What we want to make sure is that there are no broken chains of ownership in the object's past that could signal theft or looting.
我们要确保的是,该物品过去的所有权链不存在任何可能表明盗窃或抢劫的迹象。
英语百科
Signal theft
Signal theft is a term used by pay television vendors to denounce various schemes used to obtain a signal for free, usually in connection with satellite or cable TV service. See: