Originally Posted by supremus

No effect whatsoever, which is why I personally have no problem with people doing it. I find it far more offensive that people smoke, speed or drive drunk, effectively putting other people at risk.

The cable companies even benefit to an extent, considering that most dodgy box owners appear to have a minimum subscription, so it might not even be in their best interest to drive them to Sky instead, which seems like the better option, if you're going to pay full price anyway.

From a legal perspective, if you somehow managed to only access the same channels you have access to on your legal box, it could be argued that you weren't breaking the law, just your contract with the cable company, which states that you can't connect unauthorised equipment to their network.