Enemies List: Rupert Mudoch // 2006-12-29
No one but the Devil knows every name on Rupert Murdoch's enemies list, and that's only because Satan takes dictation from Murdoch. Still, the News Corp. chairman has an impressive history of racking up nemeses on several continents. So far, he's either wrestled them to the carpet or held them at bay in one form or another. But even with regular infusions of industrial-strength nookie from a wife half his age, the man still has to watch the ramparts for skulking invaders. To that end, consider a short and by no means comprehensive list of Murdoch's opponents -- past, present, future, or some combination thereof.

Ted Turner - Ah, Murdoch's first big American kill. One could lay the blame for CNN creator Turner's ultimate biz demise more properly at the feet of Time Warner, but Turner vs. Murdoch was too classic a matchup not to believe in. The conservative, rapacious Australian tabloid mogul versus his bizarro-world counterpart -- an American redneck news hawk with liberal, philanthropic delusions of grandeur. These days, Turner can only seethe about Murdoch's lack of charity, when it's pretty certain that Turner would be more than willing to cross the street to kick him.

Dennis Potter - The grim reaper's touch has placed the caustic British TV dramatist beyond Murdoch's vengeful reach. That must be particularly galling, since in a 1994 interview shortly before his death, Potter famously noted that he had named his cancerous tumor after Murdoch.

John Malone - Perhaps the first serious challenge to the Murdoch family's dominance of News Corp. came via John Malone's Liberty Media. The American company had amassed a considerable though not yet controlling stake in News Corp., which Murdoch interpreted as a threat; Malone's complaints about Murdochian "empire building" at the expense of shareholder return also didn't help. The threat evaporated with a deal trading the News Corp. shares back as part of an $11 billion asset swap, including the transfer of a controlling interest in DirecTV over to Liberty. Malone and Murdoch are talking sweetly of each other and the deal now, but the Malones are probably off the Christmas card list for a year or two, at least.

Sir Richard Branson - After his NTL cable company lost its bid for commercial broadcaster ITV to Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting, Branson called Murdoch a "threat to democracy" and agitated for a government breakup of News Corp. -- or to put it in terms Murdoch would understand, a "regime change." Branson is yet another flavor of billionaire wackjob in his own right, and his knighthood can't make the famously establishment-hating Murdoch love him any more.

Silvio Berlusconi - Murdoch has been tangling with Italian media boss and former prime minister Berlusconi for quite some time, and the former's dogged persistence has brought growing penetration of Italian media. Add that to Berlusconi political downswing and his propensity to collapse on camera, and Ruperto looks buonissimo by comparison.

Kerry Stokes - A not-so-miniature Murdoch in the making, Stokes controls Australia's Seven Network, which has already tangled with News Corp. over a failed channel meant to compete with Murdoch's Ozzie properties. Stokes and Seven are on the rise now though, after opting into a AU$4 billion joint venture deal that frees up lots of cash for acquisitions and new launches.

George Michael - Called Murdoch "the devil" and a "media dictator." Michael claims Murdoch is out to get him, but the pop singer may launch a vicious retaliatory strike at any time.

Judith Regan - More on the shit list than the enemies list, due to the whole OJ book thing. But it's very easy to get promoted to enemy status, by way of something relatively innocuous, like say, a lawsuit. Developing.

Liberty media took over DirecTv // 2006-12-22
10:19 a.m. December 22, 2006

NEW YORK – Media barons Rupert Murdoch and John Malone ended a two-year battle Friday with Liberty Media agreeing to swap an $11 billion stake in News Corp. for control of satellite TV provider DirecTV and other assets.

The deal will secure Murdoch's grip on News Corp., the global media empire he founded from a single newspaper in Australia. It also will mark the return of Malone's Liberty Media as a major player in U.S. television programming and distribution.

“During 2006 we converted many passive investments into strategic operating businesses, but this transaction is the largest and most important,” Liberty Media Chief Executive Greg Maffei said in a statement.

“DirecTV and the regional sports networks represent a critical step in our efforts to transform Liberty Media into a well-positioned, focused operating company,” he said.

News Corp., owner of the 20th Century Fox movie studios and MySpace, one of the fastest-growing Web sites, said it will exchange its 38.4 percent stake in DirecTV Group Inc., $550 million in cash, and three regional sports networks for Liberty Media's 16.3 percent stake in News Corp.

The swap, which the companies expect to close in the second half of 2007, amounts to an $11 billion stock buyback for News Corp., considered one of the biggest in corporate history, UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said.

“It's a great deal for News Corp and Liberty given it's a tax efficient resolution of the ownership structure,” he said.

The deal ends two years of negotiations between long-time associates and rivals Murdoch and Malone, who once helped rescue the News Corp. chief from near bankruptcy.

Malone had quietly snapped up close to a 20 percent voting stake in News Corp. in 2004, a move that spooked Murdoch, who enacted an emergency poison pill provision to block a potential hostile takeover within days of Liberty Media's disclosure.

The Friday deal should remove the threat of Malone from News Corp., but in giving up the top U.S. satellite TV operator, Murdoch also loses a hard-won position atop the U.S. media distribution business. His $58 billion company controls newspapers and satellite TV holdings in Italy, the United Kingdom and Asia.

News Corp.'s class A shares fell 3 cents, or 0.14 percent, to $21.55 in New York Stock Exchange trading, following the announcement of the agreement.

Liberty Media Capital shares rose $3.98, or 4.25 percent, to $96.62 on the Nasdaq. The company has said control of DirecTV would give it more power when negotiating distribution for the QVC shopping channel and Starz Entertainment network.

DTV FUTURE

Malone exited the distribution business in the late 1990s after selling cable company TeleCommunications Inc. to AT&T . This deal marks his return as a top U.S. distributor of video and Internet services, although the financial attraction of the tax-free swap was the primary motivation, analysts say.

As chief executive of TCI, Malone was a feared and revered leader of U.S. media. Former U.S. Senator and former Vice President Al Gore famously dubbed dim “Darth Vader,” the heavy-breathing villain in “Star Wars.”

Malone had acquired equity stakes in companies that produce programs carried by his system as a condition to guarantee carriage of the networks on TCI, which helped him lock up big stakes in companies such as News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. Liberty Media is the second-largest holder of Time Warner shares with a 4 percent stake as of Jan. 31, 2006.

The cable industry pioneer, who has sought to replicate TCI's cable TV success globally through his control of Liberty Global Inc., has been eager to play a role in the U.S. satellite TV business in the past.

Malone's TCI once held a stake in Primestar Partners, co-owned by big cable operators and had considered bidding against Murdoch to control DirecTV in 2003.

The transaction values DirecTV shares at about $21.50, a 14 percent discount to Thursday's closing price of $25 on the New York Stock Exchange. But the deal terms are in line with average trading prices over the past six months, Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said in a research note.

DirecTV shares have risen about 30 percent since September when reports about the deal were first published. The stock was down 16 cents, or 0.64 percent, at $24.84 on Friday.

The swap has been approved by the boards of News Corp. and Liberty Media, and is expected to close in the second half of 2007. Final approval is subject to a regulatory review and approval from News Corp.'s B-class shareholders.

DirecTV CEO Chase Carey, a former News Corp. executive, will remain at the satellite TV service.

News Corp. says the deal will immediately boost its earnings per share.

Nagravision ECM // 2006-12-13
It looks like these guys woke up from deep sleep, they are hitting modified plastics and some modified FTA receivers.... it is about time they did something to secure their jobs.

On an other note a friend of mine called me yesterday all excited about his early Xmas present, he got a newly released FTA box called NFusion.
I went over and seen it last night, it has lots of bells and whistles including Ethernet port (wired or wireless option) to run it as IK option besides running it as cardless FTA, told him to add me to his speed dial for the performance of the receiver instead of telling me all the options he had with the receiver.

Devolper of signal theft settles with Direc Tv // 2006-12-08
EL SEGUNDO, Calif.-(Business Wire)-December 7, 2006 - A Chicago man, who was accused of developing and distributing software designed to steal DIRECTV(R) programming, has agreed to a $1 million settlement of a lawsuit filed against him in federal court by DIRECTV, Inc., and NDS Americas, Inc., the creator of security features used to protect DIRECTV's broadcasts from unauthorized interception.

Robert K. Lazzara consented to the entry of a judgment against him in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and agreed to a permanent injunction barring him from further satellite piracy.

The lawsuit claimed that Lazzara, using the alias "rob13572468," developed software designed and intended to facilitate the unauthorized reception of DIRECTV's satellite television programming, and distributed the software through multiple Internet sites dedicated to satellite television piracy.

Lazzara's software "scripts" were alleged to have enabled users to illegally "hack" DIRECTV's older generation access cards (known as Period 3 access cards) and obtain DIRECTV's programming without payment. Since the development of the new Period 4 access card technology nearly five years ago, DIRECTV's signal security system has not been compromised.

"The Lazzara settlement underscores the serious consequences of engaging in satellite piracy," said Dan Fawcett, DIRECTV's executive vice president for Business and Legal Affairs. "Though our access cards have been secure for the past several years, we will continue to aggressively pursue - both through civil and criminal courts - any individual who has been involved in satellite piracy or fraud against DIRECTV."

The lawsuit alleged that Lazzara's conduct violated certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Federal Communications Act, and state law, which make it illegal to circumvent technological security measures, and to intercept or assist others in intercepting DIRECTV's encrypted satellite signals without authorization or payment to DIRECTV.

About DIRECTV, Inc.

DIRECTV, Inc., the nation's leading satellite television service provider, presents the finest television experience available to more than 15.6 million customers through exclusive content, industry-leading customer service (which has surpassed cable for six years running) and superior technologies. Each day, DIRECTV subscribers enjoy over 250 channels of 100% digital picture and sound; exclusive programming and the most comprehensive collection of sports programming available anywhere including NFL SUNDAY TICKET(TM), and MLB EXTRA INNINGS(TM). DIRECTV (NYSE:DTV) also leads the digital television technology revolution with exclusives such as NFL SUNDAY TICKET SuperFan(TM), US Open Interactive and YES Network Interactive and will soon have the capacity to offer over 150 channels in HD. DIRECTV is approximately 39 percent owned by News Corporation. For the most up-to-date information on the Company, please visit directv.com.

Direc TV, News Corp deal close // 2006-12-07
Dec 7, 2006
News Corp. could finalise a deal "as early as next week" to swap its controlling interest in DirecTV Group Inc. and other assets for Liberty Media's $11 billion ($NZ15.9b) stake in News Corp., a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp., and Liberty Media Chairman John Malone reached a private agreement this week, the source said.

News Corp. would trade its 38.6% controlling interest in the top US satellite television provider and three regional sports networks. News Corp. has also agreed to pay $550 million ($NZ798m) in cash, the source said, confirming a report in the New York Times.

The deal, if completed, secures Murdoch's control over the global media empire he has built from a single newspaper in Adelaide, Australia. Murdoch, 75, currently controls about 30% of News Corp.'s voting shares.

For Malone, 65, whose three-decade rein atop the cable television industry ended with the divestiture of his TeleCommunications Inc. in the late 1990s, the deal signals a return to the US media big leagues.

News Corp. declined comment. A Liberty Media spokesman was not immediately reachable.

"For News Corp. this a significant positive as they accomplish a tax-free exit from an asset that contributed no free cash flow and whose long-term prospects are eroding rapidly," said Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield.

"At the same time (News Corp. could) buy back $11 billion of stock with almost no impact on their leverage leaving significant capacity for future open market share repurchases," he added.

The agreement would end two years of on-and-off negotiations that pitted the once-close associates against each other. Liberty Media quietly boosted its stake in News Corp. in 2004, which made Malone's company the second-largest shareholder, a move that spooked Murdoch.

Fearing a hostile takeover, Murdoch enacted an emergency poison pill to make such aggressions prohibitively costly.

Since then, the two have bickered over the most tax-efficient transaction to return those shares back to News Corp. The source said Liberty is expected to save about $2 billion in capital gains and News Corp. will save over $1 billion.
Source: Reuters


Canadian viewers want American TV // 2006-11-30
By Mark Heinzl, The Wall Street Journal

You can't get the Tennis Channel in Canada. Almost as distressing, you can't get HBO, MTV, ESPN, Showtime, Nickelodeon and a number of other popular U.S. channels.

More precisely, you can get these channels here, but you have to hook up with one of the many distributors who quietly sell equipment that allows the pirated reception of a U.S. satellite-television service, namely Dish Network, run by EchoStar Communications. Either that or you have to pay your bill using a U.S. address, to make the satellite-television company think you are in the U.S. Both are illegal.

Scamming the satellite-television company, of course, is a problem in the U.S. and other countries. But it seems epidemic north of the border. Estimates of the number of Canadian homes with unauthorized satellite service go as high as 700,000 or more -- a lot for a country of 33 million.

Why all the shenanigans to watch television? A lot of popular U.S. content is carried on Canadian television systems and channels, but U.S. satellite services provide more choice and more foreign-language programming. In recent years, Bell Canada's ExpressVu satellite-television service, chockablock with Canadian content (and plenty of pornography), also has been pirated.

Canadian laws prevent U.S. satellite services and various U.S. channels from operating in Canada to protect the local industry. But those laws haven't stopped U.S. signals from spilling over the border, or underground tech whizzes from finding ways to crack scrambled signals. (Since 2004, DirecTV Group has kept its system foolproof.)

This cat-and-mouse game has been going on for years. Many Canadians are hoping for a showdown. Quebec resident Jacques D'Argy, charged in 1998 with selling a DirecTV satellite system, has been battling the case ever since, arguing that the country's constitution gives citizens the right to watch foreign television. "I'd say there's a fair shot" that the Supreme Court will hear the controversial case, says technology lawyer Sunny Handa of Montreal.

Meanwhile, these are dangerous times for satellite pirates. EchoStar and other satellite-television providers, along with Canadian law-enforcement officials, have stepped up their crackdown on businesses and individuals supplying satellite gear. In September, EchoStar, Bell ExpressVu and their signal-security partner NagraStar, arranged police-assisted raids of stores and homes across southern Ontario, confiscated thousands of piracy devices and shut down 17 related Web sites. The same month, five Quebec men were charged with fraud and theft of satellite signals after law-enforcement officials seized the equivalent of about $290,000 worth of piracy equipment and traced $1.15 million of related revenue. The police warned illegal satellite viewers in a news release not to participate in "this social evil."

Ripping off a satellite signal is wrong. But is it evil to allow legitimate competition? It would have been nice to watch Roger Federer take out Fernando Gonzalez live at the Masters Series Madrid final one recent Sunday morning on the Tennis Channel. The local sports channel showed a midnight replay. I set up the recorder and then tried to avoid learning the outcome before watching. An inadvertent look at a paper ruined the surprise.

In this age of global media and competition, what purpose is served by laws that ban outright U.S. satellite television and many popular U.S. channels from Canada's airwaves?

"It's the government telling us that we are prohibited access to expression that comes from a source outside of the country," says Ian Angus, a lawyer who has long represented various satellite distributors in Canada. Canada's broadcast industry has "a history of protectionism bred into the culture," he says.

Defenders of the Canadian restrictions say they are needed to ensure the country sustains a viable domestic market for homegrown writers and actors. The laws also help keep the modest-size Canadian broadcasting industry financially healthy, says ExpressVu President Gary Smith. Whether viewers of U.S. satellite are paying for the service or not, "they all represent leakage of value from the Canadian broadcasting industry," he says.

Yet, opponents of the bans say the U.S. and Canada have free trade in everything from oil to orange juice, and Canada has prospered, so why not television? They would prefer taxing foreign services, or bundling local and foreign channels.

Outside of Vancouver, Richard Rex's Can-Am Satellites store sells DirecTV and Dish Network systems to anybody who wants one. Even though he lost a court battle against ExpressVu several years ago, nobody has shut him down. He thinks the broadcast industry doesn't want him to test the constitutionality of laws that ban foreign television signals. An ExpressVu spokeswoman declined to comment specifically on the case against Mr. Rex.

The top court, says Mr. Handa, will have to address this "delicate balance" between the country's cultural protections and its citizens' freedom of expression.

Viewsat and Sonic view are out with fix // 2006-11-26
It is like a cat and mouse game, FTAs including Viewsat and SonicView released their fixes today and I imagine you will see few more by tomorrow, plastic guys got the fix also.

Dishnetwork is winning the battle // 2006-11-24
It looks like Dishnetwork got upperhand on the test devices by rotating the key change methods, majority of the test devices including plastic, FTAs and others are not auto rolling keys.

Dish Raids in Canada // 2006-11-21
By Linda Moss 11/20/2006 6:43:00 PM

EchoStar Communications, along with security partner NagraStar and Bell ExpressVu, jointly conducted civil search and seizure raids throughout Ontario in a hunt for pirated satellite services and devices, officials said Monday.

Multiple businesses and residences were simultaneously searched. During the search, the companies seized a number of unauthorized devices used to circumvent the security of encrypted satellite signals, as well as sales and customer records and other documents.

EchoStar said the raids took place Sept. 7.

The following were served with the seizure orders: tomico-satellites.com, tomicoind.com, Tomico Industries, tomicoreviews.com, electronics-elite.com, sales-dynamics-firm.com, dsswholesaledirect.com, EZDish.com, EZ123DISH.com, EZsatellite.tv, greendish.com, scardz.com, Steve Rodgers, Troy Megill, Sarkar Azmi and Wes Hadley.

EchoStar and its partners said they will continue to fight those who try to circumvent the security system by illegally intercepting satellite signals being provided to legitimate customers.

Viewsat and few others keyroll fix out // 2006-11-20
Viewsat guys released the fix today, along with SonicView and Captive guys, in next few days rest of the FTAs should have it also, same story;)

Dish keyroll method change // 2006-11-19
It looks like dishnet changed the method of the key change which turned all the test cards, FTA receivers and any other methods of free tvs down.


News Corp set to lose DirecTv // 2006-11-17
NEWS CORPORATION, the parent company of The Times, is hoping to reach a separation agreement with Liberty Media, its second-largest shareholder, by the end of the year.

Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive, told shareholders in Adelaide yesterday that an agreement with Liberty looked “very likely”. Any deal is likely to involve News Corp releasing its 37 per cent stake in the American satellite operator DirecTV.

An agreement with Liberty would also involve News Corp dropping its controversial poison pill defence against takeover. Mr Murdoch said that “if we settle the Liberty situation . . . we will probably just drop” the special protection.

In the expected deal Liberty would contribute its 19 per cent voting shareholding in News Corp into a joint venture, which would also include the DirecTV stake. That venture subsequently would be dissolved, with both sides swapping the assets.

Meanwhile, Mr Murdoch would be left in firm control of the media giant’s voting stock. His existing stake is at 31 per cent, and he makes no secret of the fact that retaining family control of the business is important to him.

News Corp’s likely retreat from DirecTV is surprising, after the battle it fought with EchoStar to buy the largest satellite broadcaster in the United States. However, it is concerned about the expense of providing DirecTV’s mainly rural customers with a broadband link to supply interactive services.

Mr Murdoch was speaking at a special shareholder meeting in the city where News Corp was founded. Although the company moved its listing to the United States, he promised investors he would return annually to update in person.

He hinted that News Corp was willing to sell four or five American television stations and indicated that newspaper advertising in Britain may improve slightly in the current financial year. He added that the group’s newspapers worldwide would “do as well as last year, and may look even better in England”. News Corp owns The Sun, The Sunday Times and the News of the World, as well as The Times in Britain.

Last week, News Corp unveiled profits of $843 million (£446 million) in the quarter to September.

Satellite piracy charges against X-deputies // 2006-11-14
Three former Robeson County deputies have been charged with pirating satellite TV service.

The charges were added to a federal indictment unsealed in June that accuses C.T. Strickland, Roger Taylor and Steven Lovin of stealing drug money, arson, beating up suspected drug dealers and distributing cocaine and marijuana from 1996 to 2004.

The indictment is part of a four-year investigation called Operation Tarnished Badge. The investigation, by state and federal lawmen, has led to charges against 11 deputies and two Lumberton police officers. Six of the 11 deputies have pleaded guilty.

A December trial date for Strickland, Taylor and Lovin has been postponed.

The additional charges in the 12-count indictment say the three former deputies conspired with others to possess modified telecommunications equipment. That equipment was used to illegally program satellite TV cards to receive unauthorized service. Counterfeit cards also were made and sold to people, the indictment says.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey and District Attorney Johnson Britt could not be reached for comment. It is not known whether other deputies will be charged with satellite TV piracy.

Generally, thieves steal satellite TV services by altering the commands of a programmable card inside each subscriber’s control box. The card allows the programmer to block channels, such as pay-per-view sports and movies, that the subscriber does not want to pay for.

Pirates alter or clone the cards to allow access to all of a provider’s channels, said Jimmy Schaeffler, chief executive of The Carmel Group, a telecommunications consulting company in California.

The federal government is cracking down on the pirates, who cause legal subscribers to pay more for services, Schaeffler said.

“These are serious federal agents who go after this stuff,” he said. The Robeson County deputies “picked the wrong thing to do at the wrong time, if they did it.”

Two years ago, Gerald Strickland, a close relative of C.T. Strickland, was sentenced to a year in prison and ordered to pay $49,380 in restitution to DirecTV for making and selling counterfeit satellite cards from his business, Prospect Satellite Sales and Services. After finishing his sentence, Gerald Strickland was allowed to return to work at the Robeson County Health Department.

The U.S. Secret Service investigated Gerald Strickland’s case. A Secret Service agent at the Wilmington office could not be reached for comment.

Schaeffler said piracy of satellite television cost DirecTV hundreds of millions of dollars annually before the nation’s largest provider figured out a way to stop the thefts in 2004. EchoStar, which owns the No. 2 provider, Dish Network, still has widespread problems with piracy, Schaeffler said.

Schaeffler said he finds it troubling that people sworn to uphold the law are accused of stealing satellite TV programming.

“It’s a shame when those who are in control of the system take advantage of it,” he said. “One could argue that those kinds of people should pay the highest price because they are in a position to get away with it for a long, long time, maybe forever.”

Hacking Series 2 DirecTiVo // 2006-11-08
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews

The Zipper is a script that installs modified software on a Series 2 DirecTiVo (back when DirecTV and TiVo had a partnership). The script automagically enables the USB ports on the back of your TiVo which opens the door for networking your TiVo allowing you to transfer shows between TiVos, stream music and photos from your PC as well as controlling your TiVo over a web page. Basically, all the good hacks (MRV and HMO) for these machines are included in the Zipper.

While hacking your DirecTiVo is not new, the process of hacking was left up to serious geeks. The “Zipper” method and an in-depth how-to guide should bring hacking DirecTiVo to the geek masses.

The “Zipper” is one of several methods that can be used to enable certain networking features, such as telnet, FTP, MultiRoom Viewing (MRV), and Home Media Option (HMO), with a Series 2 DirecTiVo.

So, my question always has been… why did DirecTV disable several TiVo functions such as MultiRoom Viewing (MRV) and Home Media Option (HMO)?
Source: DVR Playground.

Incredible Electronics to pay millions // 2006-11-02
Toronto, ON, October 30, 2006: The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ordered Canadian company Incredible Electronics Inc. to pay at least $2.2 million to cover legal fees stemming from a recent legal battle relating to grey and black market satellite distribution.

Incredible Electronics, along with 17 other companies alleged to be participating in “grey market” activity, submitted an application in an attempt to shut down Canadian legislation that prohibits consumers from receiving U.S. satellite signals. The basis of its argument had been the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ “freedom of expression” clause.

However, after Bell ExpressVu submitted evidence that two of the companies (including Incredible Electronics) were involved in “black market” and not just grey market activities, Incredible Electronics withdrew from the application. Incredible’s request was later abandoned, and its merits never made it to court.

The court documents describe the “black market” as a clearly illegal activity whereby a Canadian viewer purchases decryption equipment from a supplier that allows the interception of a U.S. broadcaster’s DTH signal without the viewer having to pay for it. In such a case, the only party compensated is the supplier of the encryption equipment.

“Grey market” activity, on the other hand, provides compensation to the U.S. service provider. Typically, the supplier sets up a U.S. mailing address for the customer, making him appear to be a U.S. resident even though he/she resides in Canada. The U.S. service provider may be unaware of the deception, and assume the submitted address is legitimate. The legality of “grey market” remains controversial: but the illegality of the “black market” is clear.

The decision was actually made in May of this year, but has only recently been made public. The $2.2 million Incredible Electronics has been ruled responsible to pay cover legal fees incurred by the Attorney General of Canada and Bell ExpressVu. Bell Expressvu told Marketnews that it is still pursuing the funds owed.

“We can't provide specific comment except to say that Bell ExpressVu is aggressively litigating these Charter issues to protect the integrity of the Canadian satellite business, the Canadian broadcast industry generally and all its associated jobs,” said Pat Button, Vice President of Marketing at Bell ExpressVu. “Pirate activity is illegal, plain and simple. It's an industry wide issue, and when we see cases of this happening, we take it very seriously and will act accordingly. Our legitimate retail partners deserve our support in this regard, and that is why we will aggressively respond to illegal channels.”


Directv and 4 others fined. // 2006-10-27
Four businesses - including the nation's largest provider of satellite TV services - will pay a total of $100,000 for calling Missourians on the state's No Call list, Attorney General Jay Nixon announced.

St. Louis, Mo. - infoZine - Nixon took action after consumers on the list complained to his office that the businesses made telemarketing calls to them in violation of the No Call law.

DIRECTV Inc. of El Segundo, Calif., will pay $50,000 - the most by any of the four businesses - to the state for making calls marketing satellite dish equipment and services to Missourians on the No Call list. DirecTV is the largest provider of direct broadcast satellite services in the country.

"Five years into the Missouri No Call law, my office remains committed to the aggressive pursuit of those businesses that still violate it," Nixon said. "Thanks to our track record of tough enforcement of the law and collecting more than $1.8 million from telemarketers, more than 2.3 million Missouri families need not worry about annoying telemarketing calls."

In addition to DirecTV, today's announcement includes action against:
• Blue Sky Network Corp. of Reno, Nev., which will pay $30,000 for making calls to consumers, surveying their interests in real estate;
• Trio Mortgage of St. Louis, which will pay $5,000 for making calls marketing mortgage loans and related services to consumers; and
• The Debt School of Weston, Fla., which will pay $15,000 for making calls marketing debt counseling services to consumers.


In addition to the penalties, the orders from the St. Louis City Circuit Court require each business to obtain current copies of the No Call list and comply with the law in the future. Since the No Call law went into effect on July 1, 2001, Nixon's office has collected $1,813,500 in penalties from businesses who violated the law.

More than 2.3 million residential phone numbers are currently registered on the No Call list maintained by the Attorney General's Office.

"The good news for those Missourians not yet on the list is that it's never too late to place your phone number on the No Call list," Nixon said. "The process to sign up is quick, easy and free."

Missourians who do not have their home phone numbers on the No Call list may register those numbers at any time at not cost. They may register online at www.ago.mo.gov or by calling toll-free 1-866-NOCALL1 (1-866-662-2551).

The No Call list is updated quarterly and made available for telemarketers to purchase. The deadline for those not yet on the list to sign up and be covered under the Jan. 1 update is Nov. 1, Nixon said.


Satellite pirate surrenders // 2006-10-19
A manufacturer of piracy devices agreed to pay $500,000 in damages to EchoStar Communications, DirecTV and two other companies to settle a civil lawsuit, officials said Thursday.

The settlement was the end result of a lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Steve Souphanthong, who does business as B-Tech Distribution, and several of his relatives and associates.

The plaintiffs -- which also included NagraStar and Bell ExpressVu -- alleged that Souphanthong was one of the largest manufacturers of piracy devices in North America, and that it was engaged in creating, manufacturing, selling, trafficking in and distributing piracy devices and piracy software.

Those devices included ROM X cards and ISO programmers for use against EchoStar and Bell ExpressVu, as well as the Mikobu, Apollo 745 and Avenger line of products for use against DirecTV.

Souphanthong, his relatives and associates also operated several well-known piracy Web sites including dssstars.com, dssstyle.com, dssorbit.com, dssavenger.com, huaccess.com, mikobux.org and hugadgets.com.Searches of premises belonging to Souphanthong and his relatives in 2003 seized vast quantities of piracy devices, business records and computer files.

Satellite piracy bust in Quebec // 2006-10-11
CTV.ca News Staff

Updated: Wed. Oct. 11 2006 1:06 PM ET

Five people have been arrested in the Laurentian Region of Quebec, accused of running a satellite television piracy operation that had 15,000 customers.

They stand accused of selling technology that allows clients to steal satellite signals.

The RCMP seized about $330,000 worth of equipment, breaking up a ring that brought in an estimated $1.37 million in the past 22 months.

The equipment was sold online in both Canada and the U.S. through a company called La Boite Principale, located in Piedmont.

"They have a list of about 15,000 customers whose name came through, and the police say that they could technically be charged," said CTV Montreal's Stephane Giroux.

"Right now they're still investigating to see what they'll do with them. It's 15,000 people who right now have this illegal equipment and who might be very nervous."

Sgt. Claude Piedalue of the RCMP dismissed the suggestion that satellite piracy is a victimless crime.

"I don't agree with this," Piedalue said.

"The broadcasters are victims, they lose revenue because of this. The artists lose revenue from their copyright, and the two levels of government lose tax revenues and, of course, the general public. If the government is touched by that type of crime, the general public will suffer as well."

Police say the theft of satellite signals accounts for $100 million in lost revenue for the Canadian economy each year.

The investigation was a joint initiative between the RMCP, Canada Post and Industry Canada.

Investigators launched the probe after Canada Post investigators identified a large number of suspicious transactions for the maximum allowed money order amount of $999.99.

They believe that between $10,000 and $15,000 was sent weekly to the accused through such money orders.

The "cyberundercover" investigation later revealed the money orders were being used to pay for cards used to pirate satellite signals.

Purchases made online by RCMP and Industry Canada investigators showed that the various illegal electronic components were sold for $25 to $170 a piece.

The following people are charged:

Martin Gauthier, 38, of Saint-Sauveur
Allan Bruce MacDowell, 46, of Saint-Sauveur
Pierre Leboeuf, 41, of Bois-des-Filion
Dimas Manuel Veiga, 41, of Saint-Sauveur
Richard Belair, 51, Sainte-Adele

FTA receiver fix // 2006-10-06
Viewsat came out with the key fix problem.... rest of the usual gang should be right behind them with the fix

Oct8 Captivework, Sonicview, skyview, starcruiser etc.... got their fixes.

Oct10 Coolsat5000 got the fix also, this new keyroll morphing is interesting, FTAs got their fixes but majority of the plastic guys are not rolling.

Keyroll morphing // 2006-10-04
Both BEV and Dish have started what is called morphing the keys. Long story short this will stop autoroll on FTA and most (if not all) blockers for plastic using current auto keyroll method.

DTV still persuing HU hackers // 2006-10-02
Brian Matthew Dorsett, 27, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, entered a plea of guilty in federal court to charges that he conspired with others to sell and distribute devices primarily of assistance in the unauthorized decryption of DirecTV satellite television programming.

Dorsett faces up to five years imprisonment, restitution of up to $800,000, and a period of supervised release of up to three years following his imprisonment. Dorsett is presently serving a 30-month federal sentence for his conviction in the Southern District of Florida for conspiracy to commit access device fraud in a case involving the sale of devices used in the unauthorized decryption of DirecTV Latin America satellite television programming.

According to testimony at the guilty plea hearing, in about November of 2000, Dorsett developed a means of illicitly modifying DirecTV "HU cards" using a device that came to be known as an "HU loader." In about November and December of 2000, Dorsett and Donald R. Nance II began to illicitly modify "HU cards" to enable viewing of all DirecTV channels without payment of the required subscription fees or pay-per-view fees to DirecTV and charged approximately $200 for each "HU card" thus modified.

In about December of 2000, Dorsett and Nance agreed to sell "HU loaders" and "daughter boards" through another man named Billy Joe Osborne. An associate of Osborne named Dale Kenneth Kubin arranged to sell approximately 100 "HU loaders" to an individual from Nashville, Tennessee for approximately $2,500 each. On or about January 19, 2001, Osborne, Kubin and another man named Timothy Nemeth met with the individual from Nashville in a hotel room at a Sheraton Hotel near the airport in Detroit, Michigan to exchange approximately 50 "HU loader daughter boards" for approximately $125,000 in cash. The cash then was delivered to Nance.

On March 9, 2001 Nemeth flew to Nashville, Tennessee from Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois and delivered to the individual from Nashville a 3.5 " floppy disk that contained the HU loader source code for approximately $125,000.

The individual from Nashville grossed approximately $800,000 from the sale of "HU loaders" to others.

Nance, Osborne, and Kubin previously have pled guilty for their role in this conspiracy and are awaiting sentencing. Dorsett’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 18, 2006.

This investigation of this case was conducted by U.S. Customs Service and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Byron Jones prosecuted the case for the United States.

FTAs back in action // 2006-10-01
It looks like almost all of the FTAs got their fixes except Coolsat4000 (they are pushing/suggesting their customers to upgrade to 5000 or 6000 receivers.... dont know why some one would fall in that trap, sensible people would invest their money in the product who provide support to all of their models)

Oct3/06 Coolsat 4000 file is released.

More fixes in // 2006-09-25
New fixes include buzz, captivework, dvb, extremview, pansat and drambox....

(Sept27/06)fortec, ariza, coolsat6000 joined the cardless fix club also.
(Sept28/06) coolsat5000 cardless fix

Viewsat was the first one to come out and then they got Sonicview going few hours later.
Above are all the cardless fixes.... 102 based fixes were out a day after the revision change.

Viewsat fix today // 2006-09-22
I received a confirmation that viewsat released their fix few hours ago.
I am sure they will have their off shoot Buzz and Sonicview up shortly.

Sonicview file was released few hours later.

Huge piracy raid in Canada // 2006-09-19
By Linda Moss, STAFF
(Multichannel News) _ In one of the largest civil raids in the company's history, EchoStar Communications confiscated thousands of satellite-signal-privacy devices in several locations throughout Ontario, Canada, officials said Tuesday.

The direct-broadcast satellite provider -- in conjunction with security partner NagraStar and Bell ExpressVu -- conducted the raids and is continuing to work with law-enforcement officials to combat those who illegally intercept and descramble satellite services.

The raids took place July 25 and 26, although EchoStar did not disclose them until its announcement Tuesday.

Thousands of satellite-piracy devices, such as receiver boxes and smart cards, were confiscated, along with records of customer activity, including purchase orders for piracy equipment and requests for technical assistance with pirated equipment. The searches also produced a number of significant leads for similar future actions.

As part of the piracy crackdown, 17 Web sites that were allegedly selling illegal equipment or offering technical advice on stealing signals have been disabled: www.spacetwister.com, www.angelpride.com, www.devilscrypt.com, www.dssword.com, www.ftafix.com, www.dsstoybox.com, www.extremen2.com, www.globalpayment.com, www.disharm.com, www.internationalhosting.info, www.outerlimitsatellitesupplies.com, www.satgroup.ca, www.overseashostingonline.com, www.dishtoybox.com, www.nagra2hack.com, www.dsswholesale.com and www.armsecuritysolutions.com.

The raids were simultaneously conducted at storefronts and residences in Niagara Falls, Amhurstburg, Brampton, Innisfil, Mississauga and Markham, Ontario, according to EchoStar.

The individuals raided were: Rudy Torroni, Mena Torroni, Jeremy Corkery, Bill Taskas, Bill Ilkov, Nicholas Karadza, Michael Pomponio and Mathew Hallewick, as well as several of the individuals' family members, the satellite company said in a press release.

Businesses raided were: Blue Screen Computer Services, DSSTOYBOX, DISHTOYBOX, Skylink Electronics, HLV Marketing and CanadianDSS.

NagraStar is a joint venture between EchoStar and Kudelski Group. It supplies conditional-access systems and security-access devices and services to EchoStar's Dish Network and its affiliated companies, such as Bell ExpressVu.

Copyright The Associated Press 2006. All Rights Reserved

The game has begun // 2006-09-18
Reports are coming in that BEV channels on all the FTA (Free To Air) receivers are getting black screen on PPVs and Adults starting today.
Dishnet is starting this by decrypting the international channels on FTA (Free To Air) receivers.... I am sure it will spread to rest of the channels soon. (it has spread, all FTAs are down, only working solutions are 102 dependent devices)

I was informed that one of the plastic group called codespace released their fix on Sept 13th, that was the time when the new stream change came in effect.

Murdoch considering selling Directv // 2006-09-17
In a splattering blow to the satellite biz, Rupert Murdoch supposedly dubbed DirecTV a "turd bird" and is considering selling News Corp.'s controlling stake to Liberty Media.
FCC chairman Kevin Martin on Thursday shot down another possible outcome for the satcaster. He indicated regulators still would be reluctant to greenlight a merger between DirecTV and smaller rival EchoStar.

News Corp. owns 38% of DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite provider. But Murdoch's been down on the business lately. Cablers are successfully rolling out a triple play of video, Internet and telephone -- service that satcasters can't easily match.

DirecTV stock fell 3.23% Thursday to close at $19.19 after a Morgan Stanley analyst downgraded the shares.

A person close to the conglom said a DirecTV sale is being discussed as one of several possible ways to unwind Liberty's large stake in News Corp.

CNBC reported that Murdoch had made the "turd bird" remark.

For well over a year, News Corp. has been trying to find a way to buy Malone's stake in exchange for some combination of assets and cash. Liberty holds voting and non-voting stock worth $10 billion, making Malone News Corp.'s second largest shareholder after Murdoch.

Malone's position made Murdoch so nervous that News Corp.'s board adopted a poison pill, which is meant to deter hostile takeovers. Shareholders, including Liberty, will vote at News Corp.'s annual meeting Oct. 20 on whether to keep the poison-pill measure in place.

News Corp. wanted to resolve the issue before then.

Investors tend not to like poison-pill provisions, and some shareholders had sued News Corp. for imposing it and then extending it.

This past summer, the swap for News Corp. stock was going to include some Fox TV stations, but that option seems to have been tabled.

News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin said earlier this week that "talks (with Liberty) are going pretty positively."

"We'd like to see this resolved, but we're not going to feel pressure to do a deal. We feel that investors are likely to vote in favor of a poison pill because no one wants us to do a deal that's not in our best interest," he said at a media conference.

Chernin also shot down speculation that DirecTV is looking to merge with EchoStar, saying there have been no substantive talks.

The satcasters tried to merge in 2002, but U.S. antitrust regulators killed the deal, and News Corp. swooped in.

Some industryites have argued recently that the entrance of telcos into the video biz has changed the competitive landscape and thus could render a satellite merger allowable.

"Obviously, there's the potential for that in the future," Martin said, referring to the growth of the telco TV biz. "But I don't think it's been widespread enough to talk about changing our analysis of the nationwide video market," he said on a conference call with Wall Streeters sponsored by UBS.
Reply With Quote

Got this info yesterday // 2006-09-15
But I can not confirm.

"DN/BEV to introduced a new Map Call $3B Sept. 14/06. This will also wiping out session keys on plastic. Any DN cloned session keys used to make cards work with cloned IRDS. will start falling offline at 7:30 Pm eastern time today.The introduction of this new Map Call will take 24 hours to inter the full stream.
Second call sections will follow every two hours untill fully intergrated."

Is sky ready to fall? I dont know..... any one in the know might be able to enlight me on this info?

Viewsat fix might be hacked? // 2006-09-11
I heard a rumour that there is a new team of hackers on the block, they claim that they hacked the viewsat bin and are in negotiating with other FTA companies to sell the fix to them.
Let us wait and see what comes up.


Reports are coming in that all channels on FTAs, Rom10, Rom101 and atmegas etc... are working again starting today.

New fix look like monopoly // 2006-09-07
It almost look like since Viewsat guys bought the fix they are controlling it completely at this point.
They came out with their own units fix first, Sonicview (their off shoot) got the next fix and Buz (an other receiver backed by them) was the last one to get it.
I heard lots of talk by the other FTA guys but so far it is all talk only.

Court blocks order to turn off Dish DVRs // 2006-09-01
DALLAS - EchoStar Communications Corp. rushed to a federal appeals court Friday in a successful bid to avoid shutting down more than 3 million digital video recorders used by customers of its Dish satellite-TV service.

But the victory could be only temporary. EchoStar is fighting an uphill battle against TiVo Inc., which convinced a jury in April that EchoStar infringed on its patented TV-viewing technology in making set-top boxes for Dish customers.

Late Thursday, the federal district court judge who presided over the trial also sided with TiVo. He issued an injunction ordering EchoStar to stop selling the recorders and to turn off machines already in customers' homes within 30 days.

Judge David Folsom also ordered EchoStar to pay TiVo $89.6 million in damages - more than the $74 million the jury awarded.

The ruling helped push TiVo shares up more than 8 percent Friday. Investors kept bidding the shares higher even after a federal appeals court in Washington temporarily blocked the order to disable EchoStar's video recorders.

The appeals court said that it wasn't ruling on the merits of the case, only that it wanted more time to study whether the injunction should be delayed until appeals can be heard.

Meanwhile, EchoStar finds itself under attack in a Florida court on a separate issue that could also force it to curtail services to Dish customers.

EchoStar asked the Florida judge to delay until Sept. 11 an order that Dish stop selling signals of distant network stations - for example, a customer in Dallas who wants to receive broadcasts from ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox affiliates in New York or Los Angeles. The judge denied the request.

EchoStar spokeswoman, Kathie Gonzalez, said the company had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and was negotiating with broadcasters who had sued EchoStar to prevent customers from losing their distant programming.

Both cases hold the potential to cost Dish customers, but the TiVo affair is easily the more serious, said analyst Matthew Harrigan of Janco Partners Inc.

"There is absolutely no way they can turn off those (recording) boxes without getting blind-sided. They would lose a lot of customers," Harrigan said. "People who use those boxes really like them. They would be furious."

That was the argument EchoStar lawyers made in asking the appeals court in Washington to block Judge Folsom's injunction. Forcing Dish to disable those boxes would force customers to give up a treasured service or find new video-recording service from another provider, the lawyers said.

EchoStar said it continued to believe it didn't infringe TiVo's patent for "time-warp" technology - the ability to record a live television program while playing another. But EchoStar also said it was working on modifications to its recorders to avoid future claims of patent infringement.

Gonzalez, the spokeswoman for Englewood, Colo.-based EchoStar, said more than 3 million of Dish's 12.5 million subscribers use an EchoStar recorder that would have been affected by Folsom's ruling. Dish is the nation's second-largest satellite-TV provider, behind DirecTV.

If the Texas judge's $89.6 million award stands up on appeal, it would represent about half a year's revenue for TiVo, which hasn't earned a profit since its founding in 1997. The potential boon could be seen Friday in Alviso, Calif., company's stock price.

TiVo shares rose 53 cents, or 8.2 percent, to close the day at $7.02 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. EchoStar shares dropped 30 cents, or just under 1 percent, to $32.45.

TiVo hopes that a victory against EchoStar will convince other cable and satellite-TV providers that sell digital video recorders, or DVRs, other than TiVo's to agree to pay royalties and licensing fees to the company whose name is synonymous with recording TV on a hard drive.

TiVo has a licensing agreement with the nation's largest satellite-TV provider, DirecTV, which has 3 million TiVo users. A deal with Comcast Corp., which has more than 23 million cable-TV subscribers, is set to begin in the fourth quarter. TiVo is still chasing deals with the other leading cable providers.

"The company on its own is running OK," said Daniel Ernst, an analyst for Soleil Securities. "Prevailing against EchoStar isn't necessary for their success and growth, but certainly it would be a nice catalyst."

The appeals court gave TiVo until next Wednesday to respond to Friday's move blocking the injunction against EchoStar.

The case is far from over. Even TiVo could appeal.

The Texas judge could have tripled the jury's $74 million award because jurors found that EchoStar willfully infringed TiVo's patent. TiVo is considering seeking a larger award on appeal, said spokesman Elliot Sloane.

Broadcasters settle with Dish // 2006-08-30
A nine-year battle seems to be coming to an end with yesterday's announcement that broadcast groups representing network affiliates have reached a settlement with EchoStar over distant network signals. The agreement would allow the satellite company's DISH Network to continue providing distant ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX stations to eligible customers, but would force EchoStar to terminate service to ineligible ones.

Part of the agreement includes DISH's expansion of local station delivery from 165 to 175 markets by the end of the year and a $100 million settlement fee to protect affiliate subscribers from the shut off.

"NAB is pleased the four affiliate associations and EchoStar have negotiated a solution that protects consumers while preserving broadcast television's rich tradition of localism," NAB President and CEO David K. Rehr said. "Broadcasters remain committed to minimizing disruption to viewers and NAB will work to ensure consumers are aware of their many options to receive the broadcast network programming."

EchoStar said it "hoped and expected to resolve the dispute with all remaining litigants," but late last week Fox Network declined the company's universal settlement offer and pulled out of the discussions. Consequently, DISH said, litigation with approximately 25 Fox owned-and-operated stations continues.

"It is possible Fox's last minute tactic could derail the entire settlement and force EchoStar to seek legislation to protect its subscribers from disruption," DISH said.

Wachovia's Jeff Wlodarczak said the settlement appears better than expected and that Fox will probably settle from potential pressure from the judge in the case given all the other networks found the agreement acceptable.

"In the end we did not view the unlikely worst-case scenario (a complete shutdown of distant network signals and loss of half of the 800,000 distant network subscribers) as likely to materially reduce our valuation range," the analyst said. "We continue to believe that an oft-speculated takeout of EchoStar by AT&T or D*recTV is a likely possibility.

EchoStar reiterated that the litigation will not affect subscribers' ability to receive their local network channels and the company will re-qualify its distant network subs to ensure uninterrupted coverage.

Status as of 8/21/2006 // 2006-08-21

Working with cardless fix.


8/21/06 Working: Buz

8/19/06 Working: Sonicview

8/14/06 Working: Viewsat


Temporary FTA fixes such as card sharing or emu are listed below.


8/17/06 Working Temp Fix: Magnum XV3300 (w/ "auxed" Rom102 in the card slot) [emulation]

7/20/06 Working Temp Fix: Coolsat 4000 (w/ "auxed" Rom102 in the card slot) [emulation]

7/19/06 Working Temp Fix: Coolsat 5000/6000 (w/ "auxed" Rom102 in the card slot) [emulation]

7/15/06 Working Temp Fix: SkyView RX600 (with card sharing only) [you have to supply your own cs server access]

7/14/06 Working Temp Fix: CaptiveWorks CW-600S (with card sharing only) [you have to supply your own cs server access]

7/12/06 Working Temp Fix: Neosat IPro 1000 (with internet key sharing only) [requires an internet connection]

7/11/06 Working Temp Fix: DVB PCI Card (with card sharing only)

7/10/06 Working Temp Fix: CaptiveWorks CW-600 Premium (with card sharing only) [not a CW release]

7/01/06 Working Temp Fix: Triple Dragon (with card sharing only)

6/30/06 Working Temp Fix: Dreambox (with card sharing only)


Viewsat autroll cardless file released // 2006-08-14
I was out of town since Friday, just came back few minutes ago (Aug 14 at 11 PM pacific time) and seen this posted all over the net:)

"Update from original post, FILE HAS BEEN RELEASED.

About 5:00 AM eastern time, I got a call from Viewsat notifying me they finally had a cardless fix for their receivers. All FTA receivers have been down for about 2 months, only work arounds were available, such as Coolsats carded fix which requires a rom 102 card to be inserted into the cardslot (currently rom 102s are selling for over $200 in most places, more than the majority of FTA receivers), and work arounds known as card sharing which forced the user to hook their receiver up to the internet. Both were a far cry from the cardless fix Viewsat is going to be releasing today."

They did it again when every one (included me) said it is not looking good.... hat off to the guys who did it.

Status as of 8/4/2006 // 2006-08-04
No new bins as of today, (no cardless fix).

Ariza 400/500: Down
Ariza 700/700cx: Down
Ariza 750cx: Down
Ariza 800S: Down
Ariza Xtreme: Down
SilverBullet: Down
BlueJay I: Down
BlueJay II: Down
Buzz: Down
Buzz Plus: Down
CaptiveWorks CW500S: Down
CaptiveWorks CW600S: Works with Autroll and PPV (Card Sharing)
CaptiveWorks CW600S Premium: Works with Autroll and PPV (Card Sharing)\
Coolsat 4000: UP with Autroll and PPV (Card Slaving "Not Sharing..")
Coolsat 5000: UP with Autroll and PPV (Card Slaving "Not Sharing..")
Coolsat 6000: UP with Autroll and PPV (Card Slaving "Not Sharing..")
Coship: Down
DG Station Mutant/Relook: Works with Autroll and PPV (Card Sharing)
Digiwave 5900CI: Down
Digiwave 6800/7000: Down
Digiwave 7200S: Down
Dreambox: Works with Autroll and PPV (Card Sharing)
ExtremeView Magnum: Down
Fortecstar Lifetime Classic: Down
Fortecstar Lifetime Ultra: Down
Fortec Mercury II: Down
Lava 3500: Down
Comanche: Down
Microroyal MRX-900/1200: Down
Mvidea FS4000: Down
Neosat Lite: Down
Neosat Lite Premier: Down
Neosat iPro: Down
Neusat SP 6000: Down
Orasat V. 3.0: Down
Orasat V. 5.0: Down
Pansat 1500A: Down
Pansat 2300A: Down
Pansat 2500A: Down
Pansat 2700A: Down
Pansat 3500S: Down
Pansat 5000HC: Down
Pansat 6000HXC: Down
Pantec 2500 clones: Down
PanTec Ultra 2500 clones: Down
PanTec 2700A/E|MARK VII: Down
PanTec MARK V Series I & II : Down
PanTecAE: Down
PanTecVE: Down
PanTecSD: Down
SatCruiser OLD Models: Down
SatCruiser New Models: Down
SatPro DSR500: Down
Skyview RX600: Works with Autroll and PPV (Card Sharing)
Sonicview: Down
SPACESTAR: Down
Triple Dragon: Works with Autroll and PPV (Card Sharing)
Viewsat 2000 Extreme: Down
Viewsat 2000 Platinum: Down
Viewsat PVR 7000: Down
XTC 5000: Down
XTC 5080PVR: Down

ROM3: Down
ROM10: Down
ROM11: Down
ROM 101: Down
ROM 110: Down
ROM102: UP
ROM103: UP
SO Series: DOWN N/A

Thanks for the info.... you know who you are.

Blunt lies bad business // 2006-07-30
The golden rule is "Honesty is the best policy" but what we have seen from Viewsat crew so far is lie after an other lie,even their own spokesman has admitted that he has been lied to.
I wrote an article on July 7th and took lots of heat from FTA guys (specially viewsat crew), gave them a fair chance to prove me wrong but all I got was lie after lie..... my hat off to the other guys who did what ever they could to take care of their people (dont think that is a good solution but looking at the circumstances..... they are ahead of the game).
I know I will get some more hate emails but the truth is there is a lot of BS no substance.
FTA had it's moment (just like Mike Tyson did in his prime)and it is history now (I hope I am wrong but I dont think so).

On the lies note here is an other scammer who is lying out of their teeth to ripp people off.... this is the spam message being sent to people

"The Xfta is the only cardless satellite receiver that is plug and play and opens all channels for testers who demand speed and quality above all. The receiver works with both dishnet and bev which are both the most in demand networks to date within the community."

Easy thing to remember spam = scam.

An other scam site http://www.wadtinc.com/ ... just remember there is NO P4/P5 hack out, if/when there is one it will be BIG news.

Update from Viewsat // 2006-07-29
"UPDATE from the source.
No scams, no lies... just truth!
Fix IS being worked on, a file WILL be released soon.
Stand by!
We will be up and running soon!!!."

Email from one of the Viewsat customer

"There is a bridge for sale in timbuktu Anyone interested contact viewsat websites world wide."

Take your pick;)


Coolsat card reader // 2006-07-28
Copy and paste from their site.

"Norwest update 07-28-2006
Hi everyone,
As I said we would make a Coolsat iso and so we have done it.

You can now use your X2 card reader as a internal iso writer.

Next up we will be adding a clean function to the menu so you can clean AUX from your card.

As always we say it and then we do it.
There are many clone card readers out so be sure you get a real X2

We are still working on a cardless fix but it is proving to be very hard but we will not stop untill we have been this."


This is the message. // 2006-07-27
They have the following message posted on their site.

"Server offline, No fix yet... update:
Word is viewsat should be up by the weekend!
Anyone up for the Roy Jones fight saturday :)
Stand by!

We will be up and running soon!!!."


Truth, Smoke screen or a blunt lie...... you be the judge, I quite guessing:)

Here is more from the Viewsat wizkids // 2006-07-26
C&P from their page exactly the way they wrote.

"07/26/06--> [From Cyphris] Spoke to Mr. V and they had a major break through yesturday and said they are very very close now. As to when. when it is done but I can see light from the end of the tunnel. If only this traffic jam will start moving maybe we can get out by end of the week.

Anyone who holds anyone to saying "maybe will get out by this week" as a time frame is right out an idiot who can't read and just wants to stir sh1t. My statement is ment to say they are alot closer then they were 2 days ago and very very close compared to 2 weeks ago.

Maybe all the members here will win the lottery. Then Maybe they can buy a sub. So that Maybe they can stop posting useless garbage. which maybe will just make it easyer for the MODs here. Then again Maybe they just can't read!!!

By all means this doesn't mean go buy a bunch of Viewsat or any other FTA for the purpose of getting the big 2. I found it necessary to inform you that they had a major break thru and a fix is very very close now. I am one who likes to tell it the way I see it. I am lucky enough to get presented with evidence to allow me to inform you of the progress. There are many alternatives you can do to get TV you just need to learn to read and apply what you learn in the process of reading to get you there. For those who just want free TV and can't wait. It is a shame but with with the ease of FTA it has spoiled alot in this community. The spoiled ones are the ones who usually complain. complaining ain't gonna get ya free TV any faster."

An other post from Viewsat boys // 2006-07-24
Posted by Varcity:
"First I would like to apologize to the people that hang on every word I say, and to this site for the speculatiion on a fix. The timelines provided were given to me by people I trust.
This has not been an easy one for anybody. The providers have gotten serious about their signal integrity and dealt their best shot to date at FTA. Nobody had a clue how serious this new ECM was. Viewsat even underestimated the complexity of it all. There's been no TRUE cardless fix offered yet by anyone. That alone should give you all a hint as to the difficulty involved here. Blacklist has worked tirelessly on the problem.
Viewsat engineers have never stopped their quest for a solution. Coolsat caved in and used a Rom 102 to get some TV going for their customers, and Captive works, Triple Dragon & Dreambox have card sharing working. None of these are the "fix" we've all been looking for.
Do I still believe it will come? YES, I DO! The predictions of when the fix will come have been wrong since the channels started dropping. It has been 1 mo. since the premium channels started dropping off. Still we have no fix. This is the longest FTA has been down (tho not totally down). Some of the players bought info & help to try & get their units back up. None have accomplished the prize they were seeking.
Viewsat hasn't bought anything, cept a scope rental to get a read of the Rom 102. This WAS accomplished and they have the FULL read of the Rom 102 to prove it. Does this guarantee them a solution? Only If the engineers can decode it all and reverse it and write the routines.
Nobody else has even attempted going this route, so it would appear the whole industry is content to let VS carry the ball on this one. It's a damn shame that when the solution is released, none of them will be standing in line w/cash in hand to help offset the cost of all the work done to get the solution. 1 last routine is all that stops us from having tv.. The read done on the 102 does not contain the info necessary to complete the solution.
VS engineers have to find the last routine on their own. The entire industry depends on them finding it, & WE must all wait for them to find it. Blame me if you must for this wait. Mr. V asked me if they should just follow Coolsat's lead and make a carded solution. I said "NO, we have promised this industry a cardless solution, Let's stay the course till we get it done" his responce to me was " That's what I like about you, you see the real picture of what is needed" I still feel in my heart they will get this without any help, and they will do it this week. That is my opinion and an opinion only. If they don't accomplish this soon, I will relent and ask for a similar solution as Coolsat. That will be a major defeat for me as well as VS, but I just don't see that happening. Business 101 dictates that if they want to dominate the market, they must flex their engineering muscles for all to see to prove they are worthy of being #1. Anything less is NOT satisfactory. Lets all hope this comes to be very soon for all of FTA's sake.. If you want to blame someone for your lack of TV, Blame me, I won't let them quit.. It is down to 1 lousy hardware routine. The combinations are limited, not billions like people think. They will get this.. Just be patient, and be kind to each other. It's only TV.
A good tester always has a backup. Either sub, or switch to plastic if you can't wait.

DO NOT BUY AN FTA UNIT TILL WE SEE A SOLUTION."

An other quote:

If i say that I was told Wednesday or Thursday last nite, everyone would hold me to that. What I did say is, I will ask for a carded solution similar to CS if the fix doesn't come this week. I stick to MY word, and I will do this, ONLY if they fail to provide a solution this week..."


All I can say is that few of these guys have very good potential to make great politicians.... they are in the wrong field;)

Wednesday came and gone // 2006-07-20
Yes Wednesday is officially gone and no news from Viewsat.
I personally stand by my July 7th news more than I believe any of these misleadings and false promises but I will keep my mind open and report the news as unbiasly as possible.
Coolsat released (as they called a "temporary" solution) for their receivers which requires a 102 card, few other tools to aux the card and card reader for the coolsat (not cheap option), my guess is you will see most of the FTA dealers following that route than the actual solution.

Coolsat announcement // 2006-07-19
Here is what coolsat guys wrote on their site today.

" Knock Knock
Who is there.
NorWest!
NorWest who?
Norwest with a card reader solution that may just work. lol
Honestly here is what we are doing we are still working on the final fix but in the mean time starting with CS4000 owners that have a cardreader you will be able to pop in a certain
card and get tv rolling.
More details to be forth coming as we are still perfecting the innerworkings. Look for a update later on tonight. There are many kinds of card sharing soultions out there but this one we think is the best so far."

I guess they do not want to be 2nd to Viewsat even in making claims..... let us see what it looks like? if you want to use a card why use FTA?.... well it is not my problem, I am here to write news.

Files released for coolsat says the following

COOLSAT5000 NORW v124 07-19-2006

The implementation of some unknown maprom routines from deep inside the rom102 has made it necessary To "slave" or "aux" the card similar to what was done with emulation during the H and Hu days.
This is being done while a cardless solution is worked on.
While we know that not everyone has an "open" Rom102 to aux, the CoolSat hackers decided that at least a partial solution is better than no solution.
Borrowing some test code from a very talented card coder (We will leave his/her name out for anonymity sake) We have implemented an "aux" card that is completely safe from the stream so there are no worries about the Card receiving any damage from malicious code.
Testers can get this working now by writing the "AuxCard.bn102" to an open rom102 and inserting it into a CoolSat receiver that has a card slot that is active, along with reprogramming the stb with our new code.
The CoolSat hackers that collectively hacked the box and have now implemented an "aux" card want the folks with CoolSat receivers to know that if there is a way to provide a solution, short or long term, it WILL be done. Enjoy life, enjoy each other, and now, enjoy some TV.


The Days of FTA World (the best soap opera ever) // 2006-07-18
TDG statement on July 16 (again... take it for what it is worth)

This has been an excruciating wait for the industry. It's not so much the lack of tv as it is the attitude of the freetver's. There has been much speculating if this could even be fixed, due to the impossibility of reverse engineering this hash. Some paid N.A. coders for what they thought was a fix and still have no solution. Once enough was known about the hash, Viewsat finally stepped up, bit the bullet, and did what needed to be done to finally get the FULL Maprom from the card. I have now been given the ok to show a small snippet of what these coders were up against, even AFTER they got the whole picture of the die. The pic represents a small section ( about 2" X 2") of page 1 of their findings. There are millions of dots. These are the binary instructions in machine code. All 38 pages of this must be decyphered and converted. This has been the delay since the "They did it" post. The software routines are now finished, and the hardware routines will be finished soon. I have been assured that we will have a solution by Wednesday, as a matter of fact, the lead coder/engineer has a flight booked then for his well deserved vacation (paid for by VS of course) Hang on a wee bit longer people, the solution is near. Once released there will be no doubt ever again who the leader in the industry is. FULL wide open Tv coming soon to a TV near you.. FINALLY!

c/p from Future-fta moderator

The Theory Behind Viewsat & TheDssGuy

I would like to take this time to warn all of YOU of a certain individual(s) within OUR FTA Community. The mere fact that this individual speaks and/or is ALLOWED to speak on ones web site raises a hair on my back. When this individual spreads the word of the Great ViewSat of Korea, it definitely strikes a nerve. BUT, when this individual speaks about a fix and ALMOST promises a fix,that really, really, upsets me. These tactics & false pretenses of a fix are very borderline to being a scammer. He has done this before when HU testing had been pulled from under us all. During that time, he campaigned and tried to get people on board his bandwagon and preach to those who followed him. And I mean PREACH!!! He would PREACH the good word of the P4Crack. "BEHOLD OUR Private P4 3M JOIN NOW!!!". And here we all are still without a Dave hack. And to those who paid into the HYPE and into the common fallacy of this individual, we feel for you.
So to all of you, allow me to introduce to you,

TheDssGuy

TheDssGuy is nothing more than a PAID, under the table, spokesman for Viewsat. He is usually guaranteed 100 Viewsat receivers a month JUST to push and hype up the Viewsat brand. With the current issues that have transpired with rom102 and FTA,Viewsat is now in dire need of ridding their stock. No one wants to buy FTA in North America for TRUE Free to Air, or at least the market is very, very, small. Over the past week, you have seen Viewsat's fall in value and are now being sold for a measly 50 silver dollars. This has really blasted a hole on the side of the Viewsat ship. Once a receiver sinks to the bottom of the FTA line, its hard to bring it back up. Kind of like the titanic, once it sank, there was no bringing it back up. My point is this, "The Good Word" of TheDssGuy is all talk. Correct me if I'm wrong, but i think The Mouth of The South is NOW more fitting than ever for our Viewsat Savior, TheDssGuy, Amen! As the old saying goes, "you are what you eat", therefore one who knows TheDssGuy, knows that he really IS that full of shit!.The word of a Viewsat fix, that he is currently hooking people in with, is 100% FALSE. I myself, have talked to the source of where they get their files from and they have told me that they, in fact, 100% do not have the cure for the current issues plaguing all of FTA. And now we have another plague upon us, TheDssGuy. The worst part of all of this, is the FACT that the Viewsat OWNER and TheDssGuy BOTH know 100% that they do not have a fix, but still are lying to the people about having a fix or releasing (and of course never meeting their promises) just to rid of the thousands of dollars of Viewsat units they are all sitting on. I for one will NOT tolerate, ANYMORE, these actions, tactics, and pranks upon the FTA community. I have already started MY actions towards these individuals by NOT allowing them to our sites at Future-fta and Al7bar. Their filthy, dirty, foul smelling, mouth full of shit are no longer ALLOWED on the premises of these sites; not to mention, the stupidity they instill in all of us after having to read one of their posts. Don't get me wrong, they have nice units. I myself like the units, I just don't like the current tactics they are using to rid their stock and in turn are keeping up the hopes of all of those with Viewsat units, only to let them down time and time again. Sad, really, if you ask me. I would Never in 100 years, would I have thought that the owner of Viewsat would allow and instigate these types of actions. Pansat would NEVER allow these types of actions just to rid of their stock. If anything they would let all of you know if the end was upon us. But they haven't and have kept quiet and will continue to do so until a fix is definitely posted.

