Dish, EchoStar, NagraStar awarded $51m in piracy case
January 13, 2010
A Florida federal court issued a $51 million judgment against Robert Ward, who posted software on the Internet that allowed individuals to illegally receive Dish Network programming using Free-To-Air receivers.
In the summary judgement decision, the court made two significant holdings that will strengthen the companies’ ability to pursue pirates in the future. The court held that the posting of pirate software constitutes a violation of the Federal Communications Act, and that statutory damages should be calculated based on how many individuals downloaded the pirate software.
“This is a significant victory in our effort to eradicate piracy of the Dish Network system. We thank the court for its well-reasoned analysis,” said Pascal Lenoir, CEO of NagraStar.