Originally <a href='http://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/showthread.php?p=22758625'>posted</a> on 10/10/2014:

A friend of mine owned a bar. Took action also. But also owned a part of a new company his friend owned. His friend went from living house to house to a millionaire. He came across this oriental feller that was able to take apart one of the original boxes and recreate one. Big Glenn, as he was known, then threw the guy a large number for his work and started a pirate box company. Different areas needed different pirate boxes to decode the cable signal. Cops would come into the bar buying boxes and selling them while working different blocks and neighborhoods. They picked up 2 to 3 hundo a box over cost for themselves and were selling multiple boxes a day. This was in the 80's. They also advertised openly about their business nationally. Eventually Time/Warner went after anyone and everyone selling these boxes and that's all history.