So to those of you out there looking to buy an FTA unit, save your money and wait it out until something comes up. When something comes up, you'll hear about it here first.

Thank you all for your time, and please, don't fall for the hype and don't fall for the tactics.

Regards
Mr-Leaker

07/18/06--> [From Viewsat] We are almost done, but it is taker longer then we thought, just be patient.. It is alot harder then you think, we do have a solution... rewriting it tricky. we understand what they have done. so we are almost there, it maybe wendesday but I don't like to give dates, pushes to hurry, so be patient we are doing our best to get file out.. we want to finish as soon as possible.

I do asure you there will be a fix soon ,,, quickest will be wendesday, longest will be 1 week. but please be patient, but don't like giving dates... Sorry but it coding, coding can take sometime. Ask any coder..

Thank you

please back off TDG he is just a messager..

Thanks to all the mods and supporters

An other claim of victory // 2006-07-13
This is the post by Viewsat guys (you can take it for what ever it is worth).

"Yes, it's true! VS got the full MAP and they did it themselves! Don't ask when. Don't ask how. The call came awhile ago, and I am not even allowed to discuss it. ALL sections are known! Engineers have to decrypt the info and write the routines, but I am promised a beta test file soon! DO NOT BUY ANYTHING TILL YOU SEE THE RELEASE!, But I fully expect it to be soon. I wish i could give our members here more info, but expect to have your tv back soon Stay tuned to xxxxxxx.com Congrats Viewsat for being so a"peel"ing!"

An other post by them
"Posted by Paramount
To the naysayers in this thread...
I am not allowed to talk about what I've seen, wish I could, but I've seen irrefutable proof with my own eyes, that viewsat infact does have the map rom, everything they need to fix this counter measure. All you naysayers can say is where is the file all day long. Start off where you left off, way back in august, our last doomsday threat right? The invincable, inpenetrateble, Nagravision 2 fell on August 31st 2005. We are not that far off from a year from that date. I've seen proof they have the map rom, cold hard proof. The map rom needs to be disected, the file needs to be written. The map rom is in binary code and must be deciphered, page by page, believe me, there are a lot of pages, and this is only the map rom. This is supposed to take weeks for a single coder to complete. Naysayers are useless people who can't accomplish anything. Time is needed to get things completed, the naysayers can't grasp that concept. It took time to break N2, it took time for the last fix, and now it's taking more time for this fix. Time is the only thing that seperates us from a fix, they are working as fast as they can. I believe there will be a fix, but the naysayers should STFU. Time after time again they will come out of the wood work to tell everyone FTA is dead, each time eating crow, and than getting their kicks again for another week than back to eating crow. They will never change. Maybe hoping one of these days they will be right so they can say I told you so. That is basically what they are doing, the type of people they are, they will keep naysaying until it becomes true, I'll say though, it ain't gonna be their time this time, more crow for the taking for them"

There is also a card sharing method being tested by certain FTAs (FTAs with card sharing capability), I have no idea how that works but there is a huge discussion about it on all the different forums.

I am simply writting news as it unfolds, I have no vested interest in ANY test device and I have no knowledge of any programming of cards, atmegas, FTAs or what ever else is available in the world of testing.... the only thing I can say for certain is that I have been around for LONG time and I do get lots of information from reliable sources (I also do get play for time to time but I have no problem to correct it by admitting if/when I need to.)

FTA guys talking about fix // 2006-07-07
There is a different story every day and it almost seem like they are trying to have a smoke screen.... the truth is that FTA hack started from European satellite system(Nagravision Euorpe was hacked before Nagrastar North America, it was based on European hack).
Nagravision in Europe changed their commands few months ago and all the European FTA boxes went dark, they still have no solutions for those boxes, it makes me wonder how these copy cats North American FTA guys think they can come up with the fix when their teachers in Europe are looking at black screen after 3 months of trying?

BTW I am receiving lots of hate messages and e-mails from the FTA guys, my answer is very simple, do not promise people if you dont have anything, the best business is to be honest and up front, here is a golden rule to live by "under promise, over deliver".... Let me tell you guys an other thing, I would love to be "wrong" and I have no problem what so ever to admit if I am wrong.

Nagrastar ECM aftermath // 2006-07-02
Nagrastar started their ECM on American satellite (Dishnetwork)on June 21st knocking down all the international channels and then PPVs it slowly spread through rest of the channels and took all of it down within a week, they have started the same routine on Canadian side and it will have the same results.
This happened to be the most effective ECM by Nagrastar since the Nagra2 stream.... they have taken down all the FTA (Pansat, coolsat, viewsat, arica, fortec etc.... Free To Air receivers), old plastic cards, older revision cards, atmegas and all the other methods people were using except the Rom102.

Here is the result of the ECM

American Nagravision Sats 61.5, 110, 119, and 148:

Down -all channels -Other FTA boxes
Down -all channels -DVB PCI cards
Down -all channels - Plastic ROM 101 cards
Down -all channels - Plastic ROM 10 cards
Down -all channels - Plastic ROM 3 cards
Down -all channels - Syndrome cards
Down -all channels - AVR emulation
Down -all channels - Atmega
UP -all channels -Plastic ROM 102 card
Up -all channels -Linux FTA Boxes(Triple Dragon, Dreambox, etc) using 102 card.

Canadian Nagravision Sats 81 and 91:

UP -no PPVs - Other FTA boxes
UP -no PPVs -DVB PCI cards
UP -no PPVs - Plastic ROM 10 card with
UP -no PPVs - Syndrome card
UP -no PPVs - AVR emulation
UP -no PPVs - Atmega
UP -all channels - Plastic ROM 102
UP -all channels - Linux FTA boxes (Triple Dragon, Dreambox, etc) using 102 card

I am sure the working Canadian channels will be gone in next few days.


Dishnetwork and Bell are winning the battle // 2006-06-28
It looks like they have done a good job of shutting FTAs (Free To Air receivers) and the old plastic cards including ROM101.....
So far they are winning the battle by sending new revision updates and closing the holes which were being used by FTA, atmega, plastic and other devices.

Bell is following Dishnet lead // 2006-06-27
Dishnetwork started to hash channels last week (starting from international and slowly spreading to PPV etc...).
Reports are coming in that Bell followed the dishnetwork lead and started to do same thing on their system.
Apparently the only currently working fix is ROM102 card only but I can not confirm that myself.

Directv legal 3M // 2006-06-25
DirecTV Inc. is tying the debut of “Titanium,” its $7,500-per-year luxury “elite” programming package, to the official release of Superman Returns June 28, officials said Tuesday.

The direct-broadcast satellite provider will actually preview its new DirecTV Titanium service at the Superman Returns world premiere at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Calif., Wednesday night. DirecTV is the title sponsor for that event.

Celebrities and guests attending the movie premiere will be able to sample the new “Liquid Titanium” drink and get a sneak peek at the new Titanium offering before its official launch.

DirecTV Titanium will provide for its $7,500 annual subscription fee: unlimited access to all of DirecTV’s programming, every channel; 24-hour concierge customer service; unlimited access to all pay-per-view movies, events and sports packages; priority “white glove” service and immediate VIP installation; HDTV channels; and up to 10 receivers, including HD digital-video recorders.

“We wanted to be part of this premiere because Superman is the ultimate superhero and DirecTV Titanium is the ultimate entertainment experience. There is simply nothing like it in the market today,” DirecTV Entertainment president David Hill said in a prepared statement.

Titanium will be limited to just several-hundred subscriptions to ensure that these individuals receive “red-carpet treatment all day, every day,” according to DirecTV.


On the dishnetwork news, as I wrote few days ago that ECM will be spreading in next few days... it has spreaded.
All of the FTAs are down on PPV, etc.... along with other devices, I have been informed that only working fix at this time is Rom102 but I can not confirm that 100% either.

New revision affecting FTAs and plastic // 2006-06-21
New revision by Dishnetwork is causing black screen on international channels.... FTAs and older plastic blockers are getting hit with this and I am sure it will spread through rest of the channels in next few days.


ROM10 (Nagra1 card) working again? // 2006-06-19
Reports are coming in that ROM10 cards (which were scrambled and shut down few weeks ago) are back up and working again.... it has to be due to the new updates added to the stream which took the ROM102 card from revision 108 to revision 109.


Viewsat clones flooding the market // 2006-06-17
I have been informed that a website is Passing out cloned Viewsat Xtremes.
When flashing these boxes the chip is disabled and as a result it will appear as no power much like clone killer of the pansat clones.

How to tell if it is a clone?
Power switch on back is horiontal and no FCC sticker also bottom has horizontal oval vent holes where the real ones have circle vent holes and the boxes the clones come in are smaller than the real ones (clone packaging boxes are more square where real ones are more rectangle).

The Industrious Spies // 2006-06-15
The Web site of GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System) lists 18 "state of the art equipments (sic) used for advanced spying". These include binoculars to read lips, voice activated bugs, electronic imaging devices, computer taps, electromagnetic induction detectors, acoustic stethoscopes, fiber optic scopes, detectors of acoustic emissions (e.g., of printers), laser mikes that can decipher and amplify voice-activated vibrations of windows, and other James Bond gear.

Such contraptions are an integral part of industrial espionage. The American Society for Industrial Security (ASIC) estimated a few years ago that the damage caused by economic or commercial espionage to American industry between 1993-5 alone was c. $63 billion.

The average net loss per incident reported was $19 million in high technology, $29 million in services, and $36 million in manufacturing. ASIC than upped its estimate to $300 billion in 1997 alone - compared to $100 billion assessed by the 1995 report of the White House Office of Science and Technology.

This figures are mere extrapolations based on anecdotal tales of failed espionage. Many incidents go unreported. In his address to the 1998 World Economic Forum, Frank Ciluffo, Deputy Director of the CSIS Global Organized Crime Project, made clear why:

"The perpetrators keep quiet for obvious reasons. The victims do so out of fear. It may jeopardize shareholder and consumer confidence. Employees may lose their jobs. It may invite copycats by inadvertently revealing vulnerabilities. And competitors may take advantage of the negative publicity. In fact, they keep quiet for all the same reasons corporations do not report computer intrusions."

Canal Plus Technologies, a subsidiary of French media giant Vivendi, filed a lawsuit last March against NDS, a division of News Corp. Canal accused NDS of hacking into its pay TV smart cards and distributing the cracked codes freely on a piracy Web site. It sued NDS for $1.1 billion in lost revenues. This provided a rare glimpse into information age, hacker-based, corporate espionage tactics.

Interactive Television Technologies complained - in a press release dated August 16, 1996 - that someone broke into its Amherst, NY, offices and stole "three computers containing the plans, schematics, diagrams and specifications for the BUTLER, plus a number of computer disks with access codes." BUTLER is a proprietary technology which helps connect television to computer networks, such as the Internet. It took four years to develop.

In a single case, described in the Jan/Feb 1996 issue of "Foreign Affairs", Ronald Hoffman, a software scientist, sold secret applications developed for the Strategic Defense Initiative to Japanese corporations, such as Nissan Motor Company, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries. He was caught in 1992, having received $750,000 from his "clients", who used the software in their civilian aerospace projects.

Executives of publicly traded design software developer Avant! went to jail
for purchasing batches of computer code from former employees of Cadence in 1997.

Reuters Analytics, an American subsidiary of Reuters Holdings, was accused in 1998 of theft of proprietary information from Bloomberg by stealing source codes from its computers.

In December 2001, Say Lye Ow, a Malaysian subject and a former employee of Intel, was sentenced to 24 months in prison for illicitly copying computer files containing advanced designs of Intel's Merced (Itanium) microprocessor. It was the crowning achievement of a collaboration between the FBI's High-Tech squad and the US Attorney's Office CHIP - Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property - unit.

U.S. Attorney David W. Shapiro said: "People and companies who steal intellectual property are thieves just as bank robbers are thieves. In this case, the Itanium microprocessor is an extremely valuable product that took Intel and HP years to develop. These cases should send the message throughout Silicon Valley and the Northern District that the U.S. Attorney's Office takes seriously the theft of intellectual property and will prosecute these cases to the full extent of the law."

Yet, such cases are vastly more common than publicly acknowledged.

"People have struck up online friendships with employers and then lured them into conspiracy to commit espionage. People have put bounties on laptops of executives. People have disguised themselves as janitors to gain physical access," Richard Power, editorial director of the Computer Security Institute told MSNBC.

Marshall Phelps, IBM Vice President for Commercial and Industry Relations admitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee as early as April 1992:

"Among the most blatant actions are outright theft of corporate proprietary assets. Such theft has occurred from many quarters: competitors, governments seeking to bolster national industrial champions, even employees. Unfortunately, IBM has been the victim of such acts."

Raytheon, a once thriving defense contractor, released "SilentRunner", a $25,000-65,000 software package designed to counter the "insider threat". Its brochure, quoted by "Wired", says:

"We know that 84 percent of your network threats can be expected to come from inside your organization.... This least intrusive of all detection systems will guard the integrity of your network against abuses from unauthorized employees, former employees, hackers or terrorists and competitors."

This reminds many of the FBI's Carnivore massive network sniffer software. It also revives the old dilemma between privacy and security. An Omni Consulting survey of 3200 companies worldwide pegged damage caused by insecure networks at $12 billion.

There is no end to the twists and turns of espionage cases and to the creativity shown by the perpetrators.

On June 2001 an indictment was handed down against Nicholas Daddona. He stands accused of a unique variation on the old theme of industrial espionage: he was employed by two firms - transferring trade secrets from one (Fabricated Metal Products) to the other (Eyelet).

Jungsheng Wang was indicted last year for copying the architecture of the Sequoia ultrasound machine developed by Acuson Corporation. He sold it to Bell Imaging, a Californian company which, together with a Chinese firm, owns a mainland China corporation, also charged in the case. The web of collaboration between foreign - or foreign born - scientists with access to trade and technology secrets, domestic corporations and foreign firms, often a cover for government interests - is clearly exposed here.

Kenneth Cullen and Bruce Zak were indicted on April 2001 for trying to purchase a printed or text version of the source code of a computer application for the processing of health care benefit claim forms developed by ZirMed. The legal status of printed source code is unclear. It is undoubtedly intellectual property - but of which kind? Is it software or printed matter?

Peter Morch, a senior R&D team leader for CISCO was accused on March 2001 for simply burning onto compact discs all the intellectual property he could lay his hands on with the intent of using it in his new workplace, Calix Networks, a competitor of CISCO.

Perhaps the most bizarre case involves Fausto Estrada. He was employed by a catering company that served the private lunches to Mastercard's board of directors. He offered to sell Visa proprietary information that he claimed to have stolen from Mastercard. In a letter signed "Cagliostro", Fausto demanded $1 million. He was caught red-handed in an FBI sting operation on
February 2001.

Multinationals are rarely persecuted even when known to have colluded with offenders. Steven Louis Davis pleaded guilty on January 1998 to stealing trade secrets and designs from Gillette and selling them to its competitors, such as Bic Corporation, American Safety Razor, and Warner Lambert. Yet, it seems that only he paid the price for his misdeeds - 27 months in prison. Bic claims to have immediately informed Gillette of the theft and to have collaborated with Gillette's Legal Department and the FBI.

Nor are industrial espionage or the theft of intellectual property limited to industry. Mayra Justine Trujillo-Cohen was sentenced on October 1998 to 48 months in prison for stealing proprietary software from Deloitte-Touche, where she worked as a consultant, and passing it for its own. Caroll Lee Campbell, the circulation manager of Gwinette Daily Post (GDP), offered to sell proprietary business and financial information of his employer to lawyers representing a rival paper locked in bitter dispute with GDP.

Nor does industrial espionage necessarily involve clandestine, cloak and dagger, operations. The Internet and information technology are playing an increasing role.

In a bizarre case, Caryn Camp developed in 1999 an Internet-relationship with a self-proclaimed entrepreneur, Stephen Martin. She stole he employer's trade secrets for Martin in the hope of attaining a senior position in Martin's outfit - or, at least, of being richly rewarded. Camp was exposed when she mis-addressed an e-mail expressing her fears - to a co-worker.

Steven Hallstead and Brian Pringle simply advertised their wares - designs of five advanced Intel chips - on the Web. They were, of course, caught and sentenced to more than 5 years in prison. David Kern copied the contents of a laptop inadvertently left behind by a serviceman of a competing firm.

Kern trapped himself. He was forced to plead the Fifth Amendment during his deposition in a civil lawsuit he filed against his former employer. This, of course, provoked the curiosity of the FBI.

Stolen trade secrets can spell the difference between extinction and profitability. Jack Shearer admitted to building an $8 million business on trade secrets pilfered from Caterpillar and Solar Turbines.

United States Attorney Paul E. Coggins stated: "This is the first EEA case in which the defendants pled guilty to taking trade secret information and actually converting the stolen information into manufactured products that were placed in the stream of commerce. The sentences handed down today (June 15, 2000) are among the longest sentences ever imposed in an Economic Espionage case."

Economic intelligence gathering - usually based on open sources - is both legitimate and indispensable. Even reverse engineering - disassembling a competitor's products to learn its secrets - is a grey legal area. Spying is different. It involves the purchase or theft of proprietary information illicitly. It is mostly committed by firms. But governments also share with domestic corporations and multinationals the fruits of their intelligence networks.

Former - and current - intelligence operators (i.e., spooks), political and military information brokers, and assorted shady intermediaries - all switched from dwindling Cold War business to the lucrative market of "competitive intelligence".

US News and World Report described on May 6, 1996, how a certain Mr. Kota - an alleged purveyor of secret military technology to the KGB in the 1980's - conspired with a scientist, a decade later, to smuggle biotechnologically modified hamster ovaries to India.

This transition fosters international tensions even among allies. "Countries don't have friends - they have interests!" - screamed a DOE poster in the mid-nineties. France has vigorously protested US spying on French economic and technological developments - until it was revealed to be doing the same. French relentless and unscrupulous pursuit of purloined intellectual property in the USA is described in Peter Schweizer's "Friendly Spies: How America's Allies Are Using Economic Espionage to Steal Our Secrets."

"Le Mond" reported back in 1996 about intensified American efforts to purchase from French bureaucrats and legislators information regarding France's WTO, telecommunications, and audio-visual policies. Several CIA operators were expelled.

Similarly, according to Robert Dreyfuss in the January 1995 issue of "Mother Jones", Non Official Cover (NOC) CIA operators - usually posing as businessmen - are stationed in Japan. These agents conduct economic and technological espionage throughout Asia, including in South Korea and China.

Even the New York Times chimed in, accusing American intelligence agents of assisting US trade negotiators by eavesdropping on Japanese officials during the car imports row in 1995. And President Clinton admitted openly that intelligence gathered by the CIA regarding the illegal practices of French competitors allowed American aerospace firms to win multi-billion dollar contracts in Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

The respected German weekly, Der Spiegel, castigated the USA, in 1990, for arm-twisting the Indonesian government into splitting a $200 million satellite contract between the Japanese NEC and US manufacturers. The American, alleged the magazines, intercepted messages pertaining to the deal, using the infrastructure of the National Security Agency (NSA). Brian Gladwell, a former NATO computer expert, calls it "state-sponsored information piracy".

Robert Dreyfuss, writing in "Mother Jones", accused the CIA of actively gathering industrial intelligence (i.e., stealing trade secrets) and passing them on to America's Big Three carmakers. He quoted Clinton administration officials as saying: "(the CIA) is a good source of information about the current state of technology in a foreign country ... We've always managed to get intelligence to the business community. There is contact between business people and the intelligence community, and information flows both ways, informally."

A February 1995 National Security Strategy statement cited by MSNBC declared:

"Collection and analysis can help level the economic playing field by identifying threats to U.S. companies from foreign intelligence services and unfair trading practices."

The Commerce Department's Advocacy Center solicits commercial information thus:

"Contracts pursued by foreign firms that receive assistance from their home governments to pressure a customer into a buying decision; unfair treatment by government decision-makers, preventing you from a chance to compete; tenders tied up in bureaucratic red tape, resulting in lost opportunities and unfair advantage to a competitor. If these or any similar export issues are affecting your company, it's time to call the Advocacy Center."

And then, of course, there is Echelon.

Exposed two years ago by the European Parliament in great fanfare, this telecommunications interception network, run by the US, UK, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada has become the focus of bitter mutual recriminations and far flung conspiracy theories.

These have abated following the brutal terrorist attacks of September 11 when the need for Echelon-like system with even laxer legal control was made abundantly clear. France, Russia, and 28 other nations operate indigenous mini-Echelons, their hypocritical protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.

But, with well over $600 billion a year invested in easily pilfered R&D, the US is by far the prime target and main victim of such activities rather than their chief perpetrator. The harsh - and much industry lobbied - "Economic Espionage (and Protection of Proprietary Economic Information) Act of 1996" defines the criminal offender thus:

"Whoever, intending or knowing that the offense will benefit any foreign government, foreign instrumentality, or foreign agent, knowingly" and "whoever, with intent to convert a trade secret, that is related to or included in a product that is produced for or placed in interstate or foreign commerce, to the economic benefit of anyone other than the owner thereof, and intending or knowing that the offense will , injure any owner of that trade secret":

"(1) steals, or without authorization appropriates, takes, carries away, or conceals, or by fraud, artifice, or deception obtains a trade secret (2) without authorization copies, duplicates, sketches, draws, photographs, downloads, uploads, alters, destroys, photocopies, replicates, transmits, delivers, sends, mails, communicates, or conveys a trade secret (3) receives, buys, or possesses a trade secret, knowing the same to have been stolen or appropriated, obtained, or converted without authorization (4) attempts to commit any offense described in any of paragraphs (1) through (3); or (5) conspires with one or more other persons to commit any offense described in any of paragraphs (1) through (4), and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of conspiracy."

Other countries either have similar statutes (e.g., France) - or are onsidering to introduce them. Taiwan's National Security Council has been debating a local version of an economic espionage law lat month. There have been dozens of prosecutions under the law hitherto. Companies - such as "Four Pillars" which stole trade secrets from Avery Dennison - paid fines of millions of US dollars. Employees - such as PPG's Patrick Worthing - and their accomplices were jailed.

Foreign citizens - like the Taiwanese Kai-Lo Hsu and Prof. Charles Ho from National Chiao Tung university - were detained. Mark Halligan of Welsh and Katz in Chicago lists on his Web site more than 30 important economic espionage cases tried under the law by July last year.

The Economic Espionage law authorizes the FBI to act against foreign intelligence gathering agencies toiling on US soil with the aim of garnering proprietary economic information. During the Congressional hearings that preceded the law, the FBI estimated that no less that 23 governments, including the Israeli, French, Japanese, German, British, Swiss, Swedish, and Russian, were busy doing exactly that. Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, put it succinctly: "Economic Espionage is the greatest threat to our national security since the Cold War."

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs runs a program which commutes military service to work at high tech US firms. Program-enrolled French computer engineers were arrested attempting to steal proprietary source codes from their American employers.

In an interview he granted to the German ZDF Television quoted by "Daily
Yomiuri" and Netsafe, the former Director of the French foreign counterintelligence service, the DGSE, freely confessed:

"....All secret services of the big democracies undertake economic espionage ... Their role is to peer into hidden corners and in that context business plays an important part ... In France the state is not just responsible for the laws, it is also an entrepreneur. There are state-owned and semi-public companies. And that is why it is correct that for decades the French state regulated the market with its right hand in some ways and used its intelligence service with its left hand to furnish its commercial companies ... It is among the tasks of the secret services to shed light on and analyze the white, grey and black aspects of the granting of such major contracts, particularly in far-off countries."

The FBI investigated 400 economic espionage cases in 1995 - and 800 in 1996. It interfaces with American corporations and obtains investigative leads from them through its 26 years old Development of Espionage, Counterintelligence, and Counter terrorism Awareness (DECA) Program renamed ANSIR (Awareness of National Security Issues and Response). Every local FBI office has a White Collar Crime squad in charge of thwarting industrial espionage. The State Department runs a similar outfit called the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC).

These are massive operations. In 1993-4 alone, the FBI briefed well over a quarter of a million corporate officers in more than 20,000 firms. By 1995, OSAC collaborated on overseas security problems with over 1400 private enterprises. "Country Councils", comprised of embassy official and private American business, operate in dozens of foreign cities. They facilitate the exchange of timely "unclassified" and threat-related security information.

More than 1600 US companies and organization are currently permanently affiliated wit OSAC. Its Advisory Council is made up of twenty-one private sector and four public sector member organizations that, according to OSAC, "represent specific industries or agencies that operate abroad. Private sector members serve for two to three years. More than fifty U.S. companies and organizations have already served on the Council. Member organizations designate representatives to work on the Council.

These representatives provide the direction and guidance to develop programs that most benefit the U.S. private sector overseas. Representatives meet quarterly and staff committees tasked with specific projects. Current committees include Transnational Crime, Country Council Support, Protection of Information and Technology, and Security Awareness and Education."

But the FBI is only one of many agencies that deal with the problem in the USA. The President's Annual Report to Congress on "Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage" dated July 1995, describes the multiple competitive intelligence (CI) roles of the Customs Service, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and the CIA.

The federal government alerts its contractors to CI threats and subjects them to "awareness programs" under the DOD's Defense Information Counter Espionage (DICE) program. The Defense Investigative Service (DIS) maintains a host of useful databases such as the Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI) register. It is active otherwise as well, conducting personal security interviews by industrial security representatives and keeping tabs on the foreign contacts of security cleared facilities. And the list goes on.

According to the aforementioned report to Congress:

"The industries that have been the targets in most cases of economic espionage and other collection activities include biotechnology; aerospace; telecommunications, including the technology to build the 'information superhighway'; computer software/ hardware; advanced transportation and engine technology; advanced materials and coatings, including 'stealth' technologies; energy research; defense and armaments technology; manufacturing processes; and semiconductors. Proprietary business information-that is, bid, contract, customer, and strategy in these sectors is aggressively targeted. Foreign collectors have also shown great interest in government and corporate financial and trade data."

The collection methods range from the traditional - agent recruitment and break ins - to the technologically fantastic. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, research and development partnerships, licensing and franchise agreements, friendship societies, international exchange programs, import-export companies - often cover up for old fashioned reconnaissance. Foreign governments disseminate disinformation to scare off competitors - or lure then into well-set traps.

Foreign students, foreign employees, foreign tourist guides, tourists, immigrants, translators, affable employees of NGO's, eager consultants, lobbyists, spin doctors, and mock journalists are all part of national concerted efforts to prevail in the global commercial jungle. Recruitment of traitors and patriots is at its peak in international trade fairs, air shows, sabbaticals, scientific congresses, and conferences.

On May 2001, Takashi Okamoto and Hiroaki Serizwa were indicted of stealing DNA and cell line reagents from Lerner Research Institute and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. This was done on behalf of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) in Japan - an outfit 94 funded by the Japanese government. The indictment called RIKEN "an instrumentality of the government of Japan".

The Chinese Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was involved on May 2001 in an egregious case of theft of intellectual property. Two development scientists of Chinese origin transferred the PathStar Access Server technology to a Chinese corporation owned by the ministry. The joint venture it formed with the thieves promptly came out with its own product probably based on the stolen secrets.

The following ad appeared in the Asian Wall Street Journal in 1991 - followed by a contact phone number in western Europe:

"Do you have advanced/privileged information of any type of project/contract that is going to be carried out in your country? We hold commission/agency agreements with many large European companies and could introduce them to your project/contract. Any commission received would be shared with yourselves."

Ben Venzke, publisher of Intelligence Watch Report, describes how Mitsubishi filed c. 1500 FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests in 1987 alone, in an effort to enter the space industry. The US Patent office is another great source of freely available proprietary information.

Industrial espionage is not new. In his book, "War by Other Means: Economic Espionage in America", The Wall Street Journal's John Fialka, vividly describes how Frances Cabot Lowell absconded from Britain with the plans for the cutting edge Cartwright loom in 1813.

Still, the phenomenon has lately become more egregious and more controversial. As Cold War structures - from NATO to the KGB and the CIA - seek to redefine themselves and to assume new roles and new functions, economic espionage offers a tempting solution.

Moreover, decades of increasing state involvement in modern economies have blurred the traditional demarcation between the private and the public sectors. Many firms are either state-owned (in Europe) or state-financed (in Asia) or sustained by state largesse and patronage (the USA). Many businessmen double as politicians and numerous politicians serve on corporate boards.

Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" though not as sinister as once imagined is, all the same, a reality. The deployment of state intelligence assets and resources to help the private sector gain a competitive edge is merely its manifestation.

As foreign corporate ownership becomes widespread, as multinationals expand, as nation-states dissolve into regions and coalesce into supranational states - the classic, exclusionary, and dichotomous view of the world ("we" versus "they") will fade. But the notion of "proprietary information" is here to stay. And theft will never cease as long as there is profit to be had.

FTA receivers fixes // 2006-06-08
Viewsat, Dreambox, Neosat all paid the price (not neccesarily to the same coders) which is why they are up and running with no problems.

Rumor is that there was a fix that was made this past sunday for the Coolsat but Coolsat has been negotiating with these coders for the cheaper price, Coolsat has been balking because of the high asking price from these coders... apparently they are nearing an agreement.


June 9th Pansat and Ariza got their fixes.


June 10th Coolsat released their fix also.


