News Corp Found Guilty Of Hacking Only A Single DISH Smart Card

from the that's-not-gonna-hurt dept

Tue, May 20th 2008 8:43pm — Mike Masnick

Last month we wrote about the strange case of DISH Networks accusing a News Corp subsidiary of hacking its smart cards and distributing them. This seemed really unlikely, as there was little incentive for the company to do so. The company did admit to reverse engineering DISH Networks technology (which is perfectly legal). It appears that a jury wasn't particularly convinced either. It did find the subsidiary guilty of hacking one single smart card, for which the company was fined $49.69 (ouch!), and then the court added another $1000 for "damages." So, technically it's a "victory" for DISH, but probably not to the level it was expecting.

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Filed Under: hacking, satellite tv
Companies: dish network, echostar, news corp

7 Comments

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somedude, 20 May 2008 @ 9:07pm

indeed, that kind of fine would hurt the average person stealing satellite tv, but does nothing to a huge corporation.

a win is a win though, if they won against an average person, it would be significant.
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Overcast, 20 May 2008 @ 9:19pm

And we, of course - should trust news corp to be on the straight up giving us news too! lol
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2008 @ 9:13am
  
  Re:
  wow, you realize that it was a subsidiary of news corp, right? which happens to be directv. its not like rupert murdoch was standing there giving the order.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 May 2008 @ 9:51pm

DMCA violation?
Couldn't this be considered a DMCA violation?
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- bobbknight, 21 May 2008 @ 12:52am
  
  Re: DMCA violation?
  Can not read can you?
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chris (profile), 21 May 2008 @ 6:33am

a "significant blow"
this is a big win in the war against piracy.
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- Anonymous Coward, 21 May 2008 @ 9:15am
  
  Re: a "significant blow"
  nah, alot of companies would consider $1000 worth it to hack the others secrets.
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