned some idiot congreesman to pass same............

Dish companies made "generous" donations to politicians, including then President, William "BJ" Clinton.

[Calvin Locke]

And so did the cable company serving a given locale.

Can you say monopoly?

Business and aesthetic issues aside, years ago, the WSJ had an
article on ways Iranian citizens were disguising the big 6'
dishes(S-band?) at the time when the Ayatollah Khomani was
running things there.

Heck, even just a few years ago, similar stuff was going on in
Canada. Their precious CBC didn't liked the competition
from FNC, let alone the sat dish company losing business
from all the immigrants wanting channels from the "home
country", creating a bootleg satellite service market.