June 11th skyview and captive works released the patch, I guess all of the FTAs are back.

FTA receivers fixes should be out // 2006-06-06
Viewsat released their fix for the last ECM which effected PPVs on Dishnetwork and the other Nagrastar North American system.
I am sure rest of the guys would be rolling out the files very soon, the cat and mouse game goes on.

Dishnet ECM spreading // 2006-06-02
Dish has started to use the new Cmd7 that Bell started 2 weeks ago.

The international channels on 61 and 121 are already black and some porn on 119 just went black, these same channels are fine on subbed card.

For those that dont know about the cmd7 thing. Cmd7 calls math routines that are not in the current round of software that is available to testers, therefore the Video Decrypt routine fails and you get black screen.. This is not a key issue or anything like that.. This is routine (map) math failure and coders dont know the answer yet....
This effects all cemu versions, rom10, rom101, atmega, fta and dvb users...

At present; the only known public fix for bell is rom102 plastic only and some got the Triple Dragon to work but they still had to have a rom102 card...

I would suspect that the same outage will be true for Dish in the near future..

How long before the 110 and 119 birds stay up is a best guess of maybe Tuesday at best.. but could be later today.. who knows for sure the schedule... they have been updating cards to rev108 for a while now to get ready for this...

I would also suspect that the using of new cmd7 routines on charlie will fire up more coders to get the math routines figured out (not that many people on bell as compared to dish)...

(thank you for the article and you know who you are....)



Dishnet ECM starting from ethnic channels // 2006-06-01
It looks like dishnet is using same technique as Bell, they started their ECM on ethnic channels today and I am sure it would slowly spread to all the channels.
Bell used the same method few weeks ago which caused blackout on all the PPV and the porno channels.

Murdoch using spys to be King // 2006-05-29
Rupert Murdoch is using a team of former code-breakers, scientists, and even a few ex-spy chasers in an effort to become the most powerful TV player in the world.

According to the New York Times, the NDS Group is an organization that could well be one of those shadowy outfits that help Jack Bauer battle bad guys on Fox Broadcasting's hit show 24. But NDS is no creation of a conspiracy-obsessed Hollywood writer. It's what Rupert Murdoch is using as a lethal weapon in the TV battle of the decade.

In the media industry's version of the arms race, no one is better equipped. News Corp owns 76% of the onetime Israeli company that comes up with tech wizardry like "smart codes," which are programmed with complex algorithms that keep TV beamed from Murdoch's global fleet of satellites from getting into the hands of pirates. In Australia Murdoch owns of 25% of Foxtel and is keen to own one of the free to air networks with Channel 10 or Channel 9 tipped to be on his radar.

Now NDS's brainiacs are cooking up a jam-packed set-top box for News Corp.'s U.S. satellite service, DirecTV (DTV ). The boxes will let viewers assemble their own shows from snippets of different programs, change camera angles for sports events, even stream some Internet programs from the Web onto their TVs. "Rupert sees technology as a weapon," says NDS CEO Abe Peled, a former Israeli platoon commander and top IBM (IBM ) scientist.

Satellite can't yet compete in data and phone, given its one-way service from the skies downward. But NDS is providing plenty of bells and whistles, including a service that boosted DirecTV subscriber counts by offering several games simultaneously on the screen during March Madness. Its "hybrid" DVR will use DSL to offer Internet on the TV screen. And in a lab in Costa Mesa, Calif., researchers are readying other services: a feature that lets viewers record programs by simply clicking on the network TV promo and another that streams content from News Corp.'s newly acquired IGN Internet game site. Further down the road is a wireless Net technology that will enable video-on-demand for mobile devices.

Murdoch needs to move fast if he is to be succesful. competitor Time Warner, has a smallish unit code-named The Maestro Group, that helped create a service that lets viewers restart shows that have already begun. Time Warner is also making available more hours of video-on-demand than DirecTV can. "NDS is Rupert's way of trying to do the best he can with a basically inferior product," says Peter Stern, Time Warner Cable's executive vice-president for product management.

Technology hasn't always been Murdoch's friend. His company took a $6 billion write-down and suffered the humiliation of taking control of Gemstar-TV Guide International just before its CEO, Henry Yuen, resigned and was later found liable for accounting irregularities. Gemstar paid $10 million to settle a civil suit related to those allegations in 2004.

And as smart as Murdoch's NDS investment looks today, the company hasn't always been a picnic. In the early 1990s, one of Murdoch's partners in the venture, Israeli-American businessman Michael Clinger, was accused by Murdoch of overcharging the company for smart cards made by an associate. While Clinger has denied the charges, News Corp. did win a $47 million civil judgment in 1998 related to the allegations. The company says it can't find Clinger. Later, French satellite company Canal+ Group (V ) sued, alleging that NDS used a hacker to break the code on Canal+'s competing smart cards and publicized the code on the Internet. Canal+ later withdrew the suit as part of a business transaction, and Peled says NDS is no longer looking for Clinger: "Last we heard, he was in Cuba, and we don't think he has any money."

Since taking control of DirecTV in 2003, Murdoch's mission has been to lure subscribers from cable by slashing prices, giving away set-top boxes, and paying big for ads. Now comes the second wave: a technology offensive. During a recent stroll through NDS's Costa Mesa facility, the 75-year-old proudly reviewed his arsenal. "We expect NDS to build up new offerings and to improve DirecTV's market share," he said with a crocodile grin. Translation: The war for viewers is about to escalate.

Nagrastar fighting back // 2006-05-24
As I reported in my last news that Echostar and Bell were under the pressure to do something so they came up with new key change routine... this stopped majority of the test illegal devices from rolling to new keys but the word on the street is that underground guys already figured out how to go around the new ECM.
It is like a cat and mouse game but hard to figure out who is the cat and who is the mouse.

Interesting article reagrding Nagra hack // 2006-05-19
Internal ECM memo and legal action

Now that both of these broadcasters have openly admitted that their Nagravision encryption has been compromised, why aren't they doing anything about it?

The FCC and CRTC should take note: both of these broadcasters are in violation of their responsibilities to secure their signals and compete fairly with other broadcasters for new business. ...the CRTC even threatened to revoke the broadcast license of ExpressVu if piracy was not eliminated.

Neither Echostar or ExpressVu has shown any willingness or due diligence to secure their recently compromised broadcast signals.
Either the CEOs of these organizations are incompetent bungling fools or shrewd men of business... Securing the Nagravision Encrypted signal, at least partially, is trivial and a technical method for doing so will be recommended.

In the interim, competing satellite broadcasters and cable companies should know that the North American market is now being flooded by cheap Chinese exported Free-to-Air (FTA) receivers that can decode both Echostar and ExpressVu signals without any monthly fees. Some of these FTA receivers are selling for as little as $50 and are being sold in electronics outlets throughout North America. A competing broadcaster, who has suffered damages and continues to suffer damages, has estimated that over 500,000 of these units have entered the US market alone since September of 2005. ...from affidavits requested from major [FTA] manufacturers.

The response from Echostar and ExpressVu so far has been silence. Neither broadcaster has attempted any serious electronic counter measures. Both broadcasters have periodically changed their public keys but the majority of FTA models have not been affected. Ergen would not respond to their complaints. Neither would Kudelski.

A team of engineers at our broadcasting facility were asked to study Echostar's security problem and advise us on whether this problem could be countered with software upgrades or whether a complete card swap would be required.

Technical research obtained, written by Mr.X.Y, Lead Electrical Engineer (Communications Group)


Excerpt

Echostar/ExpressVu Piracy Problem - Complaints to FCC and CRTC Respectively

RE: Memo to communications staff - March 12, 2006
RE: FTA Piracy rampant - March 12, 2006
RE: Counter Measure Proposals - March 13, 2006
RE: Nagravision Signal Integrity: Study - March 14, 2006
RE: Complaints to FCC and CRTC - Pending Approval

Report Findings:

1. "101 ROM" cams compromised February 2005. Invasive attack from Spain most likely source for this compromise. Cam-IRD session handshaking protocol intact.
2. IDEA Broadcaster keys for Echostar start to circulate on public forums in August 2005. FTA piracy starts.
3. Public non-invasive attack compromises "102 ROM" cams in October 2005. ExpressVu is now also compromised. Modifications of receiver firmware to counter Cam-IRD session handshaking protocol are widespread. Numerous pirate cams, cards and other electronics to facilitate piracy are being sold.
4. Echostar swapping out "101 ROM" cams by June 2006. No other card swap is planned.

Report Recommendations:

Although the Nagravision Encryption for certain cams is publically compromised, it will be proposed to Echostar and ExpressVu via the FCC and CRTC respectively, that the following counter measures be implemented immediately:

1. Restoration of CAM-IRD handshake protocol and counter measures against firmware modifications. It will be proposed that the CONTROL WORDS be ciphered with the 64 byte Primary RSA key in IRD firmware in a convoluted manner difficult to reverse-engineer from firmware disassemblies. Any modifications to the Primary RSA key will result in incorrect CONTROL WORDS. Without knowledge of the convolution process, FTA and DVB piracy will be eliminated.

2. Increase the length of the RSA exponent used for public key decryption to 512 bits. This will render atmel based piracy devices and older generation ROM cards useless.

3. Traditional electronic counter measures against compromised "102 ROM" cams.

Murdoch opens Costa Mesa plant // 2006-05-17
Media mogul's new facility makes devices that protect pay-TV content from piracy.

For media mogul Rupert Murdoch, "The OC" is not just a money-generating television series on his Fox network.

Orange County is home to a critical piece of technology in his empire's satellite, cable and other subscriber-supported television services.

On Thursday, Sir Keith Rupert Murdoch – ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's 84th richest man – snipped a blue ribbon to celebrate the opening in Costa Mesa of the new headquarters of NDS Americas, a Murdoch subsidiary that makes encryption devices to prevent piracy of pay TV programs.

"NDS technology today safeguards more than $30 billion in revenues and content," Murdoch said. "Every move forward in today's digital media world, in which content can be accessed anywhere at anytime on any device, NDS will play an even greater role."

NDS employs almost 3,000 people worldwide, including 171 in Costa Mesa, where employees test, market and manufacture "Smart" cards sold to Murdoch's DirecTV and other satellite and cable broadcasters around the world.

The credit card-sized devices have embedded chips that allow boxes atop TV sets to decrypt scrambled digital signals so viewers can watch and record programs and play online games, among a growing array of pay-for-use services.

NDS opened an office in 1995 in Newport Beach and a year later a manufacturing plant in Lake Forest. The two operations are now housed in the 85,000-square-foot Costa Mesa plant.

"Orange County has a good software engineer population to choose from," said Dov Rubin, general manager of NDS Americas.

During a tour of the facility, Murdoch saw the plant that churns out 1.5 million Smart cards a month and rows of cubicles where engineers test and debug the decryption devices.

He was also shown products under development that will help subscribers sort through hundreds of channels, record broadcasts and integrate pre-recorded material or programming from the Net onto their TVs.

Murdoch started what became NDS in 1987, when he was preparing to launch his BSkyB satellite television service in Britain. He needed an encryption system to prevent viewers from pirating – instead of paying for – his programs.

"There was no encryption system that didn't damage the picture badly, so we searched the world, and we found these people in Tel Aviv, and we got the company started," Murdoch said after touring the plant.

News Corp. reported total income of $1 billion in the quarter ending March 31, including $69 million from its direct-broadcast satellite division. The vast majority of income came from entertainment, television and other programming, which Murdoch said will continue to dominate his company.

"Content can be provided to everybody," Murdoch said. "We wanted to also have a distribution system that would guarantee that our content would get out there to homes. And if we have a great idea for a new channel for DirecTV, then the cable companies will want to have it, too."

Nagrastar and Dishnetwork on the mending track // 2006-05-13
Despite speculation earlier in the year that the relationship between EchoStar and Kudelski was on the rocks, it appears things may be back on track between the satellite TV company and its conditional access provider.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released this week, EchoStar said it purchased about $20.5 million in security access devices during the first quarter from NagraStar, its 50/50 joint venture with Kudelski. As of March 31, the amount payable to NagraStar totaled $5.1 million. Also, as of March 31, EchoStar was committed to purchase about $35 million in security access devices from NagraStar, the SEC filing stated.

Lawsuit expenses hurt EchoStar's profit // 2006-05-11
The Denver Business Journal

A one-time charge from a patent-infringement lawsuit and slower subscriber growth knocked down first-quarter earnings for EchoStar Communications Corp., the satellite TV provider reported Wednesday.

EchoStar (NASDAQ: DISH) posted a profit of $143 million, or 33 cents a share, on revenue of $2.29 billion in the first quarter.

The earnings missed analysts' expectations of 46 cents a share. But the company met revenue estimates, according to Yahoo! Finance.

During the comparable quarter in 2005, EchoStar reported a net income of $317.5 million, or 69 cents a share, on revenue of $2.02 billion.

EchoStar posted a one-time litigation charge of $73.9 million due to the patent-infringement case with TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO).

While EchoStar added about 225,000 new subscribers to its DISH Network, the service's growth slowed by 30 percent from the previous year.

TiVo, based in Alviso, Calif., claimed it lost $87 million in sales and royalties after EchoStar offered a similar product for its subscribers. TiVo developed a technology that lets viewers capture video programming from a hard disc. A U.S. District Court judge ruled in favor of TiVo on April 13.

About 12.3 million subscribers use the DISH Network, making it the nation's No. 2 satellite TV provider next to DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV).

In its first-quarter earnings, DirecTV reported that its subscriber growth fell by nearly 50 percent from the same quarter.

The earnings came out after the market closed on Wednesday, but EchoStar shares closed up 13 cents to $32.25.

Echostar the next pitbull? // 2006-05-08
By Greg Griffin
Denver Post Staff Writer

Dino Broccoli is bitter about his legal tangle with EchoStar Communications Corp.

And he's not the only one.

Broccoli worked for the company's Dish Network as a technician in Maryland in 2000 and 2001.

He says a female human-resources director made uninvited and unwelcome sexual advances toward him, including sitting on his desk and pulling up her skirt, flashing one of her breasts and sending him inappropriate e-mails.

Broccoli said he repeatedly rebuffed her advances. In November 2001, he was fired by EchoStar in a restructuring.

Broccoli filed a sexual-harassment and retaliation lawsuit against EchoStar in December 2003, seeking $8 million, claiming the woman arranged for his termination in retaliation for rejecting her.

The case went to a jury trial in March 2005. Broccoli lost his claims of harassment and retaliation. He won $9,700 from the company on a claim for wages.

But it wasn't a clean win for EchoStar, the nation's second-largest satellite-TV company, based in Douglas County.

The federal judge in the case sanctioned EchoStar for destroying e-mails and other documents that might have supported Broccoli's case, saying the company "clearly acted in bad faith."

The judge's sanction resulted in EchoStar paying Broccoli $37,000 for attorneys' fees.

"I got hit over the head," said Broccoli, 37, who now manages a health club in Maryland. "They got away with it."

Tactics led to trouble

EchoStar's aggressive legal tactics have often left foes licking their wounds. And EchoStar has sometimes gotten in trouble for those tactics.

EchoStar or its attorneys have been sanctioned three separate times by federal judges since 2004: for destruction of evidence in Broccoli's case; for "unreasonable and vexatious" behavior in a contract dispute with a programmer; and for "conscious wrongdoing" in a case involving satellite insurance.

Separately, since 2001, EchoStar or its executives have been rebuked in separate cases before the Colorado Supreme Court, the Federal Communications Commission, a federal judge in Florida and an American Arbitration Association panel, according to court and regulatory records.

A legal-ethics expert - who at the request of The Denver Post reviewed the three cases in which EchoStar was sanctioned - said they appear to reveal a pattern by the company and some of its attorneys of "crossing the line" in their court conduct.

"Lawyers usually know where the line is and they often walk right up to it," said University of Denver College of Law assistant dean Daniel Vigil. "But sometimes judges confirm that they crossed the line. It looks like that has happened a few times with EchoStar."

David Moskowitz, EchoStar's general counsel, declined to address specific cases but provided a statement.

"Of course not every judge and jury has sided with EchoStar, and we don't win every case we are involved in, but we have a good track record and we are confident our actions are ethical and in the best interests of our customers and our shareholders," he said.

Suits a "business strategy"

Like many large public companies, particularly those in the fast-paced technology and entertainment industries, EchoStar sues and is sued in the course of business.

Intel, Microsoft and Viacom, to name a few, have reputations as legal pit bulls. EchoStar and Viacom tangled in 2004 over programming fees for EchoStar to carry Viacom channels such as MTV and Comedy Central.

"EchoStar clearly uses litigation as a business strategy," said Denver attorney Kevin Evans, who represented AXA Space Inc., a satellite insurer based in Bethesda, Md.

AXA and other insurers were sued by EchoStar in 2000 over a $200 million claim for a malfunctioning satellite.

"They don't try to resolve things. It's their position or they sue you," said Evans.

A federal judge sanctioned EchoStar in that case for "conscious wrongdoing" for filing a conspiracy claim against AXA and other insurers without substantiation.

EchoStar was fined $30,000 by the judge. EchoStar dropped the suit against AXA and others in 2001.

Hardball litigation has been a central feature of EchoStar's business strategy for more than a decade. EchoStar has sued former executives, business partners, competitors, vendors and insurers.

EchoStar retained more than 100 law firms during the 1990s, according to 2001 testimony by Moskowitz. The company spent more than $10 million on outside law firms in 2000, Moskowitz testified.

Moskowitz, who joined EchoStar in 1990 after four years at Denver-based homebuilder MDC Holdings, is central to the company's legal strategy.

"As a multinational Fortune 300 company, it is inevitable that litigation arises from time to time,"

EchoStar founder and CEO Charlie Ergen, and co-founder Jim DeFranco, senior executive vice president, joke before a live TV broadcast of Charlie Chat in March from the company s headquarters in Douglas County. (Post / Brian Brainerd)

he said in his statement Friday. "We try to resolve all matters amicably and avoid the expense of litigation."

Sued its own law firm

EchoStar bet the company on a lawsuit in 1997, when it sued Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $5 billion over a failed merger of satellite-TV operations. Before a trial, News Corp. settled. EchoStar gained control of a valuable satellite slot and other assets that allowed it to expand against industry leader DirecTV, which is now controlled by News Corp. EchoStar, with 15,000 employees, has more than 12 million subscribers compared with DirecTV's 15 million.

Even in the News Corp. litigation, EchoStar sued its own law firm, Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott, a Chicago-based firm with a Denver office.

EchoStar accused the firm of fraud and unethical conduct. The firm ultimately prevailed in arbitration.

An American Arbitration Association panel, which included a former chief Colorado Supreme Court justice, awarded Bartlit Beck $40.2 million and rebuked EchoStar for "egregious conduct."

Among EchoStar's infractions: delaying arbitration, which the parties had agreed to in their contract, by suing Bartlit Beck; and making claims of unethical conduct against the firm that ranged from overstated to "patently false."
EchoStar attorneys also faced harsh criticism in Denver from a federal judge and appeals panel for their conduct in defending against a 2003 lawsuit from Dominion Video Satellite regarding an agreement to carry the company's Christian programming.

Three EchoStar lawyers - longtime EchoStar advising counsel T. Wade Welch of Houston, his partner Ross Wooten and Denver attorney Todd Jansen - were sanctioned by a federal judge in 2004 for "unreasonable and vexatious" behavior.

He said they filed lengthy briefs and motions with no merit.

EchoStar appealed, but the appellate panel, calling the appeal "frivolous," upheld the sanctions and a $2.4 million arbitration award in Dominion's favor.

In sanctioning the lawyers, the judge said they had "presented the saddest day that I have seen in my many years in this court," and that their conduct "doesn't even meet law-school student behavior."

Last month, a Texas jury awarded TV recording-device maker TiVo $74 million in its patent-infringement lawsuit against E*hoStar.

EchoStar pledged to try to overturn the verdict, and failing that, to appeal.

CEO Ergen fabulously rich

EchoStar is headed by co-founder, chairman and chief executive Charlie Ergen, who is known for tight-fisted control over costs to keep the company's position as a low-price competitor in the satellite-TV industry.

He couches that in a folksy, customer-service manner.

In March, the company's Dish Network satellite service celebrated its 10th anniversary during "Charlie Chat," an informal TV program on Channel 101 hosted by Ergen and company executive and co-founder Jim DeFranco.

DeFranco quipped that the set and production quality of the chats haven't improved in 10 years. Ergen replied that EchoStar doesn't spend a lot of money on the show because "we don't want to raise your rates."

Ergen, meanwhile, has become fabulously wealthy. With a net worth of $6.7 billion, he is the 80th-richest person in the world, according to Forbes magazine. He is Colorado's richest resident by far, ahead of better-known moguls such as Philip Anschutz and John Malone .

His fortune is almost completely tied up in the value of EchoStar, which has a market capitalization of $14 billion. That may explain why EchoStar fights so hard.

But even neighbors of the Ergen-controlled Telluray Ranch in southwestern Colorado have felt the wrath in court.

Telluray Ranch is a 6,200-acre cattle ranch in rural Ouray County between the Uncompahgre and San Juan national forests amid rugged peaks and river valleys.

In the early 1990s, Ergen wanted to build a road across his neighbors' properties to access Telluray.

The neighbors banded together and sued Telluray and Ergen, a dispute that went through the state court system for the better part of a decade.

The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in Telluray's favor last year.

"From the get-go, this case has been pure harassment of the homeowners" by Telluray, said attorney John Steel, who represented property owners. "We've spent years of effort and hundreds of thousands of dollars for nothing."

Quotes from cases in which EchoStar has been sanctioned or admonished in the past five years:

"We find EchoStar's appeal of the confirmation of the award to be frivolous."

U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, Dec. 7, 2005, in Dominion Video Satellite

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch testifies on Capitol Hill in May 2003. In 1997 EchoStar sued News Corp. for $5 billion over a failed merger of satellite-TV operations. News Corp. settled before a trial. (AP / Matthew Cavanaugh)

Inc. vs. EchoStar Satellite LLC

"The evidence of a regular policy at EchoStar of 'deep-sixing' nettlesome documents and records (and of management's efforts to avoid their creation in the first instance) is overwhelming. ... EchoStar clearly acted in bad faith."

U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis, District of Maryland, Aug. 4, 2005, in Dino J. Broccoli vs. EchoStar Communications Corp.

"This ... doesn't even meet law-school student behavior." EchoStar's attorneys "have presented the saddest day that I have seen in my many years in this court."

U.S. District Judge John L. Kane, District of Colorado, Jan. 18, 2005, in Dominion Video Satellite Inc. vs. EchoStar Satellite LLC

"EchoStar's action rises to the level of conscious wrongdoing."

U.S. District Judge Marcia S. Krieger, District of Colorado, Feb. 4, 2004, in EchoStar Satellite Corp. vs. Brockbank Insurance Services Inc. et al.

"It appears that ... (Charlie) Ergen and David Moskowitz, when confronted with the prospect of cutting off network programming to hundreds of thousands of subscribers, elected instead to break Mr. Ergen's promise to the court."

U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas, Southern District of Florida, June 10, 2003, in CBS Broadcasting Inc. et al. vs. EchoStar Communications Corp.

"The evidence demonstrates that EchoStar's communication was misleading and coercive."

Supreme Court of Colorado, Jan. 22, 2002, in Air Communication & Satellite Inc. vs. EchoStar Satellite Corp.

"Our overall conclusion is that the charges of misconduct made here by EchoStar are precisely the kind of litigation tactic condemned by ... Colorado's Rules of Professional Conduct."

American Arbitration Association panel, Denver, Oct. 29, 2001, in Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott vs. EchoStar Communications Corp.

"EchoStar failed in its duty of candor ... We admonish EchoStar for this abuse of process and caution EchoStar to take greater care."

Federal Communications Commission, Washington, Aug. 2, 2001, in EchoStar Satellite Corp. vs. Young Broadcasting Inc.


EchoStar response

"We take pride in conducting our business ethically at all levels. As a multinational Fortune 300 company it is inevitable that litigation arises from time to time. We try to resolve all matters amicably and avoid the expense of litigation. Some companies see litigation simply as an economic equation. If settlement is less expensive than litigation, they will choose to settle.

"In contrast, when we believe our actions are proper, where others are attempting to exploit the legal system to their advantage unjustly, or when the consequence of settling would harm our customers, we are willing to litigate as a matter of principle even where settlement would be less expensive.

"Of course not every judge and jury has sided with EchoStar, and we don't win every case we are involved in, but we have a good track record and we are confident our actions are ethical and in the best interests of our customers and our shareholders."

- David Moskowitz, executive vice president and general counsel for EchoStar

Satellite TV Pirate Jailed In Canada // 2006-05-06
By Laurie Sullivan, TechWeb News
May 04, 2006 (11:16 AM EDT)

EchoStar Communications Corp., NagraStar and DIRECTV Inc., won a victory over piracy in Canadian courts, the companies said Thursday.

William Boudreau was sentenced to three months in jail after he was found in contempt under an order, similar to a U.S. search and seizure warrant, granted by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Feb. 16, 2004, the companies said. Boudreau operated Emulator1.com, a Web site identified as a distributor of piracy devices and software used to steal media content from EchoStar and DIRECTV.

The ruling required Boudreau to give the three companies access to his Web site and all databases, including customer and membership lists, to preserve evidence for litigation. Boudreau refused to grant access to the Web site, failed to take the Website offline and failed to turn over records of the Website’s customers and members. Following the contempt hearing, the court held that Boudreau intentionally obstructed justice. On April 20, Boudreau was sentenced to three months in a provincial correctional institution in Ontario, Canada, and is serving his sentence in the Hamilton Detention Center.

Direct TV techs: lying is part of the job // 2006-05-01
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A group of DirectTV satellite technicians who have installed systems in homes across Central Florida sought out the Problem Solvers to fight back against a company policy they say creates an environment where lying to customers is part of the job, according to an investigation.

A large group of DirectTV technicians traveled to Local 6 studios to talk about being pressured to sell systems connected to phone lines.

The technicians said their supervisors have been putting pressure on them by deducting $5 from their paychecks for every DirectTV receiver that's not connected to a phone line, the report said.

"They admit, they've lied to customers along the way," Local 6 reporter Nancy Alvarez said.

"If we don't lie to the customers, we get back charged for it and we don't make money," a technician said.

Local 6 News reported that phone lines are not necessary for a DirectTV system but having them enhances the service -- allowing customers to order movies through a remote control instead of through the phone or over the Internet.

But the report found that every phone line connected to a receiver means more money for DirectTV and Mastec -- the contractor these men work for, Alvarez said.

"So, it's just a convenience?" Alvarez asked.

"Yeah, it's more convenient than anything else," a technician said.

"We go to a home that needs three receivers that's $15," a technician said.

The group said supervisors have ordered them to do or say whatever it takes to avoid a deduction on their paychecks, the report said.

"Tell the customer whatever you have to tell them," technician Frank Martinez said. "Tell them if these phone lines are not connected, the receiver will blow up."

"You've been told to tell them that?" Alvarez asked.

"We've been told to say that," Martinez said. "(And say) whatever it takes to get that phone line in the receiver."

The report uncovered that the apparent lie could cost customers big money.

The fee to have a phone line installed could be as high at $52 per room. A wireless phone jack will cost another $50.

Managers at Mastec's Orlando office did not want to comment on the report.

"We're hoping to talk to you guys about some concerns raised by your employees." Alvarez said.

"Guys, I need you to walk out of the office, this is a private office," an office worker said.

"Are you asking employees to lie to customers?" Alvarez asked.

The officer worker did not answer Alvarez's question.

Local 6 News reported that statements from the Mastec and DirectTV corporate offices make it clear that the policy of deducting money from employees' paychecks will continue.

A DirectTV spokesman said techs who don't hook up phone lines are "denying customers the full benefit and function of their DirectTV System," Alvarez said.

"The men (at the studio) disagree," Alvarez said. The group said the policy has done nothing but create an environment where lying to customers is part of the job, she said.

"It's either lie or lose money?" Alvarez asked.

"We don't have a choice," a technician said.

During the Local 6 News investigation, Mastec decided to reimburse money to some technicians who had met a certain quota but the policy continues.

"One reason (for the policy) could be that DirectTV does keep track of their customers' viewing habits through the phone line," Alvarez said.

Last year, DirectTV paid out a $5 million settlement with Florida and 21 other states for deceptive practices.

Now, because of the Local 6 News story, the attorney general's office looking into this newest issue, Alvarez said.


Piracy fight in Europe // 2006-04-30
AEPOC Board of Directors’ Meeting in Paris

- AEPOC re-addresses audio-visual piracy issues in view of EU-Directives on Conditional Access and IPR Criminal Enforcement

- Global scale conditional access piracy and copyright infringement strikes back at EU-media markets calling for enhanced EU legislative framework

- AEPOC welcomes decision of the EU Council Customs resolution against counterfeiting and piracy

Triple and multi-play propositions of the media industries continue to successfully build the basis for an European information society while piracy is still the central threat to the development and benefits of media convergence. The Board of Directors’ Meeting of AEPOC, the European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services, held in Paris on April 6, agreed to re-address major Conditional Access issues at the EU Commission: Directives currently under review or in preparation must contain more precise and far-sighted provisions on audio-visual piracy. AEPOC underlined that piracy continues to be the biggest inhibitor of digital growth limiting its beneficial aspects in view of the EU information society.

“Instead of considering other issues already covered by different Directives, the review of the Conditional Access Directive should put piracy and the overall fight against its negative effects for our societies into the focus of this legislation. Piracy is the number one enemy of the EU information society - threatening digital growth and convergence, while media, telecommunication and technology companies continuously present new and innovative multi-play consumer offerings across Europe”, says AEPOC President Jean Grenier.

Currently the European Commission is starting the process for a possible review of the Conditional Access Directive (98/84/EC). AEPOC representatives will meet several national and European authorities, addressing the anti-piracy positions of AEPOC, in order to enable a sustainable development of the digital media sectors.

In this context, AEPOC welcomes the proposal for a new Criminal Enforcement Directive aimed at ensuring the enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPRs). However, AEPOC recommends to explicitly extend the scope of this draft Directive to Conditional Access, besides Brands and General Copyrights, which shall be covered by this legislation. The directive will lay down the measures necessary to ensure enforcement of IPRs with a sufficiently dissuasive set of penalties applicable throughout the Community.

Moreover, AEPOC members increasingly report cases of piracy and copyright fraud from outside EU countries, that strike back at the European markets. Just recently, aided through peer-to-peer and server-based technologies, an incident of re-broadcasting occurred in China, that enabled viewers to illegally access contents all around the world.

Also in light of these emerging phenomena, AEPOC sees a strong need to review the EU’s overall legislative framework on audio-visual piracy, taking more explicitly into account threats from new technologies - arising from international breeding grounds of piracy, that may have lesser legislation, but also from piracy circles within EU countries. As such illegal services enter the EU via anonymous Internet detours but directly affect the European media markets, AEPOC suggests as a first step to name the Conditional Access Directive within the preamble of the new Television Without Frontiers Directive.

