Leading Satellite Piracy Forum Website Shut Down by Canadian Courts

[Stewart Vernon]

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. and TORONTO, Ont. – July 27, 2009 – DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), along with NagraStar L.L.C. and Bell ExpressVu Limited Partnership (operating as Bell TV), have won another victory over satellite signal piracy in the Canadian Courts.

On July 14, 2009, the Supreme Court of British Columbia granted judgment and issued a permanent injunction against Andrew Bate (a.k.a. Snags/Snaggletooth), owner/operator of the leading piracy "forum" website www.ROM10X.com and the piracy software website www.THEFILESHOP.com. While it was operational, the ROM10X website was known in piracy circles as the leading resource for piracy information and instructions.
DISH Network, NagraStar and Bell TV obtained and executed civil search orders and interim injunctions against Bate in January 2008, requiring him to shut down both websites. The injunction obtained on July 14, 2009, permanently prevents Bate from participating in any further satellite piracy activities or assisting any person in doing so, including through the provision of information or software on the Internet or otherwise.
Both DISH Network and Bell TV have recently upgraded their security systems in order to further minimize the potential for signal theft.
About DISH Network Corporation

DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH), the nation's HD leader, provides approximately 13.584 million satellite TV customers as of March 31, 2009 with the highest quality programming and technology at the best value, including the lowest all-digital price nationwide. Customers have access to hundreds of video and audio channels, the most HD channels, the most international channels, state-of-the-art interactive TV applications, and award-winning HD and DVR technology including 1080p Video on Demand and the ViP® 722 HD DVR, a CNET and PC Magazine "Editors' Choice." DISH Network is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 250 company. Visit www.dishnetwork.com.
About NagraStar

NagraStar L.L.C. is a joint-venture between EchoStar Corporation (SATS) and the Kudelski Group (KUD.VX). NagraStar supplies conditional access systems and security access devices and services to DISH Network and Bell TV. NagraStar also offers these partners direct support, maintenance, security field investigations, development and implementation of new solutions in response to the rapid evolution of the pay TV market.
About Bell

Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business with solutions to all their communications needs, including Bell Mobility and Solo Mobile wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell TV direct-to-home satellite television, Bell Home phone local and long distance, and IP-broadband and information and communications technology (ICT) services. Bell is proud to be a Premier National Partner and the exclusive Telecommunications Partner to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For information on Bell's products and services, please visit www.bell.ca. For corporate information on BCE, please visit www.bce.ca.

[alwayscool]

lol, 2 sites closed down, and 4 more popped up

[analogue]

Signal theft will always exist in some form. All they can do is mitigate how easy it is for someone to pull it off. I think the money wasted on silencing people with the knowledge would be much better spent in engineering better content protection. At least then you end up with new security code and intellectual property instead of a lawyer fees.

Either way my monthly bill goes up, so damn-it Charlie, spend that money on something worthwhile. Don't give some jerk-off lawyer a reason to buy another vacation home.

[david_jr]

It's like shoplifting in retail. It will always exist, but the retailers try to make it harder and prosecute those they catch.

[SayWhat?]

Originally Posted by analogue

Signal theft will always exist in some form. All they can do is mitigate how easy it is for someone to pull it off. I think the money wasted on silencing people with the knowledge would be much better spent in engineering better content protection. At least then you end up with new security code and intellectual property instead of a lawyer fees.

Either way my monthly bill goes up, so damn-it Charlie, spend that money on something worthwhile. Don't give some jerk-off lawyer a reason to buy another vacation home.

Yeah, but corporate America isn't exactly well known for common sense.

[newsman]

Directv has not been pirated (at least publicly) for a while, as far as I know. Are they using a different way to secure their signal?

[Shades228]

Originally Posted by newsman

Directv has not been pirated (at least publicly) for a while, as far as I know. Are they using a different way to secure their signal?

Technical answer is yes however both use the same way to safeguard their programming. The problem is that the company Echostar used to create their software for encryption leaked it out, opinions might vary on this, and so their software became public so it could be hacked.

The new version they are using was not leaked so is secure.

[tnsprin]

Originally Posted by Shades228

Technical answer is yes however both use the same way to safeguard their programming. The problem is that the company Echostar used to create their software for encryption leaked it out, opinions might vary on this, and so their software became public so it could be hacked.

The new version they are using was not leaked so is secure.

DirecTv's (and Dish's for that matter) have both been hacked, but fortunately the info is not widely available.

The big thing with the hack of the previous version of Nagastar was that a subsidiary of the same company that then owned DirecTv (NDS) and did encryption for DirecTv was accused of and lost a court case about hacking the cards. They got away with a very minor penalty. It was not leaked by Nagastar.