Card sharing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Card sharing is a method by which independent devices obtain simultaneous access to a pay television system protected by a conditional access scheme by sharing one legitimate subscription card. Typically, a single subscription card is attached to a personal computer or set top box connected to a local area network or the Internet and is configured so as to provide the keys on demand necessary to decrypt a television service to other set top boxes on the network.

As technology has made the cloning of smartcards in conditional access systems more complicated, card sharing has become an increasingly popular method of pirate decryption. Much of the development of card sharing hardware and software has taken place in Europe where national boundaries mean that home users are able to receive satellite television signals from many countries but are unable to legally subscribe to them due to licensing restrictions on broadcasters.