“Discussions with EU representatives and AEPOC will treat the topics of new Internet based and international piracy, that call the scope of existing EU anti-piracy legislation into question, demanding a 360-degree review. A sustainable development of the EU information society can only be achieved with sufficient protection from illicit actions - currently the EU can be entered by too many backdoors for pirates”, summarizes AEPOC Secretary General Davide Rossi.

AEPOC welcomes Council Resolution on Customs Union

In 2005 AEPOC members had started offering training sessions to European Customs officials in order to be able to more easily detect pirate pay-TV set-top-boxes and stop illicit trade. In this context AEPOC is delighted to hear the resolution of the Council of the European Union on Customs Union concerning Counterfeiting and Piracy. The resolution recognizes the threat posed by the serious growth in counterfeiting and piracy to the Union’s knowledge-based economy and the key responsibility of customs in protecting the economy and consumers from this threat. The resolution details the need for efficient customs controls and suggests concrete actions to improve controls among others by international co-operation with relevant organisations. AEPOC member companies have already decided to continue providing support for European customs with the next sessions scheduled in France.

The AEPOC Board of Directors’ meeting was kindly hosted by AEPOC member Eutelsat and joined by guest speakers from Melita Cable, television and telecommunication provider on the Islands of Malta and Gozo, as well as Italian broadband multi-play service company Fastweb. The next AEPOC Board of Directors’ meeting and General Assembly are scheduled for June in Switzerland.

Note: Please find attached as separate pdf-file the full text of the Council Resolution on Customs Union and Counterfeiting and Piracy as extract of a press release of the Council of the European Union of March 13 2006.

AEPOC (www.aepoc.org) is the "Association Européenne pour la Protection des ?uvres et Services Cryptés" or the "European Association for the Protection of Encrypted Works and Services". AEPOC started its activities in 1995. Its current membership consists of 35 leading digital television and telecommunication companies including TV channels, conditional access providers, providers of transmission infrastructures and manufacturers of related hardware. AEPOC's goal is to eliminate the pirating of encrypted works and services and to encourage the development of the appropriate legal, operational and technological frameworks to increase the security and safeguarding of conditional access systems for Pay-TV, TV-based and IP services.

The AEPOC members are: ADD Europe, AL MAJD, Aston, Atmel, BSkyB, Canal+, Canal+ Polska, comvenient, Conax, Digiturk, Eutelsat, Humax, Hutro, Infineon Technologies, Irdeto, Liberty Global, Motorola, Nagravision, NDS, NTV-Plus, Opentech, Pace, Philips, Premiere, Sagem, SCM Microsystems, Showtime Arabia, Sky Italia, Sogecable, Thomson, TPS, TVCabo, Viaccess - France Telecom, and WELA Electronic.

Israeli consortium targets China and India's DTV m // 2006-04-27
In a joint effort to tap into China and India's digital TV broadcast market, a consortium of eight Israeli companies will jointly offer a DTV solution for those markets.

With nearly 24 million cable and satellite homes, that is about 150 million viewers, India is a large market.
By 2010, it is estimated that there will be more than 94 million cable and satellite households making India one of largest cable markets in the world.
India has attracted many a channel from overseas. But the channels that attract eyeballs are those that offer dollops of local fare in local languages: state-owned broadcaster Doordrashan, Zee TV, Sony Entertainment, Star Plus, ESPN Star Sports, Sun TV, Raj TV, Eenadu TV, the local cable TV operator run pirated movie channel. The English and foreign language channels are niche players struggling to stay on their feet. English language channels dubbed in local languages are faring much better.

China currently has 120 million cable TV subscribers, and a government-backed initiative will complete the introduction of DTV broadcasts in China by 2015. The government is also gearing up for a big DTV push in advance of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The eight companies are: NDS Group, VBox Communications Ltd, Orca Interactive, Scopus Network Technologies, VCON Telecommunications, Kramer Technologies, Bitband and TMT Coaxial Networks.

Oded Arbel, the Israeli commercial attaché in Beijing, said comparatively small Israeli companies alone can provide only partial solutions, but a consortium offering broader solutions increased the chances of success in China.

NDS and NagraVision got a competation // 2006-04-22
Networking equipment giant Cisco Systems and Canadian telecom behemoth Telus are joining with deep-pocketed venture capital firms to invest $16 million in Widevine -- a Seattle company that helps cable, telephone and satellite operators securely deliver digital video to consumers. Financing in the 75-person company now stands at $62 million.

The new investment is a big boost for Widevine's global expansion efforts, and it comes after Chief Executive Brian Baker rebuffed offers from Microsoft Corp., whose technology also is used to protect movies and television shows from online piracy.

Baker, who founded Widevine in 1999 and led it through a painful restructuring in 2001, said the company has attracted a lot of interest lately as cable, satellite, Internet and telephone companies fight over how people receive digital television broadcasts and movies. Sitting in the middle of that battle, Baker said Widevine has become an "arms dealer" that sells its encryption technology to all comers.

It now boasts 90 customers, including one of the country's biggest cable companies, telephone operator CenturyTel and video-on-demand distributor TVN Entertainment. Revenue more than doubled to $12 million last year, with Baker anticipating it to double again this year. The 31-year-old entrepreneur, who expects to boost employment to more than 100 people this year, said the company is operating at break-even.

As more video content moves online and to portable devices such as iPods, movie studios and television broadcasters are demanding that strict content security systems be put in place.

"A video service is only as good as the content security component," says Baker.

Cisco's involvement is a big deal for Widevine, not only because it is a major supplier of networking equipment to cable and telephone companies, but also because of its recent $6.9 billion acquisition of Scientific-Atlanta. Scientific-Atlanta is one of the largest makers of set-top boxes, devices that allow consumers to receive digital TV broadcasts.

Through a 2004 agreement, Widevine already supplies its digital encryption technology to Motorola set-top boxes. Now, with the investment from Cisco, Baker said that Widevine's content protection technology will soon be added to Scientific-Atlanta set-top boxes. An agreement with Siemens -- a third set-top box maker -- is expected to be announced soon, Baker said.

Baker declined to say how much Cisco owns of Widevine, and whether it has reserved the option to buy the remainder of the company.

Widevine's technology -- which is studio and broadcaster approved -- also works with mobile devices and personal computers. In all of these instances, the technology is designed to make sure that consumers are paying for content and are not redistributing it for free.

In addition to Microsoft, Widevine competes against News Corp. subsidiary NDS -- which provides an encryption technology known as VideoGuard for DirectTV -- and Nagravision -- a publicly traded Swiss company whose customers include EchoStar, Canal Satellite and others. Those companies require a "smart card" to protect against piracy, whereas Widevine's technology is software-based and can be pushed out at little cost over the network, Baker said.

Widevine hasn't always been on a steep growth curve. Initially, it focused on selling encryption technology for movies delivered over the Internet -- a market that didn't take off the way many had hoped. In 2001, Baker regained control of the struggling company, recapitalized the finances and chopped staff by 80 percent. At its low point, Widevine employed a skeleton crew of 12.

"I saw an opportunity at that time to take ... the core technology and the patents and apply them to what were existing, sustainable markets: telephone, cable and satellite companies," said Baker, who started landing small service operators as customers. That led to more financing from VantagePoint Venture Partners, The Phoenix Partners and others.

Over the past year, Baker said Microsoft has approached Widevine several times about investment opportunities. While Baker hopes to join with Microsoft's TV division in the future, he said being a part of the software giant could disrupt Widevine's ability to make inroads with large telephone and cable companies.

"One of the reasons for our success is that we are not Microsoft," he said.

Most recent changes to the Dish Channel List page // 2006-04-21
To make room for the new spot beams on transponder 26 at 110°, the following channels have been removed: Sparky (257) a Dish Network engineering channel, ETC3 (9983) another "Engineering Test Channel", "Sport" channels 462-464 and Commercial Sport channels 9800 and 9801.

Alt 7 (452) moved to tp 24 at 110° from tp 10 at 119°

Jackson MS local channels (9270-9276),

The rest of the Memphis TN locals (7165-7171) moved from tp 6 spot 9 at 110° (E*8) to tp 20 spot 14 at 110° (E*10)

All Atlanta locals, except for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS moved to tp 20 spot 6 from the following: (8304-8305) tp 18 at 110°, (8307, 8308 & 8310) tp 30 at 61.5°, (8309) tp 13 at 61.5°.

All Little Rock local channels (9350-9359) moved from tp 20 at 110° (E*8) to tp 18 spot 15 at 110° (E*10)

Sports Time Ohio (431) returned to tp 24 at 110°

All Indianapolis local channels and significantly viewed mirrors for Terre Haute moved to tp 18 spot 13 at 110° from (6208, 6209, 8450-8456 and 8462) tp 7 spot 11 at 119°, (8457 & 8460) tp 30 at 61.5° At the same time mirrors of WRTV, WISH, WTHR and WXIN were removed from 9828-9831 at 119°

Fort Wayne locals (7435-7442) moved from tp 8 at 121° to tp 20 spot 13 at 110°. However channels 7438-7442 were returned to 121° due to technical issues. It is reported that these channels are still at 110° as well, but legitimate Dish recovers will be picking them up from 121° only.

Lansing MI locals (7510-7516) moved from tp 2 at 121° to tp 20 a 13 at 110°

Flint MI local ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox (7530-7533) moved from tp 10 at 121° to tp 20 spot 13 at 110° The rest of the Flint locals moved here last week. Also WNEM and WEYI mirrors (9845 & 9846) were removed from 121°

Bristol/Tri Cities (7615-7622) moved from tp 2 at 105° to tp 18 spot 6 at 110°
Augusta locals 7702, 7703 and 7706 moved to tp 26 spot 6.

Columbus/Tupelo MS locals (7760-7766) moved from tp 11 at 105° to tp 26 spot 11 at 110°

Toledo OH locals (7820-7826) moved from tp 24 at 121° to tp 26 spot 13 at 110°

Macon GA locals (7877-7881) moved from tp 21 at 105° to tp 18 spot 6 at 110° (ANON) WDCO (7882) remains at 119° since this channel is, in reality, a mirror of WGTV Atlanta.

Detroit MI locals (8030-8035) moved from tp 10 spot 10 at 110° (E*8) to tp 26 spot 13 at 110° (E*10). Channels 8036 and 8037 moved to tp 12 spot 13 last week.

San Francisco locals (8220-8227) moved from tp 7 spot 4 at 119° to tp 26 spot 43 at 110°. The rest of SF locals remain in their old slots at this time. Also KGO, KPIX, KNTV and KTVU mirrors at 9808-9811 were removed from the system.

All Sacramento locals moved to tp 20 spot 43 (E*10) from (8630-8636) tp 8 spot 2 (E*8) and (8638, 8640 & 8642) tp 6 at 148°. At the same time mirrors of channels 8638, 8640 and 8642 at 129° were removed from the system.

Charlotte NC local channels (8650-8661) moved from tp 5 spot 14 at 119° to tp 26 spot 6 at 110°.

WUNG (8662) remains at 119° since it is a mirror of WUNC in Chapel Hill/Raleigh. Also WSOC and WCCB mirrors on channels 9836 and 9839 were removed from 119°.

The Showtime free preview channels which have been hidden for a few weeks (284-299) have been replaced with Starz/Encore free preview channels. These are mirrors of Staz, Starz West, Edge, Cinema, Cinema West, Kids & Family and Encore.

Sky Angel channels Spirit, 3ABN and Golden Eagle Broadcasting (9706, 9710 and 9715) have been returned to the line-up on tp 32 at 61.5°, though they are currently listed as "Off air". There is no programming yet on these channels.

These channels were lost with the temporary fix of transponder 32 at 61.5° this weekend. Dish Network and Sky Angel are working to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Test channel 9949 moved from tp 10 at 61.5° to tp 11 at 119°.

This channel was showing the pentagon channel FTA to MPEG2 receivers (not Dish Network Receivers). Unknown the current content and FTA status.

Ary One World (651), Ary QTV (662) and Ary Muzik (663) became available to subscribers at 61.5° and 148° today.

Package information is unavailable at the moment.

Presumably in preparation for tonight's moves to spot beams

TiVo wins against Echostar // 2006-04-15
TiVo Inc., the pioneer maker of digital video recorders, won a $74 million jury verdict in a patent lawsuit in Texas against EchoStar Communications Corp. over TiVo's principal technology. TiVo shares jumped 20 percent.

A federal jury in Marshall, Texas, today agreed with TiVo's claim that EchoStar was using its patented technology that lets a viewer record one TV program while watching another. EchoStar said the verdict was the ``the first step in a very long process'' that it intends to win.

TiVo said it will seek a court order to stop EchoStar from providing digital video recording products to its customers. The victory also may mean Alviso, California-based TiVo can receive significant licensing fees, raising the cost of DVRs for cable and satellite companies that offer TiVo-like boxes, an analyst said.

``There are an awful lot of DVRs out there and it'll take some time to sort out whether or not today's ruling applies to DVRs beyond EchoStar's,'' said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York.

After the verdict, TiVo shares rose $1.60, or 20 percent, to $9.65 in trading after U.S. markets closed. They had already risen 57 percent so far this year.

TiVo said it will seek the court order against EchoStar in a request to U.S. District Judge David Folsom, who presided over the trial. EchoStar said in its statement that Dish Network subscribers can continue to use the receivers in their homes.

Licensing Agreements

TiVo General Counsel Matt Zinn, who attended the trial, said the order will be more important to TiVo's business than the dollar award. In addition, it will help TiVo sign more licensing agreements like the ones it has with DirecTV Group Inc., EchoStar's largest competitor, and Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable company.

``We would hope that this victory would help give companies another reason to do business with TiVo,'' Zinn said in a telephone interview from Texas. ``It's not the only reason. We've got a powerful brand.''

It's the seventh-biggest U.S. verdict this year, according to Bloomberg data.

``We believe the decision will be reversed either through post-trial motions or on appeal,'' EchoStar said in a statement. Also, it said, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is taking a second look at the TiVo patent to see if it contains a new invention. The company has its own lawsuit against TiVo, which is scheduled to begin trial in February 2007.

TiVo Subscriber Gains

TiVo sells a recorder and monthly subscription that lets customers skip commercials and record programs while watching something else. The company sells most of its recorders through DirecTV, EchoStar's largest competitor.

TiVo has had losses every year since going public in 1999. It posted a narrower fourth-quarter loss on March 8 after cutting prices. Sales rose 1.1 percent to $60.1 million.

Chief Executive Officer Thomas Rogers is adding customers, and the company said March 8 its subscription base reached 4.4 million at the end of January, 45 percent higher than a year earlier. TiVo and its DirecTV this week extended their partnership for three years to 2010.

EchoStar, whose Dish network is the second-biggest U.S. satellite-television operator, is one of several companies with products that compete with TiVo's.

PocketDish

EchoStar, based in Englewood, Colorado, said March 15 its fourth-quarter profit almost doubled as the company added 330,000 new customers. Revenue rose 1 percent to $2.18 billion.

Charles Ergen, EchoStar's chief executive officer, is gaining customers by adding channels including the NFL Network and services such as its PocketDish portable device, which stores TV shows, movies and songs.

EchoStar and DirecTV are battling to keep subscribers from moving to cable and phone companies offering packages of phone, TV and Web access.

Shares of EchoStar traded at $29.93 after rising 12 cents to $29.97 in trading after markets closed in the U.S.

Trial Arguments

TiVo lawyer Morgan Chu of Irell & Manella in Los Angeles told the jury the company's business was hurt by EchoStar's use of the technology without permission. TiVo sought as much as $87 million in damages, according to the Marshall News Messenger.

Zinn said the company was ``reasonably conservative'' in its request for both lost profits on sales it should have received and the amount of royalties EchoStar owed. The royalty request was based on the amount it receives from DirecTV, ``a little more than $1'' for each set-top box, Zinn said.

EchoStar lawyer Harold McElhinny of Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco argued that TiVo's patent didn't cover a new invention and shouldn't have been issued by the patent office. EchoStar also claimed it was using its own, not TiVo's, inventions.

The lawsuit was filed in the federal courts' Eastern District of Texas, known for results in favor of patent owners. Three out of four non-jury trials and eight out of nine jury trials from 1994 through March favored the patent owners, according to LegalMetric LLC, a St. Louis-based company that tracks intellectual property cases.

The district's court' percentage of victories for patent owners, at 85 percent, is higher than the national average of 67 percent, according to LegalMetric figures.

The case is TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp., 04cv1, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Charlie Ergen getting richer // 2006-04-10
EchoStar's Charlie Ergen earned a relatively modest - at least by Fortune 500 CEO standards - salary of about $412,000 last year, but his paycheck could be nearly 100 times as large in a decade.

The bulk of Ergen's potential compensation rests in his 900,000 stock options priced at $29.57 a share, according to EchoStar's filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That grant could be worth as much as $42.4 million, assuming the shares appreciate 10 percent each year until 2015.

That windfall isn't guaranteed: The option is based on unspecified "certain performance criteria," according to the filing.

Douglas County-based EchoStar, whose Dish Network is the nation's second-largest satellite-TV service, is unusual among public companies for not providing more information about the triggers for the awards, said David Leach, managing director of ECG Advisors in Los Angeles.

"This is very vague," he said. "It could be stock market performance, business performance. You have no idea."

EchoStar spokeswoman Kathie Gonzalez declined to comment.

Ergen, who co-founded EchoStar in 1980 and holds 73 percent of its voting power, typically receives compensation that's heavily weighted toward stock rewards. In 2004, he earned $308,846 in salary and the same grant of 900,000 options.

Forbes magazine earlier this year ranked Ergen, 53, as Colorado's richest man, with a net worth of $6.7 billion. He makes his money almost entirely from his 190 million EchoStar shares - which comprises nearly half of the company's stock. That means if EchoStar's stock rises by $3 a share, Ergen's personal worth increases by about $600 million. In 2005, Ergen put 50 million shares into trusts for his children and no longer claims to own them.

EchoStar's share performance recently has lagged the stock market, rising 4.5 percent in the past 12 months compared with an 8.7 percent gain in the S&P 500 Index. But the company has still performed ahead of its peer group of cable and satellite rivals: $100 invested in EchoStar stock on Dec. 31, 2000, was worth $126.66 on Dec. 31, 2005, while $100 invested during the same period in its peer group was worth $67.89.

Last year, Ergen didn't sell any of his shares.

Part of EchoStar's reticence in its SEC filing might stem from the fact that Ergen owns so much of the company that it doesn't face pressure from institutional investors to offer greater detail, Leach said.

EchoStar's filing "is more reflective of how a private company might communicate," he said.

In addition to the $412,000 salary, Ergen also received $512,476 in other compensation. About $485,000 of that was for personal use of the company's aircraft. EchoStar's compensation committee said Ergen's pay "has generally been at a level that is below amounts paid to chief executive officers at other companies of similar size and in comparable industries."

Rival DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite-TV service, gave CEO Chase Carey a $3 million bonus on top of a salary of about $2 million. Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, paid CEO Brian Roberts $12.8 million last year: $2.37 million in salary, a bonus of $7.7 million and other compensation of $2.7 million.

Ergen isn't the only EchoStar executive whose pay rests on its stock. For example, David Moskowitz, executive vice president and general counsel, received a salary of $293,846 and 800,000 in stock options.

Ergen's income

IN 2005:

• Salary: $411,538

• Stock options: 900,000

• Other compensation: $512,476

IN 2004:

• Salary: $308,846

• Stock options: 900,000

• Other compensation: $231,948

IN 2003:

• Salary: $283,847

• Stock options: 100,000

• Other compensation: $59,102

Tivo testimony vs. echostar // 2006-04-06
Thursday, April 06, 2006

MARSHALL — Attorneys for EchoStar Communications Corp. began presentation of their case Wednesday by calling the company's vice president of engineering technology.

Dave Kummer said he was hired by the Dish Network provider Dec. 31, 1992, "to build a system that could compete effectively against cable companies."

Kummer took the stand after TiVo Inc. lawyers rested their case. Testimony continues at 9 a.m. today before a five-man, five-woman jury in Marshall's U. S. District Court.

TiVo is seeking $87 million in damages, claiming EchoStar infringed on a "multimedia time warping system" for which TiVo received a patent May 15, 2001. The media switch made digital video recorders (DVRs) more affordable and easier to use because of its ability to handle massive volumes of data.

Before defendants began calling witnesses, EchoStar attorney Harold J. McElhinny made routine motions for dismissal, which were denied by Judge David Folsom. He argued TiVo could not claim infringement since "EchoStar had a non-infringing alternative available" before TiVo co-inventor Jim Barton was granted his patent.

The majority of testimony offered by Kummer revolved around the development of these "non-infringing" devices, namely EchoStar's 7100 and 7200 television set-top boxes.

After completing a degree in electrical engineering, Kummer said he was hired by IBM to work on the company's first personal computers. At the time of his EchoStar employment, Kummer said that company was "just getting into" digital video technology.

"They were building these big, backyard-system dishes, (but) they wanted a digital satellite system that was more like a computer."

Kummer said that process began in March 1996 with construction of a digital satellite broadcast center in Cheyenne, Wyo. He related methods used to beam signals to a satellite 22,000 miles in space and redirect them "to a small satellite dish on the consumer's house" and then to a set-top box.

These were EchoStar's 7100 and 7200 models, and while the latter had a pause feature associated with DVRs, there was no such thing as a DVR when EchoStar first began work on the products, he said.

Through a collaborative effort with Web TV, Kummer said EchoStar developed the Dish Player that would allow the user to browse the Internet via television. In December 1999, Kummer said other features, such as rewind, fast-forward and record, were added to the 7200 model.

When Barton approached him in either 2001 or 2002 about building a set-top box for EchoStar, Kummer said the company already had its own. "TiVo was building a product for DirecTV and said they'd like to build one for EchoStar as well."

He said his response was, "We already do DVR, but we can look into that." After meeting with Barton, Kummer said he determined "our customers wouldn't be interested in these few other features."

The example he gave of TiVo's additional functions was that "they had this thumbs up, thumbs down thing" that allowed viewers to vote on the kinds of television programs they enjoyed.

The TiVo box would then automatically record programs of that type and, Kummer said, TiVo had "the ability to record programs on a key word without you specifically selecting them."

Responding to questions from EchoStar attorney Rachel Krevans, Kummer said none of the TiVo features were "necessary for DVR functionality" and TiVo did not show him "how they did DVR." Nor was there any mention of a patent for their device, he added.

Under cross-examination by TiVo attorney Andrei Iancu, however, Kummer said he "knew about the Barton patent" at the time of the meeting.

Iancu alleged EchoStar had "effectively shut down" the manufacture of its 7100 and 7200 models by the time Barton received his patent. He also said the reason the boxes were discontinued was because Web TV had "refused to provide support" for them.

"No, that's not correct," Kummer replied.

Responding to Iancu's questions, Kummer said he was aware of a lawsuit brought by EchoStar against Web TV, but did not know "details." Iancu said the suit dealt with Web TV's refusal to provide software upgrades for EchoStar's boxes and that the company had decided "to wind down its relationship with EchoStar." The situation, Iancu claimed, led to 83,000 returned products and 2.5 million service calls from complaining customers.

"I wouldn't say (the products) were discontinued because of the lawsuit," Kummer responded.

Before Kummer testified, lawyers for each side were allowed 10 minutes for "interim statements."

McElhinny reminded jurors the "key (to the case) is whether EchoStar uses claims in the Barton patent. Only one TiVo witness, Dr. (Jerry) Gibson, testified to this," he said. Nor did TiVo bring one document "that says 'we think EchoStar stole our patent.' Instead, we see a document that says 'EchoStar owns its own technology.'"

In his remarks, TiVo attorney Morgan Chu also pointed to the absence of evidence. "Not one question of substance was asked of Dr. Gibson during cross-examination" as to whether there was a media switch in EchoStar products. "The key is the media switch," Chu continued, "and there is a Barton media switch in every one of EchoStar's products.

"We agree they built their own boxes, but we disagree that they own their own technology," Chu said.

HashHU database // 2006-04-01
It looks like that hashhu database has been sold to other companies which does not look good considering what is going on out there.... NagraVision and DTV are going heavy handed after sites and possible hackers and having this database available for sale poses a huge security risk for the members at that site.
It looks like 2 possible scenario...

Number one is that one of the admins took the databse, left the site and sold it others.
Number two is that hashhu guy himself wanted to make quick money and did this.
In any event it is bad situation and it should not happen.

Directv wants to buy Echostar? // 2006-03-31
Washington, D.C. (March 30, 2006) -- Could it be true?

Mike Palkovic, DIRECTV's chief financial officer, said yesterday that his company was interested in buying rival satcaster EchoStar. (The executive made his remarks to Reuters during a Bank of America conference in New York.)

While Palkovic noted that the acquisition would face regulatory hurdles, he said: "We'd be nuts not to look at it." He even said the merger would be "desirable" even if it wasn't "feasible."

I doubt that DIRECTV will buy EchoStar. As Palkovic alluded to, the Federal Communications Commission rejected EchoStar's attempt to buy DIRECTV in 2002, saying the deal would stifle competition in the satellite TV industry. (DIRECTV and EchoStar represent more than 95 percent of the satellite audience.)

However, the deal should not be entirely dismissed for three reasons.

1. Better Politics
The FCC's decision to reject the earlier EchoStar-DIRECTV deal was based in part on EchoStar's clumsy handling of the case. Led by Charlie Ergen, its irascible and always unpredictable CEO, EchoStar alienated key FCC members and staffers by repeatedly failing to submit key documents on time. The company also did a poor job of lobbying both FCC officials and congressional lawmakers.

Now led by the powerful and savvy News Corp. (and its omnipotent chairman, Rupert Murdoch), DIRECTV would not make the same mistake.

2. Better Lobbying
Four years ago, Murdoch's News Corp. launched a massive (and effective) lobbying campaign to block the EchoStar-DIRECTV deal.

Why?

Murdoch wanted to buy DIRECTV himself.

So, using his considerable influence in Washington, Murdoch helped orchestrate the deal's demise. (After the merger fell through, News Corp. purchased a controlling interest in the satellite TV service.)

If DIRECTV decided to buy EchoStar, Murdoch's D.C. connections -- and money -- could perhaps get the deal approved.

3. More Competition
With the launch of new TV services from telcos Verizon and AT&T, News Corp. could argue that competition within the satellite category is not as important as it was four years ago. In some cities, viewers can now choose from three TV providers -- cable, satellite and telephone.

The more favorable environment for a deal, however, does not mean that it will occur. But Mr. Palkovic's decision to openly speculate about one at an industry conference suggests that it's under consideration.

TiVo files the lawsuit // 2006-03-29
TiVo faced off against EchoStar Communications in court on Wednesday, telling a jury that the satellite TV operator's Dish Network is infringing on TiVo's patent regarding the pausing of live television. Dish claims it invented its own digital video recorder and says it did not steal any technology from TiVo.
TiVo received its patent in 2001, but until now it has been largely unenforced. Industry watchers say the case could have a big impact on the company's bottom line if it is able to extract royalties from makers of TiVo-like devices. EchoStar, however, asserts that the patent is not enforcaeble and plans to detail how its own technology differs from TiVo.
Lawyers for TiVo told the courtroom that EchoStar's refusal to license its intellectual property is a prime reason why the DVR maker has never posted a profit since 1997. Despite a loyal following and nary a bad review, TiVo has struggled to increase its subscriber numbers in recent years. The company also is facing pressure following news that DirecTV would begin phasing out TiVo hardware.
Still, things are looking up for the company that says it changed the way Americans watch television. TiVo recently signed a deal with cable provider Comcast, and indicated that it would sacrifice profitability in order to bring on new customers.
Earlier this month the company rolled out a new pricing plan that would offer free TiVo boxes to customers in exchange for slightly higher monthly fees. News of the new pricing plan structure came on the same day as better financial news for the company. For the quarter ending January 31, TiVo finished with 4.4 million subscribers, which showed 45 percent growth from last year.
Dish, in comparison, currently counts some 12 million subscribers.
TiVo will ask for $100 million from EchoStar if it wins the case, but has agreed to provide the technology free of charge if Dish pays for TiVo advertising. EchoStar has filed a countersuit against TiVo, but that case will not be heard until next year.


Informants on the net. // 2006-03-27
It has been quite interesting month and half for me and I have seen/experienced more twists and turns in month and half than I ever seen in 8-9 years since I have been running this page.

I am going to warn webpage owners, forum posters and end users about the danger that is lurking on the net, I am talking about satellite companies informants who are all over the underground forums, web pages and chat forums, some are very passive and they sit around reading and collecting information, others are very active who post, probe, throw accusations around and ask sensitive question in public forums to gather information.

Informants have their own reasons to do what they do, some are paid to do this work, others sell “valuable” information to satellite security companies here and there to make extra money, some get in to legal problem and they end up signing the deal with satellite companies to cooperate with them for lenient sentence, there are few exceptions who do this deed because they have beef with certain person.

I can guarantee you that every chat forum has few members who are informant for one of the satellite companies, some are well known and others are behind the scene, some even befriend the mods and admins to get the information they need, others could be mods and admins on certain forums without the knowledge of the rest of the mods/admins or the members.

The more aggressive satellite company (DTV) is not hacked at this time so we do not see too many busts, lawsuits or Dear Dave letters at this point but rest assure they have their informants in place to keep an eye on the future hack, possible hackers and the situation of their competition, they have already sued all the capable hackers who have hacked their cards in the past even when their new card is not hacked yet.

The less aggressive company has been aggressive lately, it could be a coincidence that there was huge argument on one of the chat forums among few people, few weeks later one side got visited by authorities, just before that I had to deal with a situation which I can not disclose at this time and few weeks after, 4-5 more sites got served with Anton Pillar order.

Satellite companies have adopted the different tactic for last 4-5 years, they do not charge criminally because in the court the burden of proof is on them and majority of the people got away, now they go after people with civil lawsuit which is hard to deal with, burden of proof is on the accused this way and they also like to drag this on so defendant end up going bank corrupt.

I have spoken to few people who are going through lawsuits and they told me that it was amazing how all the so called evident were gathered from web sites, chat forums, private messages, phone conversations and ip trace based, here is a site you can go to see how you can gather all past information from even the sites which were shut down or abandoned years ago http://www.archive.org/ just go to way back machine and type in any past or present site to see what comes up.

Bottom line is do not post, message or disclose anything that can come back to haunt you, for the webpage owners, be vigilant with people who are probing others for any information that can harm anyone period regardless of your feelings toward that certain member.


Raids in Canada // 2006-03-22
The following sites were busted and Anton Pillar orders served in Canada.

crazycircuits.com
dishmonkey.com
modchipit.com
skyhighelectronics.com
al7bar.ca

Looks like the Syndrome manufacturer in Montreal was busted also along with the Nexus manufacturers.

This news should be reminder for the people who says that dishnetwork and bev are not active.


