District Court Rules in Favor of Dish Network in Freetech Signal Piracy Complaint

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DISH Network, co-owned equipment supplier EchoStar Technologies and conditional access supplier Nagrastar have scored a big victory in their battle against signal piracy, according to the companies.

DISH said Tuesday that a California U.S. District Court had entered a $97 million judgment against Freetech Inc., which had been marketing a device under the Coolsat brand to pirate DISH signals, said the satellite company. There was also a $9 million judgment against the company's officers and owners.

In addition, Freetech agreed to forfeit its liquid assets to DISH and shut down its worldwide business.

A call to Freetech had not been returned at press time.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.