APRIL 27th - Captain Midnight's Interruption



On this day in 1986, Captain Midnight interrupted the HBO broadcast of The Falcon and the Snowman to display a text message complaining about the station’s monthly fee of $12.95 to unscramble their recently scrambled signal preventing dish owners from intercepting it. Captain Midnight, who went by the given name of John R. MacDougall, did not appreciate this development, and instead of sitting around and just taking it like a schoolyard bully’s prey, he decided to demonstrate his disapproval by hijacking a satellite signal. Unfortunately for Captain Midnight, it is illegal to interrupt a government-licensed satellite broadcast. Like really illegal. Like $100,000-fine-and-10-years-in-prison illegal. It took a while, but eventually MacDougall was outed as Captain Midnight and charges were pressed. He pled down to one year probation and a $5,000 fine. Still, that’s a bit more than $13 a month. And there is the whole other side of things. HBO’s side. You know that they were tired of people stealing their service for free. And as they say, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Tell Oliver Twist that though. A free lunch is usually better than paying for one. Unless there’s a stipulation. Like your free lunch is always spam and mayo with a healthy side of beets. I’d go ahead and pay for my own lunch. Of course, when someone gets something for free and is suddenly asked to pay for it, issues often arise. I remember being pretty ticked when Napster had to go legit. But I get the reasoning. Not that I enjoyed listening to Lars from Metallica whine like a suckling pig suddenly cut off from milk, but he did have a point. And stealing is a different issue. So despite Captain Midnight’s badass nickname and how cool it must have been to hack into HBO, McGruff the Crime Dog could have told him it didn’t pay. Captain Midnight paid. And the viewers who really wanted to see those four minutes of The Falcon and The Snowman. They paid too.




This day has been Marked.

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