Big news? no it is old news // 2006-03-17
Signal thieves have broken into new encryption system
Print By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News
March 17, 2006
EchoStar Communications acknowledged hackers have penetrated its security system, less than six months after the company thought it had finally thwarted thieves of its Dish Network satellite-TV signal.
Dish last year took extraordinary steps to protect its system, swapping out all of the credit card-sized "smart cards" that its 12 million subscribers use to access programming with a new version thought impervious to pirates. Signal thieves are able to watch Dish programming without paying the subscription fee.

The company disclosed this week in a regulatory filing that those cards have been "compromised" and it's employing software patches and other security measures in an effort to fix the damage.

"However, there can be no assurance that our security measures will be effective in reducing theft of our programming signals," EchoStar said in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. "If we are required to replace existing smart cards, the cost of card replacements could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, profitability and cash flows."

EchoStar spokeswoman Kathie Gonzales declined to comment beyond the filing.

Kudelski SA, the Swiss security software firm that manufacturers EchoStar's smart cards, downplayed EchoStar's remarks. The company's chief finance officer told Reuters that only some families of cards have hacks and none of the new cards has been compromised.

EchoStar has become a prime target of signal pirates since larger rival DirecTV changed out its smart cards in 2004, which have remained unhacked since.

Satellite broadcasters send encrypted signals that determine what level of programming a customer receives. The signals are decoded by the smart card, which is plugged into a customer's set-top receiver.

The news came as EchoStar announced the settlement of lawsuits it filed against three people who allegedly sold pirated Dish equipment on the Internet auction site eBay.

Terms of the cash settlements with defendants from Washington, Texas and Ohio weren't disclosed. The unnamed individuals had advertised, received payment for and delivered equipment to Dish employees working undercover.

The move to the courts marks a potential tactical shift by EchoStar, which hasn't sued or publicized its litigation to the degree DirecTV did at the height of its signal-theft troubles in 2003.

At the time, El Segundo, Calif.- based DirecTV undertook a campaign of suing individuals whose names turned up on invoices taken during law enforcement raids of manufacturers and sellers of equipment designed to pirate signals.

DirecTV has sued more than 25,000 people, including ex-football player O.J. Simpson. The company last year won $25,000 in damages in a case stemming from the recovery of devices in Simpson's Florida home that allowed viewers to tap into the company's signal without paying. Simpson's attorney has said he plans to appeal.

EchoStar spokesman Mark Cicero declined to say whether the company is stepping up its litigation campaign.

In a statement, EchoStar said it "continues to combat those individuals who try to circumvent EchoStar's security system by manufacturing, importing, or offering to the public any device that may be used to receive unauthorized programming from EchoStar's satellites."

FTA receivers under attack // 2006-03-16
I have been told that FTA (free to air receivers)are under attack by Nagra Vision today....


ROM102 clone // 2006-03-13
Rumor has it that there is a complete clone of ROM102 card ready to hit the underground market, this card will act as regular open ROM102 which means it can be programmed to do what ever a regular ROM102 can do and since it is not an actual ROM102 card it will be very hard to loop.
Now only if these hackers can broaden their horizon and go after the other North American system;)

Walk down the memory lane // 2006-03-09
'Are satellite TV hackers a tool in a global conspiracy?'
By Bob Sullivan MSNBC May 30, 2002

It’s just a thin slice of plastic that’s stuck into your satellite TV set-top box when you first bring it home. To viewers, the card is the key that unlocks pay-TV. To corporations, smart cards are much more — 80 million of them currently unlock one of the world’s most influential and lucrative industries. But now, the plastic cards are at the center of a global conspiracy theory — a cutthroat corporate battle, some say, to control the world’s living rooms through deception, cheating, and intimidation.

THE STORY COMES COMPLETE with alleged corporate-sponsored hacking, a $1 billion lawsuit, mysterious cash payoffs shipped in hollowed-out VCRs, and even a suspicious death.

The cloak-and-dagger world of pay-TV piracy is a fountain of rumor and innuendo that befits a Michael Crichton book or a James Bond movie. But it was all just that — a dramatic story line — until March, when a French firm filed a lawsuit that shined a harsh public light on this secretive world. Public filings in the case have, for the first time, pierced its veil of secrecy, linking real-world programmers, executives and companies to the murky nicknames and alter egos of piracy.

EYE ON MURDOCH SMART CARD MAKER

And at least at the moment, the controversy swirls around a small British company owned by one of the world’s most powerful media magnates.

That company, NDS, makes smart cards which unlock 28 million of the world’s satellite set-top boxes. Owned by News Corp. and its flamboyant owner Rupert Murdoch, NDS now finds itself on the receiving end of a $1.1 billion lawsuit filed in March by French rival Canal Plus Technologies. Canal Plus comes with its own heavyweights attached — Vivendi Universal, and its now embattled CEO Jean-Marie Messier.

The Canal Plus lawsuit claims NDS paid hackers to break the code in Canal Plus smart cards, then gave the information away on the Internet, all to undermine Canal Plus business. It’s probably the largest computer hacking lawsuit ever, and one of the biggest accusations of corporate espionage.

An NDS motion to dismiss the case was heard by a federal court in San Francisco Thursday, although the judge did not immediately issue a ruling — that could come in the coming days or weeks. Meanwhile, depositions are set to begin next month. With Canal Plus lawyers vowing to wage a very public court battle, the next few weeks will likely raise the curtain on a 5-year drama, unraveling a complicated world where the interests of small time TV-pirates and moguls bent on dominating the world’s media have at times overlapped rather neatly.

1997: MURDOCH AND ECHOSTAR

Back in 1997, Murdoch’s News Corp. was in negotiations to acquire EchoStar Communications Corp., operator of the DISH Network in the U.S. EchoStar would be a perfect puzzle piece for Murdoch, whose powerful portfolio of TV firms was missing a distribution channel in the lucrative U.S. market. EchoStar was a distant second to DirecTV in the U.S. market, but a rising star that appeared to have staying power.

The deal stalled, however, and a dispute over smart cards was part of the problem, says one source familiar with the talks. News Corp.’s NDS had only one real competitor in the global smart card market — a Swiss company named Kudelski Group which makes cards under the “Nagra” name. Nagra cards protected EchoStar systems, but News Corp. expected EchoStar to switch to NDS after any deal. NDS already had DirecTV under contract, so a pact with EchoStar would give the firm a stranglehold on smart cards across the U.S. But EchoStar resisted, according to a source, insisting that it keep the option to use Nagra cards after the deal.

Not long after, the deal was scrapped, in part because EchoStar CEO Charles Ergen insisted on staying with whatever the best security technology happened to be, the source said. EchoStar later sued for breach of contract and settled out of court.

1998: HACKER FOUND DEAD

The following year, in 1998, NDS went looking for more smart card expertise and contacted brilliant German hacker Boris Floricic. Known as “Tron” in the computer underground, Floricic was the author of a well-regarded research paper about reverse engineering smart card technology.

A few weeks later, in October of 1998, Floricic was found dead, hanging from a tree in a Berlin park. The death was ruled a suicide by authorities — a ruling many hackers reject.

There has never been any assertion that NDS was somehow involved in the death. But the fact that Floricic’s father found a letter from NDS in his son’s belongings indicated the company’s willingness to consult the computer underground for security expertise. The incident also shocked the hacker community, which wondered if computer curiosity could now have deadly consequences.

1999: DIRECTV DEAL SET TO EXPIRE

Nagra cards and security issues continued to nag NDS the next year, as the firm’s most important contract — with DirecTV — came up for renewal. NDS was planning an initial public offering to raise $150 million later in the year, so a renewal of its pact with DirecTV was critical. The only real NDS competitor: the Swiss firm, and Nagra cards.

It’s at this critical moment that the story heads underground. At the height of the DirecTV-NDS renegotiations, a now-infamous computer file named Secarom.zip appeared on a pirate Web site DR7.com on March 26, 1999.

Secarom.zip was the master key to European satellite provider Canal Plus, a slice of code that allowed pirates to create fake smart cards that foiled the security measures built into those systems. At the time, Canal Plus was chief rival to BskyB, Murdoch’s European satellite broadcast system. In no time, a cottage industry for Canal Plus pirate cards formed and at one point, nearly three million of four millions users in Italy were pirates, according to Canal Plus. In its lawsuit, Canal Plus alleged NDS was ultimately behind the hacking of its system, and the cottage industry that formed later, costing Canal Plus over $1 billion in lost business.

According to the lawsuit, an NDS lab in Israel cracked the Canal Plus cards, which Canal Plus had developed in-house. Then, the company made sure the crack was published on the Internet in a place where pirates were sure to find it. NDS denies Canal Plus’ the claims.

MORE HACKING ALLEGATIONS?

But there were other accusations flying around in the hacker community, too.

Around the same time the code to Canal Plus’ smart cards appeared on the DR7.com Web site, so did the a master key to pirating EchoStar television and their Nagra smart cards, according to a former administrator of the site. In fact, the code was published by the same cast of characters who released the Canal Plus code, suggesting a link between the two acts of piracy. If, as Canal Plus suggests, NDS was behind the Canal Plus card piracy, it was behind the EchoStar piracy too, the administrator says.

E-mails to the administrator of the current DR7.com Web site went unreturned.

At any rate, with the secret codes to both NDS and Nagra smart now public, the playing field in the smart card business was level. By August of 1999, NDS had a new four-year contract with DirecTV. However, the contract contained an important escape clause — that DirecTV could develop its own in-house smart card technology and dump NDS at any time.

NDS declined to comment on the accusation that it was somehow connected to the EchoStar hack. NDS spokesperson Margot Field said the company “does not respond to rumors or supposition.”

Nagra card maker Kudelski Group and EchoStar also declined comment. But a spokesperson for Canal Plus said the company had talked with EchoStar about the incident, and EchoStar had expressed interest in joining its $1.1 billion lawsuit against NDS.

“We have been contacted by many entities that have been harmed by NDS activities, seeking to either assist us or to join in the lawsuits, and that would include EchoStar,” said the spokesperson, who requested anonymity.

CASH STUFFED IN VCR

The months following March of 1999 were the glory days for TV pirates, with trade in pirate cards clipping along at a multi-million dollar pace. A “fresh hack” could be worth up to $5 million, according to one estimate. Pirate dealers in Canada could sell the cards with relative immunity, since a quirk of law made piracy legal north of the United States. But money flowed back into the U.S., too, evidenced by a series of high-ticket lawsuits NDS and DirecTV brought against individual dealers. In one case alone, DirecTV won a $19 million judgment against Quebec residents Reginald Scullion and his wife, Frances Callan for selling pirate equipment to a set of 80 dealers inside the U.S. during the late 1990s

Rumors about the thriving pirate smart card trade abound. The most popular involves the discovery later that year of a VCR stuffed with $50,000 cash that was stopped at the Canadian border by U.S. Customs officials.

The payment is now legend — never proven publicly — in the TV pirate community. The money was one installment of cash headed from Canada to the U.S., allegedly sent by the operator of DR7.com. It was headed for a hacker named “Von,” payment for supplying the code to hack a major pay-TV system.

But the VCR caught the attention of customs officials, who began investigating. No arrests were made in connection with the incident, and there are no public records indicating it ever happened. But soon after, things got dicey in the pirate-TV world.

CANAL PLUS INVESTIGATION

At almost the same time, lawyers from Canal Plus Technologies began their own investigation. Why were Canal Plus smart cards hacked so fast? Who would have the technological know-how to crack the cards, and the incentive to see their technology exposed? The answer, according to Canal Plus lawyers: NDS. Giving away Canal Plus smart card secrets was the same as giving away their pay-TV for free. It would ruin the company, and clear the way for Rupert Murdoch’s competitive offering BSkyB.

In filings connected to its lawsuit, Canal Plus identifies Von as Chris Tarnovsky, the NDS employee. Von, also known as “Big Gun” to pirates, was a bit of a legend in the underground. He designed the so-called “battery card” in the early 90s, the first technology used to steal direct broadcast satellite signals. Tarnovsky, like Floricic, was an expert in smart card technology who lived in Germany. But like many hackers, he spent considerable time researching in the hacking underground, and now many accusations say he spent a good deal of time on the wrong side. And apparently, Tarnovsky’s murky background didn’t scare off his future employer.

2001: MURDOCH WANTS DIRECTV

While Canal Plus lawyers researched the possible unholy alliance — and according to some sources, while EchoStar did its own fruitless investigation into NDS — piracy against DirecTV ramped up. According to one informed source, piracy rates nearly doubled as the year 2000 drew to a close.

Drastic measures were necessary: NDS and DirecTV planned a massive electronic counter-measure designed to zap pirate cards sitting in set-top boxes. The “code bomb” exploded on what pirates know as “Black Sunday,” just before the 2001 Super Bowl. Some 300,000 pirates were zapped. But within months, according to the source, most were back stealing signals, and DirecTV’s frustration with NDS grew. But at the same time, NDS’ parent was about to make a bid to buy DirecTV.

Only a few weeks before that Super Bowl Sunday, Murdoch indicated he was ready to make another aggressive move to acquire a U.S. satellite broadcaster. This time, Murdoch’s News Corp. launched a $30 billion bid to pluck DirecTV from Hughes Electronics in January. The deal would have made Murdoch’s SkyGlobal — already with assets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America — the largest television platform in the world.

As the technology stock market began its southern migration, the purchase price for U.S. market leader DirecTV became more reasonable, and negotiations heated up between the two firms. Once again, Murdoch was on the brink of a deal, and once again, it was snatched away — and once again, smart cards could be blamed.

Nine months after word leaked out of Murdoch’s bid, U.S. rival EchoStar swooped in with a last-minute offer that trumped News Corp. The pot had been sweetened by a $1 billion kick-in from Kudelski Group, the Nagra card maker. The kick-in made sense; if Nagra could wrestle DirecTV’s business away from NDS, it would add some 40 cents per share to the company’s bottom line.

The deal was approved by the two companies in October 2001, but it faces an uncertain regulatory future — because it would create one firm that overwhelmingly controls the U.S. direct broadcast market, the Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the deal.

2002: DIRECTV MOVES TO DROP NDS

But already, there is apparently fallout for NDS. In April, DirecTV announced it would sever ties with Murdoch’s smart cards, saying it would exercise the “out” included in their 1999, four-year pact. DirecTV will develop its own smart cards, the announcement indicated. It would also immediately act to replace all current customer smart cards, a swap-out that’s expensive and time-consuming.

The news trounced NDS stock, coming hardly two weeks after Canal Plus filed its lawsuit against NDS.

DirecTV spokesperson Bob Marsocci said the timing of the announcement had nothing to do with the Canal Plus lawsuit; and NDS spokesperson Margot Field, in an e-mail, said “NDS continues to have a good relationship with DirecTV,” and noted that NDS will continue to earn revenue from its DirecTV relationship through August 2003.

However, a source familiar with the situation told MSNBC.com that DirecTV has been frustrated with NDS for some time, and that NDS employees were barred last year from working on any DirecTV conditional access systems related to smart card production. Another source confirmed that DirecTV’s relationship with NDS had grown increasingly rocky over recent years, as DirecTV became more frustrated with NDS’ apparently inability to keep hackers from stealing signals.

FEARS FOR HIS LIFE

Back to the present, where pirates, TV companies, and journalists are closely watching developments in the Canal Plus case. More answers, and more entanglements are bound to emerge as discovery proceeds in the Canal Plus lawsuit. But one thing seems clear — in this high-stakes story, fear has kept many potential sources hidden behind nicknames or away from the lawyers and journalists altogether.

Oliver Kommerling, another German smart card expert, has emerged as a whistleblower and key witness so far. Kommerling, who runs a firm half-owned by NDS, has filed papers in support of Canal Plus’ lawsuit, directly accusing Tarnovsky of publishing the rogue code on DR7.com. Kommerling and Floricic have a common friend, Marcus Kuhn — both have written papers with Kuhn on reverse engineering smart cards. Floricic is now dead, and Kommerling has told MSNBC.com he has felt “pressure,” since filing his assertions with the court.

And if Canal Plus security manager Gilles Kaehlin is to be believed, Tarnovsky is scared, too. In a written statement to the court, Kaehlin says Tarnovsky admitted to him NDS was behind the smart card hack, and that he was prepared to tell the truth in court. But, the filing says, Tarnovsky refused to be the the whistleblower on NDS’ illegal activities, “because he feared too much for his life and that of his family,” Kaehlin said.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

There are still many questions surrounding the current allegations against NDS. Why would such a successful security firm take such as incredible risk, in fact risking its entire reputation, to interfere with competitors?

In the computer underground, conspiracy theories are rampant. Unlike most hobbyist computer hacking, pirated pay-TV cards are a lucrative business, cards can sell for hundreds of dollars each. Complicating matters further, the legality of sales in this “gray market” is somewhat murky in Canada, and there’s suspicion that satellite dealerships, distributors, and even company insiders profited from aiding Canadian “gray market” dealers. There’s also a long-standing notion that piracy is good for the business. In an odd twist, tacitly allowing people to watch pirated TV is a way to gain market share, since many pirates eventually give in and convert to paying customers.

TV pirates generally can’t make new smart cards — they have to use real, corporate-issued smart cards, which are then altered via software. Millions of extra smart cards seem to have somehow gotten into pirates’ hands over the years. Who made all those extra piece of plastic — and how did they get out of the hands of manufacturers or legitimate dealers?

In fact, some say, firms like DirecTV and Canal Plus have gotten what they deserve — tacitly allowing piracy was a mistake that got out of hand. Now, all these firms must have security departments that cozy up to hackers to keep up with the pirates, and employees who have less-than-perfect backgrounds. NDS’ troubles, they say, are just the first to see the harsh light of a courtroom.

Globecast Nagra2 hacked // 2006-03-06
Globecast satellite system has been compromised last week in North America also, this happened to be the 3rd satellite system using the Nagra2 codes that has been compromised since the card switch from Nagra1 to Nagra2.
Majority of the FTA (Free To Air)boxes are using the compromised codes on their systems, it will spread like wild fire shortly, I have been told that Globecast is ethnic programming mostly.

Banning FTA receivers? // 2006-03-03
I have been informed that Canadian legislator are trying to push a bill through asking to ban FTA (Free To Air) receivers in Canada.
Apparently there are large shipments held at the custom waiting to see how this bill goes through so authorities can decide if FTAs will be allowed legally in Canada.


Pirate TV // 2006-02-25
The battle to protect digital entertainment content is being fought on new fronts, as content owners seek to guard against music, movie, and now TV piracy.
As we move to a world where all entertainment is delivered digitally, the battle over copyright protection is turning into a full-blown war. And consumer rights may end up being the biggest casualty as media companies hunker down and try to redefine what users can and can’t do with the content they’ve paid for and the hardware they own.
From Apple’s iTunes and Real Networks’ Rhapsody music network to movie rental sites like CinemaNow and Starz’ Vongo, legitimate digital media services are exploding. But each additional option brings a new battle, new restrictions, and even new dangers for unsuspecting users.
Copy protection included in Sony BMG audio CDs allowed virus writers to co-opt the system and sneak onto users’ PCs. Satellite and HD Radio, which promise higher-quality audio and more content, may become difficult for listeners to record if the music industry has its way. And TV fans are finding that cable stations are limiting their ability to time-shift shows; pending federal legislation may curtail their rights even more.
Worse, technology firms, who once struck a balance between the rights of content owners and the rights of users, have sided more and more with Hollywood as they strive to secure the content they believe will help sell their products.
Copyrights and wrongs:
Peer-to-peer file sharing remains the bogeyman, driving entertainment companies toward ever-increasing control over content. Despite the US Supreme Court decision holding Grokster liable for the actions of its copyright-defying users, and despite more than 13,000 lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America, file swapping is still growing. According to P-to-P research site Big Champagne, some 6.5 million US users share files at any one time – up more than 30 per cent from the year before.
Media companies have responded in two ways. Using their influence in Washington, they’ve pushed for laws friendlier to the rights of content owners. At the same time, Hollywood has threatened to withhold access to its libraries unless electronics manufacturers build devices with sufficient copy protection.
This is not the way the copyright process was supposed to work, according to Jessica Litman, author of the book Digital Copyright.
“Copyright law was intended to protect reading, viewing, and listening as much as creating and distributing,” says Litman, a professor of copyright law at Wayne State University Law School. “Now it takes what people previously saw as their rights and treats them as loopholes the copyright owners will close, if they can.”
Library fine:
Take books, for example. You can read a book anywhere you want, skip chapters at will, give the book away or sell it, quote portions of it on your blog, or scan it into your PC and print out a copy. And when the book eventually becomes part of the public domain, you can do anything you please with it – including printing copies and selling them at a profit.
Buy an electronic book, however, and your rights start to wither. You’re now subject to the terms of an end-user license agreement. Depending on the EULA, you may be able to read the book on only a limited number of machines (usually just one), and you probably won’t be allowed to sell it, lend it, or make backup copies.
As you move up the content spectrum to digital music, movies, radio, and TV, the rules can be just as restrictive.
“[Hollywood’s] model is to make experiencing copyrighted material – reading a book, listening to music, or watching a movie – legally like going to a movie theatre,” Litman says. They want you to buy a ticket, watch ads, eat only their food, leave when they want you to, and pay for it all again each time you do it, she says.
Brad Hunt, senior vice president and chief technology officer for the MPAA, disagrees, arguing that content owners are seeking ways to offer users more options than they have with today’s media. “Instead of saying ‘here’s the movie locked to a piece of plastic, take it or leave it,’ content owners may make other rights available to you to do more with it,” he explains.
Discord:
The primary battleground for digital content has long been music. To combat widespread file swapping, the record industry has attempted both copy protection for CDs – most notoriously in the form of Sony BMG’s XCP rootkit – and digital rights management schemes for online music. Each has made life more difficult for legal purchasers of music. But now even digital TV is being targeted, and recent developments in the US could point to what’s in store.
The battle over rights in the digital TV arena in the US is already well under way. By March 1, 2007, according to Federal Communications Commission rules, all new TV devices (tuners, VCRs, DVRs, and set-top boxes) for sale in the United States must be capable of receiving digital TV signals.
For the past few years, media conglomerates have been scrambling to keep their expensively produced, highly profitable digital content from drifting all over the Net. But the protections they’ve devised may keep viewers from doing things they are accustomed to doing – such as recording, time-shifting, and sharing shows.
In 2003, the FCC ruled that over-the-air digital TV shows must carry an 8-bit “flag” that broadcasters could use to limit how viewers recorded such programs; all TV gear would have had to recognize this flag. Last May, a federal court struck down the broadcast flag, ruling that the FCC had exceeded its authority. Flag supporters have tried to persuade Congress to authorize the flag; that has yet to happen.
The MPAA’s Hunt says such controls are necessary. “If content owners have no assurance there will be some form of protection from redistributing digital TV, that high-value content normally provided to broadcasters would move into the pay-TV world,” he says. That could mean networks like ABC and NBC might no longer get the rights to show Star Wars or Harry Potter movies, for example.
TiVo tightrope:
Meanwhile, TiVo owners recently got a taste of what life under such a flag might be like. Last September the popular DVR service changed how it responded to the Macrovision copy protection built into pay-per-view and video-on-demand content. For the first time, content owners could prevent viewers from recording PPV and VOD shows on a DVR. They could also require deletion of shows from the recorder after a certain period. TiVo already prevented viewers from burning protected content to DVDs or using the TiVoToGo service to transfer it to a PC.
Fred von Lohman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, says that this change is a classic case of content owners taking away features consumers have paid for.
“Two years ago the TiVo you bought did one thing, and now suddenly it does something different,” he says. “Despite the fact we’re buying more media than ever before, products are treating us more and more like pirates each day.”
But TiVo VP of product marketing Jim Denney says the changes have had little impact on the vast majority of TiVo users.
More restrictions may be on the way for home recording. At press time, sponsors had just introduced the Digital Content Security Act (HR 4569) in the House. This bill would close the “analog hole” by requiring devices that allow users to make digital copies from analog sources to employ copy protection technology. If the analog hole were closed, protected shows could carry signals that prevented them from being copied by any device at all, or could limit copies and prohibit them from being digitally redistributed, or could restrict viewers’ time-shifting abilities to within 90 minutes after a broadcast.
Next-generation home recording via high-capacity blue-laser DVD technology promises a little more freedom but also additional restrictions. Both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs (the two major blue-laser DVD formats) will carry a digital watermark that will let players identify illegally copied discs and prevent playback of the content. Backers of both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats have announced their support for “mandatory managed copies,” which will allow home users to make a single copy of their high-definition discs and share them across a home network – something that consumers can’t legally do with today’s commercial DVDs.
Playing fair:
Only the most rabid BitTorrent users would want to live in a world where copyrights don’t exist, but nobody wants one side to call all the shots either.
“Hollywood is speaking with one voice, holding the reins on the one thing everyone needs: content,” says EFF’s von Lohman. “In that kind of environment, consumers are going to get screwed.”
But Marcus Matthias, a product manager in Microsoft’s Digital Media Division says that it’s in everyone’s best interest to find solutions that media firms and users can live with. “At the end of the day, if consumers don’t see a value proposition for next-generation content, there are a lot of very big companies who’ve made some very big bets that aren’t going to pan out,” he notes.
As happened with the backlash against Sony BMG’s copy protection technology, users must reject bad DRM schemes--not because they violate computer security, but because they punish the people who actually paid for the digital content, say consumer advocates.
“One approach [to piracy] is to make it as hard as possible to create and share illegal copies of digital content,” writes Navio’s Roever in his corporate blog. “Another is to make it as attractive and easy as possible to buy digital content. The more successful the industry becomes at achieving the latter, the less it will need to rely on the former.”


MPAA going after movie web sites // 2006-02-24
The Motion Picture Association of America said Thursday that it sued a new round of popular Web sites associated with movie piracy, including several that serve as search engines but do not distribute files themselves.

The lawsuits mark an expansion of the copyright holders' legal strategy in the file-swapping world, targeting sites that help make downloading easier, but aren't actually delivering the files or the swapping technology themselves.

It's also the first time the group has sued organizations that direct their members to the Usenet newsgroup system, an MPAA spokeswoman said. The movie group makes little distinction between a peer-to-peer network and the search engines that point to pirated works, saying that all facilitate the distribution of copyright works.

"Disabling these powerful networks of illegal file distribution is a significant step in stemming the tide of piracy on the Internet," John Malcom, MPAA director of Worldwide Antipiracy operations, said in a statement.

The issue of targeting search engines rather than actual file-swapping networks themselves has been a touchy one in Silicon Valley, because ordinary search engines such as Google and Yahoo also can be used to find pirated works.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act protects search engines from liability for linking to pirated works, but only if the site operators don't know that the specific content is infringing, are not deriving financial gain from the links, and act quickly to remove the links when contacted by copyright holders.

Unlike a traditional search engine such as Google, the sites targeted Thursday are filled almost exclusively with links and references to copyright movies, software and music.

IsoHunt, one of the largest search engines targeted, does provide a copyright statement that says, "We respect copyright, and will filter such P2P links at your request."

The full list of sites sued Thursday include Torrentspy.com, IsoHunt, BTHub.com, TorrentBox.com, NiteShadow.com, Ed2k-It.com, NZB-Zone.com, BinNews.com and DVDRs.net.

Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann said that the courts had not yet ruled on whether search tools could be held liable for copy infringement. Most relevant cases, such as record labels' suit against MP3Board several years ago, have been settled before the issue has come to trial, he said.

"We haven't had a case that really tests the case of whether providing an indexing service by itself an infringement," von Lohmann said.

Thursday's suits are part of a growing series of lawsuits, criminal and civil actions taken around the world, as the movie industry works to stamp out the still-strong growth of film and TV show swapping online.
In other news:
BlackBerry getting squeezed? - News, reviews, video and more
Antivirus on your cell phone--a tough sell
Movie industry sues newsgroup, P2P search sites
News.com Extra: Halo 3 and next wave of Xbox 360 games
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The MPAA has had a string of successes targeting sites that distribute movies in the BitTorrent file format, shutting down popular hubs such as Suprnova, LokiTorrent, and others. Earlier this week, the Hollywood announced that it had collaborated with Swiss and Belgian police to shut down a major European server called Razorback 2, part of the eDonkey network, which was allegedly used by as many as 1 million people.

File-swapping traffic has continued to grow globally throughout the course of the legal actions, however. Net monitoring firm CacheLogic estimates that P2P still accounted for more than 60 percent of overall Internet traffic at the beginning of 2006, with video files accounting for about 60 percent of that data.

Traditional peer-to-peer software companies such as eDonkey and LimeWire have not been targeted by lawsuits in recent months. However, they have faced warnings from record labels and the MPAA that their turn could come soon if they continue to allow unregulated swapping online.

The MPAA previously announced an agreement with BitTorrent.com, the creators of the BitTorrent file-swapping technology who also run a file search engine. Under that agreement, BitTorrent agreed to take down links to feature films in its search tool.


Viewsat support suffering also // 2006-02-16
It seems like the 2 of the top FTA guns (Coolsat and Viewsat) have had their share of problems lately (Coolsat is back on track) but word on the street is now that Viewsat is falling behind on their support, as they say it is easy to make it to the top but it is hard to maintain it.

(I am told that problem on Viewsat Free To Air receiver was fixed later on Feb 16th)

Payzip gone and merchants stung by it // 2006-02-15
PayZip my credit card processor was put out of business by Mastercard who closed their account claiming they are a third party payment processor, this caused havoc on lots of merchants including FTA, DVB and AVRx dealers, there will be quite a few of them with big losses out of this mess.

Here is the official email from the Payzip.

"Dear Payzip Merchant,

It is with great regret that we have to inform you that Payzip's merchant accounts have been closed down by our acquiring banks. The accounts were closed down due to pressure from Mastercard, who claims that Payzip is a third party payment processor.

Asiadebit/Payzip has gone to great lengths to prove that this is not the case, but in the end Mastercard chose to close the accounts. On top of the closure, they will fine our company, Asiadebit Pte Ltd (Singapore), 2,500 USD per day dating back since the day we started operating Payzip. This adds up to several million dollars.

We have no other choice but to cease operations effective immediately.

We understand that this will also have huge implications on your business as there are outstanding funds due to you. Be assured that we have tried every possible way to avoid this and to maintain our business as well as yours, but to no avail.

Our current standpoint is to counter sue Mastercard, but that is a process that can take years and with no guarantee of success. We are not the only payment processing company that experienced this problem. Several companies such as ours have ended up in a similar fashion as you might know from before.

Words can't describe how terrible we feel about this situation. If there is anything we can do to help you out, such as getting a new merchant account, please let us know and we will do the best we can. If we get any funds released, we will of course disperse it back to you. The chances for that to happen at this point look pretty grim though.

Sincerely,
The Payzip Team"

Coolsat support slipping // 2006-02-11
Word on the street is that Coolsat support is slipping lately, they use to be on top of the FTA (free to air) receiver world and now they are lagging behind, it could be just bad timing or internal problems.
I guess time will tell.
Coolsat came out with the fix on Feb 12th, they said that they were away on holiday.

DirecTV Talks Up Wireless Network With Rival EchoS // 2006-02-09
Looking to become more competitive with cable operators, satellite TV distributor DirecTV Group Inc. said it was in discussions with rival EchoStar Communications Corp. to create a U.S. wireless high-speed network.

Separately, DirecTV said its financial results showed a positive step for its fourth quarter 2005--registering a profit of $121.2 million versus a loss of $288.5 million in the fourth quarter 2004. DirecTV also announced a $3 billion share buyback plan. Revenue rose 7 percent to $3.6 billion, from $3.36 billion.

DirecTV made other changes yesterday--shifting its $200 million annual media buying account to Deutsch from OMD.

Satellite TV operators have not kept pace with rival cable operators who sell, in addition to video products, Internet and telephone services. A national broadband network would place satellite operators in a better competitive position against cable operators and telephone companies.

DirecTV CEO Chase Carey reportedly said the company, controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., was also in discussions with other companies for a wireless network. DirecTV plans to make a decision by the end of this year, he said. DirecTV shares rose 40 cents, or 3 percent, to $13.97. EchoStar shares were 44 cents, or 1.6 percent higher, rising to $27.81.

Earlier this year, Murdoch told investors that DirecTV was expected to spend about $1 billion to invest in wireless Internet access. Although DirecTV added 200,000 subscribers during the quarter, analysts had expected the company to grow a bit more quickly. The good news came for DirecTV's low churn rate--the pace at which DirecTV loses and retains subscribers. DirecTV said churn declined to 1.7 percent in the fourth quarter, from 1.9 percent.

DirecTV selects Harmonic's MPEG-4 AVC digital vide // 2006-02-08
MUMBAI: Harmonic Inc. announced that direct-to-home (DTH) satellite television provider DirecTV, Inc. has selected the DiviCom MV 100 standard definition encoder for new MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) based video services.

The most widely deployed MPEG-4 AVC-enabled encoder in the industry, the advanced technology of the MV 100 makes it possible to generate superior full resolution digital video. DirecTV is also utilising Harmonic's DiviTrackXE statistical multiplexing solution and NMX Digital Service Manager, a unique service-oriented video infrastructure monitoring and control system.

"Harmonic is a long-time video headend solution partner to DirecTV. Harmonic's DiviCom MV 100, which is being deployed to encode channels using MPEG-4 AVC, combined with the DiviTrackXE statistical multiplexing system is a technically advanced video compression solution," said DirecTV chief technology officer Romulo Pontual.

"In the competitive North American market where there is a constant demand for new services, Harmonic's digital video solutions offer DirecTV improved flexibility. Worldwide, our DiviCom MV 100 systems are powering more real-time and storage encoding applications for satellite DTH and content distribution services than any other platform. DirecTV's selection of the MV 100 attests to the system's advanced capabilities and Harmonic's market leadership in ready-to-deploy MPEG-4 solutions," said Harmonic Inc executive vice president Patrick Harshman.

The unique architecture of the MV 100 permits operators to select from a range of compression cores -- MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC or SMPTE VC-1 -- according to their unique technical requirements. Field-installable software modules allow an easy and cost-effective transition from one compression technology to another in a timeframe most appropriate to the operator's business, in addition to continuous performance and video quality improvements.

Harmonic's DiviTrackXE closed-loop statistical multiplexing system dynamically allocates bandwidth to each channel based on the complexity of the video being encoded, making it possible to achieve a significant scaling of channel density. NMX Digital Service Manager offers a powerful set of tools designed to streamline problem detection, analysis and resolution, implement advanced redundancy architectures, automate service and resource scheduling, as well as to facilitate system installation and configuration.

Fta fixes coming out // 2006-02-04
Majority of the FTA guys figured out how to go around the black screen last night (by not using auto key roll), I am sure most of them will re-write their codes to combat this in future.
Viewsat released their new codes few hours after the problem last night.

FTA's having problems // 2006-02-03
It seems like auto rolling receivers are having problems with the "fake" key roll, it has been explained to me that keys are tripping few receivers and in return those receivers are going black screen.... I guess the satellite companies figured out how to trick auto roll receivers.

Dish Network brings back Lifetime // 2006-02-02
By UPI
Feb 2, 2006, 19:00 GMT

LOS ANGELES, CA, United States (UPI) -- EchoStar and Lifetime Wednesday announced a multiyear agreement bringing Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network back to the Dish Satellite Network.

The two channels disappeared from the Dish programming lineup about a month ago. EchoStar said at the time Lifetime wanted a 76 percent increase in the rate it was paid, Daily Variety said.

Lifetime denied it was seeking a steep increase and launched an aggressive print ad campaign urging Dish customers to \'take back Lifetime\' and switch to cable TV.

The two channels were restored on the Dish Network Wednesday; however, details of the agreement were not disclosed.

US accuses cyber-piracy group of "massive" theft // 2006-02-01
A secretive group of cyber-pirates stole copyrighted software, games and movies in what law enforcement authorities on Wednesday termed a "massive" theft for their own pleasure, not profit.

The indictments were announced by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago against 19 members of the underground piracy group known as "RISCISO," led by Sean O'Toole, 26, of Perth, Australia.

Another member of the group implicated in the FBI's investigation, dubbed "Operation Jolly Roger," was Linda Waldron, 57, of Barbados. Extradition will be sought for both.

As many as 60 members of the group, many of whom work in the computer field and live across the United States, tapped into their tightly controlled computer servers loaded with stolen merchandise that would fill 23,000 compact discs and was valued at $6.5 million, prosecutors said. Initially, the stolen software was sent to servers set up overseas.

"This was not someone illegally downloading a song," Fitzgerald said in announcing the 15-count indictment charging conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and other charges. "These were copyright violations on a massive scale."

The secretive RISCISO group -- an acronym for Rise in Superior Couriering, plus the common file format ISO -- cracked expiration and encryption codes built into trial software available on the Internet, on computer games, and on first-run movies intended only for reviewers and screeners, prosecutors said.

An FBI agent in charge of the probe said group members apparently acted in part out of the "thrill" of breaking the codes and to use the stolen items themselves, and did not appear to have tried to profit financially from the theft. An informant helped the FBI crack the case.

All 19 face a charge of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, plus restitution, prosecutors said.

FTA receivers // 2006-01-28
It seems like that it is one of the most popular method for testing satellite these days and I got a chance to go to a friends place and compare 6 different brands/models and see how these worked and this is what I found out, these are quite simple to work once you figure out what you are doing.
Out of all the one we played with my favourite was Coolsat Pro 5000 (very good guide and nice looking box with tons of options).
Viewsat platinum 2000 was my 2nd favourite (find it better than Coolsat 4000), I also got to try dreambox 500 and 7020 which are lot more money and lot more work to get it going also but those are nice units.
Bottom of the barrel would be Fortec Ultra and digiwave.

Forum is back but I am not // 2006-01-27
Dishnewschats forum is back up again but it does not have anything to do with me any more, I have handed everything to Neo (him and I started the forum originally).
I wish him and all the other Admins/mods good luck with it and I hope they do well with it.

ROM110 is hacked? // 2006-01-26
Today D+ (the European dishnetwork card) went dark but it took only 30 minutes for the new key to be posted on european forums. Sounds familiar? We had the same scenario when DN made the first key change for N2. This can mean only one thing: ROM110 is hacked.
This was posted by Zuzel at http://www.curious-contraptions.com

RCMP bust in Toronto // 2006-01-22
TORONTO, Jan. 20 /CNW/ - Following a lengthy investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Greater Toronto Area Federal Enforcement Section has charged a Toronto-area business and three of its employees with selling illegal satellite subscriptions under the Radio Communication Act.

Charged under Section 10(1)(b) of the Radiocommunication Act are:
- T-One Corporation, Dolomite Drive, Toronto
- Andrei BRJOZOVSKI, 50, Brooke Avenue, North York, ON
- Alla YAGELSKY, 60, Summeridge Drive, Thornhill, ON
- Tatiana SHULMAN, 43, Royal Appian Crescent, Vaughan, ON

Police allege the accused unlawfully took part in the sale of satellite equipment and subscriptions to members of the public. The subscriptions sold are unlawfully decoded satellite signals from Dish Network, an American satellite company. Customers purchased the illegal system for $290 in addition to a subscription fee of approximately $55 per month. In November 2005, the RCMP executed a search warrant at the offices of T-One Corporation, seizing approximately 37 Dish Network Receivers and more than 300 Dish network and Bell ExpressVu smart cards.

The Radiocommunication Act is legislation which governs the rules and regulations regarding Radiocommunication in Canada. This includes the
broadcasting of satellite signals. It is an offence to manufacture, import,distribute, lease, offer for sale, sell, install, modify, operate or possess any equipment or device, or any component illegally in contravention of the Act.
The investigation is continuing.


Forum is gone // 2006-01-18
I have taken the forum down for personal reasons and have no plan to do it again, I will run this page same as I have been running for years.
Sorry for any inconvenience I caused by taking the forum down and I hope you guys forgive me for taking it down.


End users be aware // 2006-01-17
This is a note to people who go to different places to buy illegal merchandise and/or download programs.
You have to be very cautious of the places you buy and download, big companies have been going after the forums and sites by civil lawsuits, once they have these guys by their balls they will squeze them little harder to extract all "your" information and then come after you.
In some cases the forum owners/site owners end up declaring bank corruptcy to save thmeself in other cases these dealers/site owners roll over and hand them all the information these guys wanted.... I have seen instances in the past where the satellite company xyz have paid the dealer to work on their side, I have seen partners/friends testify against each other...... bottom line is you the end user do not mean anything to the site owners and they will not hesitate for a second to hand your information over.
This is a golden rule "It is better to be safe than sorry"

Ergen's EchoStar Faces Lifetime Backers' Wrath // 2006-01-12
Greg Levine, 01.12.06, 2:06 PM ET

Lifetime, touted as "television for women," is famed for its melange of sitcom reruns, fitness shows and signature made-for-TV thrillers--Thursday's listings include The Wrong Girl, in which "a determined woman battles her alcoholic son's psychopathic girlfriend."

But the cable bundle offers a bit more: data about a slew of crucial social and health issues. And that's why an industry spat spilled out of bounds on Thursday.

Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network had been dropped from EchoStar's (nasdaq: DISH - news - people ) satellite-TV Dish Network on New Year's Day, after the programmer's carriage deal expired, reports say.

In an open letter Thursday to EchoStar Chairman and Chief Executive Charles W. Ergen, emissaries from dozens of influential organizations exhorted him to put Lifetime back in the roster.

The letter was signed by respected journalist and activist--and one-time Playboy Bunny, albeit undercover--Gloria Steinem. It ran nationwide in publications including The New York Times and The Denver Post.

"By removing Lifetime as an option for your subscribers, millions of women will not get the inspiration and support they need about vital issues such as breast cancer, heart disease, violence against women, economic equality and more," the letter said.

But Ergen's firm says Lifetime played foul by demanding a 76% license-fee jump, as well as a proviso to carry a third service. The net rebuked the claims, reportedly asking only for a raise "amounting to four cents per subscriber per month for both channels."

Side note: In the Times, the letter ran near a full-page ad from Time Warner's (nyse: TWX - news - people ) cable unit, urging locals to "Switch from Dish Now."

EchoStar is the U.S.' No. 2 satellite TV provider, following DirecTV (nyse: DTV - news - people )--which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ) To be fair and balanced, one notes that EchoStar put sports net OLN on ice, after it allegedly failed to furnish National Hockey League games to Ergen's firm. And it doesn't get more manly than hockey.

AT&T, EchoStar Talks Cool // 2006-01-09
The impending marriage of the telecommunications and satellite leaders may not survive the engagement.
January 9, 2006

Less than a week after its unannounced entry into the television business, AT&T, the carrier formerly known as SBC Communications, has reportedly cooled to the prospect of buying satellite TV operator EchoStar Communications (see AT&T Makes TV Debut).

Talks between AT&T, the entity created by the merger of SBC and AT&T, and EchoStar, which operates Dish Networks, bogged down on the twin issues of price and control according to BusinessWeek Online.

The negotiations were apparently initiated by EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen. Mr. Ergen, an industry icon who founded EchoStar in 1980, is reportedly insisting on retaining control of the satellite TV operator.

And AT&T, the largest carrier in the United States, is reportedly balking at the $13-billion purchase price, which does not include about $6 billion of debt accumulated by EchoStar.

AT&T’s interest in EchoStar is difficult to understand because the company is in the process of an expensive upgrade of its network for the purpose of offering high-bandwidth services such as television.

Telecommunications carriers in the United States have partnered with DBS (direct broadcast satellite) carriers such as EchoStar and DirecTV to offer triple-play bundles of voice, data, and video services. They have accumulated about 1.3 million TV subscribers via these reseller relationships with the DBS carriers.

The two main DBS operators account for about 26.6 million subscribers, but they trail cable TV subscribers that boast 74 million TV customers. And EchoStar with 11.7 million subscribers trails its main rival DirecTV, which has 14.9 million subscribers, according to Leichtman Research.

AT&T shares were unchanged at $24.93 in recent trading Monday, while EchoStar shares fell $0.07 to $28.89.

DBS Disadvantage

But DBS operators find themselves at a significant disadvantage compared to their cable competitors in that cable owns the triple-threat edge. Cable operators such as Comcast and Time Warner offer Internet access, voice services, and TV service distribution.

Both EchoStar and DirecTV find themselves painted into an isolated corner where TV remains their primary cash cow. And with the telecommunications carriers and broadband video players storming into the TV distribution business, EchoStar, as the only independent DBS left, could be running out of options.

DirecTV is 34 percent owned by Fox Entertainment Group, which is approximately 82 percent owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Analyst Susan Kalla of investment company Caris & Co. believes that the only realistic option left for EchoStar is to revisit merger talks with News Corp. She believes that Mr. Ergen, who owns the majority of EchoStar’s voting shares, would have to adjust his control requirement.

Dishnet key roll // 2005-12-20
Dishnetwork rolled the keys earler today and majority of the FTAs, DVBs and few modified plastic rolled without any problem.


TV for your car // 2005-12-19
DETROIT - As their average commute time rises, Americans are making their vehicles increasingly homelike, with cushy seats, multiple zones of climate control and DVD players. So it's no surprise that the next big thing in vehicle accessories is satellite television.

"People want the same entertainment and services they have at home in their car," said Chris Watson, a spokesman for Rhode Island-based KVH Industries, which first introduced satellite TV in vehicles two years ago. "It really is becoming an extension of the living room."

In Buffalo, D&R Automotive at 350 Seneca St. installs satellite televisions in vehicles. "We've only installed two satellite systems so far," says Dennis Snyder, one of the owners of the auto customizing business. "One was a Hummer with seven screens."

Cadillac is now offering KVH's TracVision satellite system as a dealer-installed option on its Escalade sport utility vehicle, an industry first. GM is considering prewiring its SUVs for satellite TV starting with 2007 models, Watson said.

This past summer, Avis Rent A Car began offering TracVision on Hummer H3 rentals in Phoenix as part of a test program.

It takes about three hours for a dealer or electronics retailer to install satellite TV on vehicles already equipped with flip-down screens for DVD players or navigation systems. With the TracVision system, a 3-foot-wide circular antenna is affixed to the top of the vehicle, and a cable is inserted through the roof. The antenna is about 5 inches high.

Screens can be placed all over the vehicle, including the dashboard, headrests and the trunk, where some tailgaters are now installing large-screen TVs. A few sports stars and celebrities have as many as six screens in their vehicles, Watson said.

But the most popular location for the screens is the ceiling in the middle of the back seat, Watson said. Forty-five percent of sport utility vehicles produced for the U.S. market this year have those screens in them, Watson said.

Once the system is installed, viewers can watch more than 140 channels through DirecTV. Vehicle owners can continue to use navigation systems or DVD players on their screens.

Safety advocates question whether the technology is just one more dangerous distraction. Already, 40 states have banned drivers from putting video screens in a place where they can see them, although there are exceptions for navigation systems.

"Drivers need to be reminded that driving is a very complex task requiring full attention," said Col. Jim Champagne of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which has said it's not encouraging use of the technology.

Watson said KVH installs a kill switch that will automatically turn off the TV in the front seat when the vehicle starts moving. Headphones also are available for viewers so the TVs are less distracting to the driver, Watson said.

"We do not encourage people to have video screens operating where the driver can see them," Watson said.

Watson wouldn't say how many satellite TV systems have been installed in vehicles, and a spokeswoman for Cadillac didn't have figures immediately available. But the consulting company Frost & Sullivan has estimated that 3 million vehicles will have satellite TV by 2011.

Right now, the cost is prohibitive for many consumers. TracVision costs between $2,295 and $2,500, and customers pay extra for DirecTV access. If they get DirecTV in their homes, installing it in their vehicles costs $4.99 a month. It's $41.99 a month if they don't get DirecTV.

So far, TracVision is most popular in Florida, Texas and California, where there are long stretches of open road. The satellites don't work as well in urban areas where tall buildings often block the signals.

Directv to pay 5.35 millions fine // 2005-12-13
DirecTV to pay $5.35 million for do-not-call violations

By Andrew Bridges, Associated Press | December 13, 2005

WASHINGTON (AP) -- DirecTV Inc. will pay $5.35 million to settle charges that its telemarketers called households listed on the national do-not-call registry to pitch satellite TV programming, Federal Trade Commission officials said Tuesday.

The proposed settlement, if approved by a federal judge in Los Angeles, would be the FTC's largest civil penalty in a consumer protection case.
The DirecTV complaint, filed by the Department of Justice at the FTC's request, named the company and five telemarketing firms it hired, as well as six principals of those firms.

"This multimillion-dollar penalty drives home a simple point: Sellers are on the hook for calls placed on their behalf," FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras said in a statement.

The complaint alleged that DirecTV and the various telemarketing firms violated do-not-call rules beginning in October 2003, the month the registry debuted.

The registry, which contains more than 110 million phone numbers, was designed to prevent consumers from receiving unwanted calls from telemarketers.

Telemarketers must match their contact lists against the registry every 31 days. Companies that have recently done business with households are exempt, as are charities, pollsters and callers on behalf of politicians.
On Monday, in an unrelated case, DirecTV Inc. promised to reimburse unhappy customers and to make its advertised offers clearer, according to a settlement reached with 22 states over deceptive marketing complaints.

P4/D1 rumours // 2005-12-11
There are lots of rumours flying around about a P4/D1 hack on all the underground forums, it is either a well coordinated scam or may be an actual hack but your guess is as good as mine at this point (buyers be aware because there are going to be lots of bidges for sale lol).
On an other note I reported on Pansat and Coolsat auto roll and then I had to add a correction because key did not roll, this is to let all of you readers know that I literally do not sit on my computer all day long to find out what is working and what is not working, I report the news as it unfolds and some time I am not around when it unfolds (very busy time of year for me right now).
Coolsat released their very first auto roll and it did not work (I even spoke to one of their moderator and he confirmed it that first one did not work), I was gone to work and there were quite a few releases from them during that time, they say that their latest one works fine, on the other hand Viewsat very first released worked with key roll but it has issues with slow remote response and freezing, which is all fixed up with their latest releases.
I heard that Pansat guys got everything under control also but I can not confirmed that because I do not know many people with Pansat unit.

Auto roll keys on FTAs // 2005-12-10
I reported few days ago that FTA guys were releasing the auto rolling key software, Pansat and Viewsat were the first one to release the software but Pansat did not work good on most of their receiver, Viewsat was the first FTA receiver to have it working 100% but they are still releasing new versions to take out all the bugs (slow remote response etc...)
Coolsat released it for their 5000 model few days later and it is available for their 4000 model also, they claim that their software updates moving tps also.

Correction: the Coolsat bin which was released today did not work, reports started to come in after Bev key change and it did not roll.

Viewsat auto roll out // 2005-12-08
Viewsat released their autoroll file this morning, Coolsat said that they will be releasing it for their 5000 model soon.

Auto rolling keys // 2005-12-06
Bev started to roll their keys twice a day to make life miserable for the end users and Dishnetwork followed the lead but..... looks like FTA gurus are step ahead of them Pansat has auto rolling out, Viewsat auto roll is going to be out within 48 hours.
As soon as one of the FTA guy does it rest will copy the same technology.

Footnote: Bev rolled the keys and Pansat auto roll "DID NOT" work.

Smart Card Research Threatened in DirecTV Case // 2005-12-03
General NewsSan Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and Society Cyberlaw Clinic at Stanford University Law School filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday, asking judges to protect legitimate researchers from the heavy-handed tactics of the DirecTV Group, Inc., a worldwide provider of digital television entertainment, broadband satellite networks and services, and global video and data broadcasting.

Federal law makes it illegal to intercept satellite TV signals without authorization and also bans modifying or assembling interception tools for sale or distribution. In the case before the Ninth Circuit, DirecTV claims that it can sue individuals for both interception of its signal as well as modification of receiving equipment in cases where altered smart cards are simply inserted into standard television equipment. DirecTV claims that inserting a smart card into preexisting television equipment constitutes "assembling" a pirate device. The amicus brief claims that DirecTV is overreaching and also points out that legitimate security researchers would be threatened under the proposed misreading of the law. A lower court has already ruled that DirecTV cannot sue on this theory and dismissed DirecTV's attempt to "double-dip" by punishing individuals twice for a single offense.

"Researchers are constantly assembling, modifying, and building smart card components in furtherance of scientific knowledge and innovation," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "Congress clearly meant to exclude these beneficial activities from any legal liability. The court below understood this, and we hope the Appeals Court agrees."

Over the past few years, DirecTV has orchestrated a nationwide legal campaign against hundreds of thousands of individuals, claiming that they were illegally intercepting its satellite TV signal. The company began its crusade by raiding smart card device distributors to obtain their customer lists, then sent over 170,000 demand letters to customers and eventually filed more than 24,000 federal lawsuits against them. Because DirecTV made little effort to distinguish legal uses of smart card technology from illegal ones, EFF and the Cyberlaw Clinic received hundreds of calls and emails from panicked device purchasers. We worked with DirecTV to get them to limit their lawsuits to only those people they could prove were illegally receiving their signal. The two groups co-sponsor a website at www.directvdefense.org to help people defend themselves.

Nagra2 Rom102 hack // 2005-11-29
I reported a working 102 hack rumour on Nov 2nd and it was confirmed on Nov.23rd when bev got hacked (bev strictly works on 102 card and above)now there are few dealers who are loading Rom102 cards on the net.

An other blow to dishnetwork // 2005-11-23
It looks like Nagra2 102 card has been compromised also, this happened only few months after the full fledged rom 101 hack.
This means that Bev will be affected by this hack also because when they switched their Nagra1 stream to Nagra2 they went with rom 102.


Syndrome guy's message // 2005-11-22
I reported about atmega being same code as Syndrome on Nov. 16th news, I was told by Syndrome guys that it is not true, Syndrome is 32 bit DSP and atmega is 8 bit mcu, codes could not be compatible.
I dont know my codes and I have no clue about any programming etc.... easy way to find out will be next key change or any other change and see how both of the above devices do after that.

Note: Syndrome guys are right, their code is different than atmega, it got proved last night when pk key changed.... reports are coming in that atmega, FTA and other devices are working but Syndrome lost the PPV.

I apologise to Syndrome guys for my report "them being same as atmega".

FTA repair in Canada // 2005-11-20
If you're one of those folks that damaged your FTA for what ever reason and, you do not know where to repair it you can visit http://ftarepair.com
These guys are electronic technicians for two decades now they are very talented and well equipped to effect major repairs on most fta receivers.
Don't expect any kind of loading of bins etc. However they will repair your damaged fta and bring it back to virgin state.

New key in the stream // 2005-11-16
People watching the datastream informed me that the new keys are in the stream (not activated yet) as soon as those are activated FTA, AVRx etc.... will go out untill updated with new keys.
I was also told by experts who got to disect the released atmega codes that these codes are exactly the same codes as Syndrome card.... that was unexpected news for me.

Atmega freeware release // 2005-11-15
Reports are coming in that atmega Nagra2 file is released as freeware last night.


Commercial Rom101 loader for sale? // 2005-11-14
I have seen cooldish.com selling commercial Rom101 loader to public, a friend of mine is looking into ordering one as soon as he receives it I will find out what it does.

Rom10 emulating as rom 101? // 2005-11-11
Lots of reports are coming in that old Nagra Rom10 has been modified to emulate as a newer Nargra Rom101, what this means in simple language is that people are using old Rom10 cards to watch Dishnetwork.

All FTAs, AVRx etc.... down // 2005-11-07
I have been receiving reports that all FTA receivers and AVRx went down this morning, atmega and Syndrome made it through the key roll.

Update... I heard that the new keys have been decrypted and posted all over the net, receivers with manual keys options (Dreambox, viewsat, pansat etc...)are back up and running again.

some AVRx, atmega and syndrome are down // 2005-11-04
I have been informed that some AVRx, atmega and Syndrome are down, the reason could be the new update which was sent to the receivers by Dishnetwork.
I am sure about the AVRx and atmega but Syndrome is still a mystery since their customers are still waiting for the product.

Nagra2 working hacks // 2005-11-02
These are confirmed N2 hacks so far, flashed FTA receivers, Rom101 (there is a rumour on working 102 also), atmega, AVRx and Syndrome card.
All above hacks are working with Nagra2 stream.

Nagra2 101 swap in Spain // 2005-10-27
Nagra has swaped out their hacked 101 cards to new 110 cards which are not hacked, that caused a blackout in Spain last week.
If this strategy works I am sure they will switch all of their 101 cards over to 110 cards in North America also.

FTA survey results // 2005-10-21
First of all I want to thank you for all the emails you guys sent me regarding this survey.

Here are the results.

The best free to air (FTA) receiver = DreamBox
Pros: it is an open source system that means it can be used with anything since it is a PC, dont have to wait for suppliers to make you bins etc....
Cons: it is expensive and you have to have a good knowledge of PC and networking.

Mid range receivers have a tie between Coolsat and Viewsat.
Both of the receivers have the users raving about them, Pros for coolsat, it has one of the best guide and very easy to setup... Pros for Viewsat it has one of the best scans and good customer service.
Cons for coolsat, it has some freezing on few channels. Cons for Viewsat Guide does not work too good.

Low end receivers.

Pansat seem to be the king of lower price receivers, closely followed by Fortec and Digiwave.

I heard that there are channels dropping on all of the FTAs starting yesterday, it might be a key change.... now you can see their customer service.



AVR freeware release // 2005-10-19
There is a file floating around on the net that suppose to be AVR file for Nagra2 fix, rumour is that plastic Nagra2 freeware should be the next.
I did not see it or bother with it so I have no clue what it does and how it works.

The best FTA receiver. // 2005-10-16
I have been asked this question alot lately and honestly I have no clue since I have never used or owned one yet.
Looking at the popularity of FTA (Free To Air) receivers I decided to run a survery here.
Any one using FTA can write me and let me know which brand they are using and why they think it is the best, keep in mind for ease of use, price and all the bells and whistles.
You can email me webmaster@dishnewsonline.tv with your choice of receiver untill Thursday Oct 20th by 11PM pacific so I can post the results by Friday.
Thank you for your input.

Coolsat owners be aware // 2005-10-13
There might be a bad file floating around which may damage your receivers if you upload that to your receivers.
This file is 4 kb and the original name is "COOLSAT4000_135p_Bev", I have been informed by the koreanf2a.tv guys about it.


TiVo vs. Dishnetwork. // 2005-10-12
The question of who owns the rights to technology that revolutionized the way people watch TV goes to trial this week in a Texas courtroom.

TiVo Inc. alleges that EchoStar Communications Corp., operator of the DishNetwork satellite- television service, infringed on a patent central to digital-video recorders, devices that allow viewers to pause live TV and skip commercials.

At stake for Douglas County- based EchoStar are unspecified monetary damages and the risk that it might be forced to modify many of its receivers. That's if the company is found liable for infringing on TiVo's "time warp" patent,which allows viewers to record a program while replaying another. For TiVo,which pioneered the DVR technology - only to see satellite and cable
companies create their own versions - the case could set a precedent as to whether it can sue other companies that have introduced competing products.

TiVo, founded in 1997, introduced the first DVR as a stand- alone product and quickly gained a cult-like following, introducing the term TiVo'd into
the lexicon. But TiVo sales didn't ignite until it reached a distribution deal with a pay-TV service - DirecTV Group - in 2000.

In 1999, EchoStar began offering its own version of a DVR, the first cable or satellite provider to do so. EchoStar made the technology a key selling
point and for several years has offered DVRs free to new customers. More than a million EchoStar customers had DVRs by September 2003, beating TiVo
to that mark by two months.

"EchoStar saw the opportunity and moved quickly," said Adi Kishore, an analyst with the Yankee Group. "EchoStar helped solidify the success" of
bundling a DVR with its service, "which DirecTV and other cable companies are now replicating."

Marc Lumpkin, a spokesman for EchoStar, said the company doesn't comment on pending litigation.

Jeff Weir, a spokesman for Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo, also declined to comment.

EchoStar said in court papers that it didn't infringe on the patent and that TiVo's asserted claims are invalid because the invention is "obvious" and "not new."

In regulatory filings, EchoStar has said it is not possible to "determine" the extent of any potential liability or damages" if it loses the case.

Barring a last-minute settlement or postponement, jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in U.S. District Judge David Folsom's courtroom. The trial
is scheduled for Oct. 24.

EchoStar earlier this year filed its own suit against TiVo, claiming TiVo and a unit of South Korea's Humax Co. violated its patents related to
recording and storing TV shows. Those claims aren't part of this trial.

TiVo sold most of its recorders in the past five years through DirecTV,EchoStar's largest competitor. But DirecTV today is introducing a $30
million advertising campaign to promote its own DVR, in an effort to distance itself from TiVo.

Of DirecTV's 14.7 million customers, 2.3 million subscribe to TiVo. DirecTV pays TiVo a monthly fee of $1.13 per TiVo subscriber and hopes those users
will switch to its own service.

Cable companies were much slower than satellite providers in introducing DVRs, and the models they've offered in recent years are made by Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta rather than TiVo.

TiVo hasn't sued anyone other than EchoStar, but the company said in its news release announcing the suit that "we've invested in building a
comprehensive patent portfolio to protect our intellectual property and as the DVR category grows, we will be aggressive in protecting those assets."

TiVo, however, has made some inroads into the cable industry. Comcast Communications Corp., the largest cable provider in Colorado and the nation,
in March agreed to offer TiVo services to customers as an option next year.

Comcast already offers a DVR to digital cable customers for $9.95 a month and will charge customers an additional fee if they choose TiVo.

DVRs store dozens of hours of television programs on a computer hard drive rather than tapes, making it easier to record programs and fast-forward
through commercials. Users also can record an entire season of a show with the touch of a button.

DVR use is not widespread. Less than 5 percent of people surveyed last year by Forrester Research said they have one in their home.

But those who use DVRs "love them with unbridled passion," wrote Forrester analyst John Bernoff in a report issued this year, with half saying the
devices improved their enjoyment of life. People who have one DVR often buy or lease another, and less than 2 percent no longer use their machine, according to the survey.


FTA and DVB more popular than plastic. // 2005-09-30
It is amazing how the black market users have switched over to FTA and DVB with N2 hack than using plastic.
Nagra1 hack was majority plastic with few people using FTA, DVB, Wonderbox and emulation, with Nagra2 it has gone other way around.
The biggest reason for this switch seem to be that end users are on the mercy of the dealers to get the plastic done and with this last mess up every one is reluctant to send in their cards and money.
This trend will change if/when N2 software becomes freeware.

update on rom101 problem // 2005-09-24
Here is the update on rom101 problem (you can go to the chat forum www.dishnewschats.com and read the full thread if you dont know what I am talking about)

"Royce please delete the above threads and keep this one.

I have negotiated a deal between the dealers and those programming the 101 cards, they have agreed to fix the expiry date problem for the dealers and to support the dealers if there cards do not roll with the first key change.........my job is done and I can now go back to retirement, and will be leaving for europe agian soon.

Customers will have to contact there dealers for further instructions! (NOT ME)

Thank You Royce

CYA L8r , if you come to italy , call me, free room and board!

/\tr3f0000"


It does not look too smooth. // 2005-09-22
I reported on Nagra 101 hack scam few days ago and I was told that everything was taken care of so I corrected myself by posting it next day....
I received few PMs and emails saying that they are NOT taken care of, I asked atrf0000 to let me know what is going on and he posted this in our chat forum www.dishnewschats.com .

"Royce
xxxxxxxxxxx
Atr3f0000"

Problem taken care of // 2005-09-19
I have been informed that Nagra2 101 plastic fix group took care of all the dealers, if end user are not receiving their cards back it is not the group, it is their own dealer.
My last news about "the group scamming" is not 100% true, there was a delay in the fix it was not a scam. (I dont mind being wrong:) )
For more detail on this thread and other topics you can always visit our forum www.dishnewschats.com

101 clone hack scam // 2005-09-18
There was a plastic hack which cloned Nagra 101 to get all the channels, few weeks back that hack went down and the dealers asked their customers to send in their cards plus $75 for fix and shipping.
What I have been told is that the group who had the fix took the cards and money and they are no where to be found.... dealers and end users are out of their money and the card.

More bad news for Dishnetwork. // 2005-09-16
Rumour has it that their better secured new card (102 card) has been compromised also.
The earlier version 101 card was being used in European satellite systems for few years and was compromised there, Dishnetwork initially used the same card in the beginning but decided to use the later version Nagra card which believed to be more secured.
Bell system out of Canada is also using the Nagra card along with Dishnetwork.

FTA back working // 2005-09-14
It only took them a day to find the fix and have FTAs running again... even the porno channels are fixed on FTAs.

All FTA receivers are down // 2005-09-13
All the FTA receivers which were working with N2 codes got hit today.... it was done same way as they hit the porno channels a while ago.
Even the big FTA pushers/backers are trying to distance themselves from the FTAs now.
Oh well it was kind of fun to see all the excitement for last couple of weeks, plastic was the first casuality and now the FTA.


Little more info on damaged Pansat // 2005-09-10
It looks like the shipping address to get the units fixed is from USA and people who want to send in their receivers should know that it could be a possible set up to get all the info and then a possible lawsuit for satellite piracy?
Here are comments from few discussion forums about it.
"Why anyone would think Pansat or any other large manufacter and supplier of Sat receivers would want their name to be remotely associated with Piracy files to receive Sat signals illegally in North America or any where else for that matter is beyond me. I still have a Pansat BR 3500 analog receiver from about 15 years ago collecting dust. They sold over a million analog receivers in 1990 world wide and sorry you got to be a fool to think they would fix their receivers in the US for free that were modied for theft of US signals"

Here is an other one
"After further consideration based on advice from trusted sources, I must withdraw my intent to send this unit in for repalcement. The reasons include the possibility of legal action by giving any information to Panarex and the grey areas surrounding the communication process of this warranty replacement. I'm afraid I have too much to lose to be a maverick, and the loss of the 2500 will be my price for testing."

I am reporting all this as a reporter and from an unbias point of view.... I have NO personal opinion on this or any other matter so please do not ask me anything about it.

Blacklist takes responsibility. // 2005-09-09
Blacklist takes reponsibility for his action and makes it good for the people who lost their original Pansat receivers.
Here is his statement.

"A special arrangement has been made thru Pansat to honor warrantee on any "Failed units" for FREE! If your unit is a true Pansat 2500a and failed after flashing with X-85Bl ver. 2.51 you can simply send the unit for FREE repair or replacement. If physically damaged beyond repair, it will be replaced at the discretion of Pansat for a 2700a. There will be no hidden shipping & handling charges, nor any type of repair bill for this service. No claims will be made against the owner for not using factory flash on the unit either. This is a one time offer to those who lost a unit do to the new firmware release made available by him. The customer will ONLY be out the shipping fee for sending their unit in. This can't amount to much over $10 in the U.S."

Clone FTA receivers killed // 2005-09-08
There was Nagra2 based code released for Pansat which included a kill code to ruin all the clone Pansat receivers.
First generation Pansat receivers were low speed inexpensive chips.... cloned Pansat was based on those chips because those were cheap, later model Pansat used faster chips, the coder (on the advise of the original Pansat manufactures) decided to add codes which killed all the slower older chips, it killed most of the clones and the first generation receivers.
As an end user customers do not know what is original and what is clone so these guys decided to screw everyone including their own customers, it shows you what people do for money:(

More info on N2 hack // 2005-09-05
I was told that Nagra 2 hack is based out of Europe, very same card has been in use in Europe for over a year now.... European N2 was hacked and it was posted on the net as freeware.
The guys from North America took those codes and that became a N2 hack here.
Apparently there are plastic, DVB, FTA and AVR files which work with N2 codes (porno channels are hit at this time), I can not confirm it because I did not see any.

Nagra 1 is gone // 2005-08-31
As of Aug 31 2005 Echostar has switched most of their channels to Nagra2 (new yellow card).
There are reports of Nagra2 (101 only) hack which was apparently hit few days ago.... there is also rumour of Nagra2 emulation, FTA and AVR hack, I dont know much about these hacks since I did not see any of the above.

N2 aka 101 hack // 2005-08-28
I have heard from few credible guys about N2 hack but as I said before I can not confirm anything since I have not seen it myself yet.
It does not mean that it does not exist if I did not see it, what it means is that I can not report it saying yes it is a sure thing.

Forum is up and running // 2005-08-25
It is all fixed and runnig www.dishnewschats.com

Sorry for the delay, too many things to take care of in very busy month.

More spams and scams // 2005-08-15
I received this spam few days ago and it shows how aggressive the scammers are getting lately:(
Here is the email.

" Now testing Nag2!
First let me say, there will be no bashing in this thread. Naysayers will be escorted out! This is my preliminary review of a fully opened Rom 101. Remember, this is a new breakthrough and it's little snags and snafu's may NOT be apparent at first. That being said, let's get on with it. First off I owe many people my gratitude. I wish to acknowlege them now. This is an information site. Nobody here writes or distributes code. It is merely an information site and I am but the messenger who has endeavored to TRY and keep everyone informed of any developments. I'd like to thank the mods at dss-newbies for helpig me out all the way around on this. The connections provided proved fruitful to say the least. Next the party responsible for my getting this sneal peek, I have but one thing to say... Thank You! After weeks of negotiations and missed deadlines and other various hurdles, these guys came thru for me and this COMMUNITY! True to his word, and because of this site's visibility, he moved mountains and faced incredible resistance to get this done. I wish to thank him publicly for perservering and DELIVERING what he promised! On to the test. I was sent a Rom 101 for evaluation and review. It was explained to me that this was a clone and I would HAVE to have a 2700 or 3100 DN box to test this with. I was provided and IRD # as well as Box keys that had to be written to the DN box via jtag. I have many connections and this was not a problem for me to do. The box was prepped some time ago and we waited for the mysterious "yellow brick" er I mean card to show... Finally the card showed up and I drove to the location of the prepped unit. Upon arrival, it was already setup and running a Rom10. Preliminary channel surfing showed the missing N2 channels using the older style card. I showed him the "yellow" card that I had been sent and we did a thorough examination of the card. It was in near new condition and showed nio signs of being tampered with. The asic appeared to be the original one and no scratches or cuts were visible under a magnifying glass. We looked at each other, smiled and breathlessly removed the blue card & inserted the "Yellow" card. The familiar "Aquiring satellite signal" message came up and we quickly went into the menu for alook see and swicth test. The CAM numbers were indeed different from what was on the card, and a quick verification of the provided ird# & box keys that were provided were in order. On to the switch test. These old legacy boxes from DN use an SW-21 swicth which is entirely different than a diseqc switch and a "switch test" is mandatory for the system to work properly. We waited patiently as the unit completed it's test. Upon completion, it exitted the menu and we had TV! The guy I was with lit up a broad smile as did I and we breathlessly changed the channels. first stop. 151 OLN, ON! Next stop PPV, ON!, hell, lets go for broke, 496 (porn) OMG! I didn't know people could do things like that in that position! ON! Next stop Starz, ON!, RIA (foreign channels), ON! Virtually every single channel DN offers in the US (except my locals) were ALL ON! This is NOT a hoax as you all will come to see. The RSA encrytption has NOT been cracked (to my knowlege) but they were able to write to certain areas of the card. N2 is toast! In fact there's more than 1 hack available... (gee that sounded familiar) FTA has more resources available than these guys, thats for sure. This is indeed very exciting news for the COMMUNITY! Stay tuned for more info as testing progresses. I have more poeple coming to view this and I'm sure you'll be hearing from them as well. It's a start people. Nobody knows how long it will last, but I HAVE TV AGAIN! I always said, you'd hear it first from this "Shining Star of FTA" and you did Many thanks to the coders involved. The Bell has sounded, round one is under way... This surely won't last, but it's a start.. Be careful as always with purchases on the net.. "


N2 rumour has been circling around for over 3-4 weeks now, I have been told that proof will be provided in next few days and those next few days have came and gone quite a few times.
I personally will NOT believe any one (specially the spam emails)unless I see it with my own eyes, even then I would like to run tests to make sure that it is not silk screened or full subsciption.
For time being there is nothing proven or confirmed.



Forum is down temporarily // 2005-08-12
We are in process of fixing few bugs..... will be back by Sunday (hopefully).
I heard the rumour flying about our forum hehehehe... if I was busted why the hell this main page is still here? this is what the "dishnewsonline.tv" is forum is just a side kick and it was added years after the main page.
What really happened is that my static ip address changed on Friday, I changed all the info in the server and I am waiting for the domain hosting company to make the changes so dishnewschats points to the new ip address, I guess after Friday it comes Saturday and Sunday so they did not get around to it:(

No Nagra2 hack proof // 2005-08-08
As it was reported it is just a rumour and no proof came out of it yet.
None of the people I know ever it seen with their own eyes either.
Just a reminder for those people who like running after the mirage, DO NOT waste your money on any kind of pre booking because it never pans out, any one bought anything in the past can tell you the horror stories about pre bookings.
Last but not least those N2 capable FTA receivers are as as much N2 capable as home made space shuttles, if you have no knowledge of the codes you are not going to decode anything.

Nagra2 no show so far // 2005-07-31
I have been given "confirmed" dates every few days and those dates keep changing to next "confirmed" date, I was hoping for a show and tell but it is all "tell" no show so far.
A friend of mine out of Toronto took a drive to Markham, Mississauga and all the other so called show places to see it but he only heard the stories also "no show".


Nagra2 rumour is still a rumour // 2005-07-27
I have heard lots of stories but those all sound like made up stories so far..... I was told that I will have to drive some where to see one on Monday, and I filled up my gass tank:) then I was told Tuesday for sure and it is Wednesday today.
It may be a scam (not to scam end users but to scam dealers because these guys were looking for 18 dealers with $24 K each investment).
In any case it is not proven that it is really done so far.
For further reading you can go here http://www.dishnewschats.com/showthread.php?t=6052

All defendants, except Nds dismissed in Echo case // 2005-07-26
There is a very good news in Echostar lawsuit....
the judge dismissed the case against all individuals except nds with prejudice which means Echo can never table this claim against those individuals again.
Hopefully this brings peace to all the individuals who were involved in this mess.
Good luck guys.......

Nagra2 hack rumour // 2005-07-21
I have been informed by few "credible guys that there is Nagra2 hack, it is apparently being done on a 101 card.
I have not seen this with my own eyes so I can not personally confirm it.....


Directv, Echostar and others named in a lawsuit // 2005-07-16
The DirecTV Group Inc. is among 15 companies being sued by Forgent Networks Inc. for allegedly infringing on a patent for digital video recording. Forgent, an Austin software and intellectual property development company, said its patent relates to a computer-controlled video system that allows playback during recording. The patent expires in 2011.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Companies named in the suit included Cable One Inc., Comcast Corp., Cox Communications, EchoStar Communications, Charter Communications Inc. and Time Warner Inc.

Grave diggers // 2005-07-14
These scammers are using anything and everything to scam people:( here is their latest BS.

"DIRECTV Sues Canadian Signal Thief for Violating Permanent Injunction; Raid Takes Down Web Site; DIRECTV
Also to Seek Contempt Citation

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 12, 2005--DIRECTV (NYSE:DTV) has filed a lawsuit in a Canadian
court against a well known signal thief who flouted a permanent injunction order imposed last year to
stop selling piracy technology used to steal DIRECTV programming.

The complaint alleges that Elio Gino D'Amario, of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has continued to sell
pirate devices known as the BFSR3 (FTA Directv Nagra2 Satellite Receiver) in violation of a permanent
injunction entered against him in a U.S. District Court and the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
in July 2004. The complaint against D'Amario was the result of an investigation conducted by the
DIRECTV Office of Signal Integrity.

D'Amario was identified in 1999 as operating a network of companies and Web sites, collectively known
as the Blacklist DTV group, engaged in selling DIRECTV satellite piracy technology to customers in both
the United States and Canada and has been the subject of several injunctions beginning in 2002.

DIRECTV is also seeking a contempt order against D'Amario based on his flagrant breach of the permanent
injunction granted by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in 2004.

Contempt of such orders can have serious consequences. In a case last month, Billy Boudreau, a Canadian
citizen who was operating a pirate Web site, was sentenced to nine months in prison after the judge
found him in contempt for breaching an Anton Piller order, which provides for the right to search
premises without prior warning and is used to prevent the destruction of incriminating evidence.

In spite all this, there is little the authorities can do to stop Mr. D'Amario who continues to
peddle his BFSR3 units by toll-free phone, which decrypt all channels including pay-per-view
on the Directv, Dishnetwork and Bell Expressvu satellite systems. As this article went to
press, the Blacklist DTV group in conjunction with Satans Playhouse could be reached
at 1-888-473-7027.

When we called that number, the individual answering the phone representing himself
as 'Randy Reed', stated that this legal action has nothing to do with himself or the
Blacklist DTV group, Satans Playhouse or DSS Matrix, all partners in the production
of the popular BFSR3 units."

I wonder how low these guys can go?
the raid above had nothing to do with FTA (they called it BFSR3) receiver.



Heat on global piracy. // 2005-07-08
Satellite and cable.

The set-top box on one's television is actually a first-line defense against the swarthy maties of the high seas. Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola are the main STB manufacturers, and each uses its own proprietary encryption scheme based on Triple Data Encryption Standards. There are other standards -- industry analyst Gerry Kaufhold notes that Swiss company the Kudelski Group offers the NagraVision encryption product, and the standards devised by News Corp.'s News Data Systems division are used by the satellite industry -- but nobody is giving out recipes for security algorithms.

DirecTV spokesman Robert Mercer notes that his company is using NDS' next-generation Period 4 card, which has fended off pirates for three years (earlier versions were hacked within a year).

What's behind the success of NDS' Period 4 algorithm? "I can't get into the details," Mercer says. "But we're happy with the performance."

The move to digital cable actually has put a dent in piracy, according to Nilda Gumbs, director of the National Cable Television Assn.'s office of cable-signal theft, who reports that an estimated $6.5 billion lost five years ago has declined to $4.7 billion today.

What about Internet ads for "digital filters" that allow consumers to see HBO's "Six Feet Under" for free? They work, Gumbs says, but only for a short time before such unauthorized transactions trigger a permanent "timeout" for the system. To make it worse for dishonest cable consumers, digital set-top boxes keep records of all such transactions and allow cable operators to charge retroactively for illegal usage.

Nonetheless, everyone agrees that encryption for cable and satellite is a moving target as pirates become increasingly more tech-savvy and bold. That's why CableLabs also is at work on next-generation anti-piracy schemes: Dulchinos says Triple DES will be replaced by the much more secure AES, but there is no time table.

Studios

If technology has helped put wind in the sales of the immense global network of "casual" and professional pirates who rack up what the MPAA says is "in excess of $3 billion" in lost revenue each year, then the studios likewise are using high-tech methods to fight back.

"At Universal, we're coordinating our efforts against piracy across all media-distribution channels," Universal senior vp technology Jerry Pierce says. "I want to make pirated product inconsistent and inconvenient for the customer."

Sounds easy, but it isn't. The number of distribution channels has exploded, and content owners are scrambling to battle pirates in every venue, including home video, DVD, satellite, cable, mobile devices and the Internet.

At Warner Bros. Pictures, the strategy has been to set up a worldwide anti-piracy division headed by executive vp Darcy Antonellis and including experts to oversee a four-pronged plan: operations and technology, legal and enforcement, public policy and consumer education and new business. "Our belief is that you can't control this issue without being effective across all those areas," Antonellis says.

Digital cinema

The good news is that pirates no longer can drive away with reels stacked in the back of a van. The bad news is that digital cinema creates new vulnerabilities, from the way a movie is transmitted to the theater to how it is stored once there.

The industry has made great headway in establishing security standards: Digital Cinema Initiatives, a consortium of Hollywood studios, already has written security specs for d-cinema, DCI chief technology officer Walt Ordway says. According to Ordway, the DCI has chosen the AES-128 Advanced Encryption Standard, an international (ISO) standard with a 128-bit "key" to unlock encrypted material at the theater. Both international standards and the 128-bit key are basic requirements of the highest form of security now available.

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers' DC28 committee also supports AES-128, says chairman Wendy Aylsworth, who notes that the SMPTE is preparing to publish documentation detailing the d-cinema standard early next year.

D-cinema system manufacturers are expected to follow suit with their own written specs. According to Jeffrey Segal, co-founder and chief technology officer of Cinea, a company that provides anti-piracy products and services to Hollywood, his company's solution already is AES-128 and has been adopted by Dolby Digital Cinema.

A feature film's initial theatrical release -- the asset's "early window" -- continues to be the most crucial anti-piracy period. "Piracy starts typically with that first camcorded copy," Antonellis says.

Warners' anti-piracy division recently traced an illegally camcorded movie back to the Internet, where it was available to a semiprivate network of illegal DVD manufacturers before being offered on P2P (peer-to-peer) networks.

"Some of the (illegal-)use groups will download the copies and use that as their master to stamp hard goods," Antonellis says. "They can have DVDs on the street within 24-48 hours of the download."

To stop camcorder pirates, Pierce says, forensic onscreen visual or audio marks allow studios to trace pirated material back to a specific print. Multiple programs are in place to attempt to put an end to camcordering, including a reward program for theater employees who catch would-be pirates, but studios are tight-lipped about their tricks and reluctant to feed information to the enemy.

Antonellis says Warners supports such visual and audio watermarking but declines to reveal more specific information. "You need to have one or two technologies in your back pocket, assuming that one of them will be compromised," she says.

In Europe, the move toward standardizing d-cinema is largely dependent on the progress of Hollywood studios. At this year's Cinema Expo International, the European Digital Cinema Forum has planned meetings with European representatives of Hollywood studios to discuss the way forward. That follows an EDCF visit to Hollywood this year to meet DCI representatives and gain better insight into U.S. plans for a digital rollout.

"The meeting was extremely positive," says Swedish Film Institute director general Ase Kleveland, adding that the EDCF cannot comment on its adoption of DCI standards until the whole standardization framework has been finalized in the fall.

Internet: P2P

It turns out that one does not have to leave his or her living room to find the biggest market of all for illegal content: P2P sharing on the Internet is one of the most virulent piracy pipelines (and is not even included in the MPAA's $3 billion annual loss estimate, accounting for untold additional losses).

But efforts are under way to control illegal P2P sharing. Rather than focusing on anti-piracy measures integrated into consumer electronic devices, CableLabs, the industry's nonprofit research-and-development consortium, has focused on the FireWire pipes within home media networks that make it easy to copy DVDs or put them on the Internet. Senior vp advanced platform and services Don Dulchinos says CableLabs has created a spec for a reencryption scheme in digital connectors that will limit how many copies can be made.

Segal also notes that Macrovision offers a P2P Anti-Piracy Service used by several motion picture studios (which decline to be identified) but is tight-lipped as to how it actually works.

Studios, technologists and manufacturers are mum for good reason: They're waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, expected by month's end, on a case that will decide the legality of P2P sharing. If P2P carries the day, then studios and other content owners will suffer a major setback in their anti-piracy efforts: Although P2P sharing of pirated material will remain illegal, the difficulty of policing such content on the Internet is daunting -- some even say impossible.

A legal source for downloading movies is Movielink -- which offers films from the Walt Disney Co., Sony, Universal and Warners, among other studios -- and chief technological officer David Beddow sketches out the technology used to shut out content thieves. Movielink uses Microsoft and RealNetworks digital-rights management solutions, both of which are based on proprietary encryption algorithms that have not been compromised by pirates.

"When our movies are downloaded from our central site, they are encrypted using one of those two DRMs," Beddow says. "When it gets decrypted -- whether it's onto the computer monitor or the television receiver -- its output is in analog form."

Analog output is itself an anti-piracy measure because pirates know that copying from an analog source results in highly degraded images. High-definition downloads also are unlikely from analog sources.

"It would be a very slow process for a download service like ourselves since HD files are very big," Beddow says. "It's just not very practical to do in today's environment."

Next-generation DVDs, be they Blu-ray or HD-DVD, will take advantage of copy protection from the Advanced Access Content System (www.aacsla.com), the output of a consortium comprised of Disney, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba and Warners.

"It's not a formal standard yet, but it will become one probably by the end of the year," Beddow says.

Broadcast TV

If it's over the air, then it's free, right? That's the heart of a battle between content owners and consumer electronics manufacturers. Over-the-air transmissions are a great source of content for Internet pirates, and the increased quality of HD transmissions makes bootlegged versions look better than ever.

Content owners recently devised a solution -- require digital TV manufacturers to include "broadcast flags" limiting consumers' ability to make unlimited copies or encode material for the Internet -- that was to take effect July 1. Before that could happen, though, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to regulate consumer electronic devices.

"The difficulty of all this is that they want to stop the pirate by making it very much more difficult to do something you shouldn't do," SMPTE vp engineering Peter Symes says. "The big balancing act is: Can you come up with something tight enough to ward off professional pirates without making it intolerable for the honest consumer?"


DVD

Pirated DVDs seem as common as legal ones, which makes it hard to believe that DVDs actually have an anti-piracy encryption: the Content Scramble System from the DVD Copy Control Assn., representing rights owners and equipment manufacturers. But MPAA senior vp and director of worldwide piracy John Malcolm defends the early efficacy of CSS. "No matter how good the lock you build, determined, smart crooks will be able to pick it," he says.

One solution is RipGuard DVD from Macrovision, a company that has spent decades degrading the viewing quality of illegal VHS cassettes. RipGuard is aimed at preventing the "rent, rip, return" of copyrighted DVDs, and it works by preventing software programs from illegally hacking the CSS, Macrovision spokesman Miao Chuang says.

But nobody argues that CSS is hacked and therefore history. The Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, both expected to debut next year, add urgency to the effort to devise a "killer application" against pirates. Watermarks are a logical way to provide protection, but there are other means of pirating DVDs.

"It turns out that one of the key sources of piracy is that guy who walks out the door of the DVD-replication facility with a duffel bag full of disks he just pressed," Kaufhold says.

To combat that, Kaufhold says the International Recording Media Assn. has established a "best practices" (ISO 9000) engineering spec that keeps track of each step of the DVD manufacturing process. "It's getting more difficult for someone to outright steal the DVD," Kaufhold says. "But there's no way to stop the replication at unauthorized plants."

There also is no way to stop pirating in the living room, where casual and professional pirates alike have access to high-definition TV sets, home theater-quality audio and under-$3,000 HD cameras, all of which result in even better-quality bootleg copies.

Finding the right anti-piracy solution for next-generation DVDs is a lot like Goldilocks' tough choice. Anti-piracy measures that are too tight inconvenience the honest consumer, and anti-piracy measures that are too loose make it easy for pirates. The search for the perfect balance continues, as urgency to find one builds.

scam email example // 2005-06-29
Here is the email I received personally and you can see the BS these guys are using to scam people.

"Firstly I would like to thank Randy from the Blacklist DTV group for his generous shipment of 5 BFSR2 New Gen receivers
which I received on Monday. I am now watching wide-open Directv, all channels including pay-per-view for 48 hours straight
without a hitch.

I must say that if first impressions are everything, this unit is definately living up to its name. I just placed an order
for 500 units as my phones have been ringing off the hook from customers who have caught wind of this new device.

Lets keep it short and sweet, the BFSR2 works and it works well. It decrypts programming from BEV, DishNet, and Directv, plus
a number of foreign satellites, like Arab, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Spanish and British to name just a few.

There was nothing to program, the units were all 'plug-and-play' as promised by Randy.

What is so unique about the BFSR2 is the Corrective Hash Technology (CHT) which is embedded in the
eeprom. This thing can not go down, it anticipates the ECM well in advance and will use Advanced Auto-
Morphing (AAMi) code to quickly change its stream and avoid most hash attacks.

The eeprom is easily flashable with a standard JTAG, for those more advanced testers that want to
customize their BFSR2. Make sure that when you are ordering to ask for a BFSR2 Deluxe or New Gen
model as those contain an EZ-Access JTAG port for simple flash reprogramming.

Call Randy tollfree at 1-888-xxx-xxxx and ask for Satan's special, he will knock $25 off the price of any
BFSR2 unit.

This is it for now, please forgive the short review, expect a more extensive one later this week, I am too
busy watching TV. :)"


Directv files a lawsuit // 2005-06-28
As part of its ongoing effort to crack down on people activating unauthorized programming for other consumers, DirecTV has filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court against six individuals in New York City and Philadelphia claiming false subscription accounts and activating DirecTV receivers.

The suits allege that three defendants from Brooklyn, N.Y., three from Philadelphia, along with 103 unidentified defendants listed as 'John Doe' from both cities created false subscription accounts and illegally activated access cards and receivers enabling others to receive DirecTV programming without authorization or proper payment.

"With our programming signals secure from hackers since the introduction of new access card technology, many people are turning to fraud to gain unauthorized access to our programming and they are now discovering this avenue of illegal activity is a dead end," said Dan Fawcett, executive vice president, business and legal Affairs at DirecTV. "We have several additional fraud investigations underway and we intend to take each of these cases to trial and defend our business, our customers and our programming partners against those who are attempting to gain unauthorized access to our programming."

DirecTV allege the defendants violated provisions of the Federal Communications Act, federal Wiretap laws and state law, all of which state that it's illegal to intercept or assist others in intercepting encrypted satellite signals without proper authorization or payment.

According to federal and state laws under which the complaint was filed, DirecTV may be entitled to either actual damages - including any profits made by the defendants - or statutory damages that can range from $10,000 to $100,000 per violation, as well as payment of all costs and attorney and investigation fees.

More sophisticated scams // 2005-06-26
I have been receiving reports on new scams every day and find it hard to believe that any one with the right frame of mind will ever fall for those scams.
FTA (free to air receiver working with Nagra2 or Directv) scams, Nagra2 scam, fancy board talk the list goes on and on.
These guys are getting so desperate to legitimise themself that they are using our site and other established sites as a reference, my question to those guys is if what ever you are saying is true why it is not on the news here?



An other scammer making a pitch // 2005-06-10
Here is an other scammer try to scam people again:(... this time they are naming bunch of legit sites as their sponsors.
My readers know that I have NEVER sold anything and I am NOT affiliated with ANY group (it says that on my front page loud and clear).
This is the email thses scammers are sending out.

""Dear Satellite Testers, Presented to you by the DSS Legends Group... Sponsored by: Al7bar.Tk, Royce DishNewsOnline, Hitecsat and HashHU VIP Group Today is a bright day in the future of satellite testing as you know it. The infamous team of European hackers, some from the old DR7 crew, called the Blacklist camp, have decided to begin supporting the Nagra2 encryption for select Dishnet and Bev testers, like they've been doing for months within the European satellite testing community. ** TOLL-FREE: 1-877-818-7932 ** Due to the fact that there is so much illegitimate business practice by the current dea1ers websites that have always sold private support to hobbyists, the Blacklist camp has decided to open their own private website to the American, Canadian, and Mexican satellite testers, where they will personally provide fully wide-open support for all Nagravision 2 access cards. Their private coding which was custom engineered by Blacklist himself has fully open tiers giving you complete access to all Pay-Per-Views, A dult, International as well as Locals. In order to facilitate your testing needs, the software being used to program all your satellite cards is a Visual C++ coded script which is applied to all ROM102 cams by the DR7 crew . This means that you will no longer have to fiddle around with complicated scripts and software. The cards which are securely, safely and discretely shipped to your door are 100% plug and play, and are Unmarried for your convenience. ** TOLL-FREE: 1-877-818-7932 ** The Blacklist all-in-one Nag2 software will fully-open all Nagra2 encrypted channels on both networks and is compatible with all current dual-tuner Echostar branded receivers. Due to very high demand, a loader and/or custom software will not be released. We at the DSS Legends Group have been hand-chosen to release this invitation only to the VIP selected satellite testers. At this time, we only have approximately 500 cards as this software is only limited to work with virgin AA-05 series ROM102 access cards . We and the Blacklist group feel that releasing this software to all dealers at this time will be the worst move since it will give Charlie enough time to counter-attack between now and September. Once you order your Wide-Open Nag2 card, you will also receive access to our VIP Forums where you can interact with the industry's best coders including Blacklist, DishCoder and the famous WonderBox group. In addition to all this, support is provided around the clock via email, livechat, instant messenger, and telephone toll-free, to all clients. Everything you would possibly need will be at your disposal 24/7. If security and safety is your concern, we can assure you that you can sleep tight knowing that this operation is 100% safe. The entire Blacklist team are located throughout Europe, where this sort of practice is considered legitimate. The servers are extremely secure and located offshore in the pristine safe-haven of the Bahamas. We offer safe and secure payment options where you can keep 100% anonymity and have the piece of mind knowing that you will not be a victim of the infamous "dreadded letter". You are invited to join the elite underground community of the most knowledgeble minds in the satellite testing and smartcard security field. Please give us a call for more information: 1-877-818-7932. Regards, DSS Legends Group On behalf of DR7 Screw & Team Blacklist Administrative Staff Toll-Free : 1-877-818-7932 PS: Don't reply directly to this message as due to the great amount of incoming mail, thea crew is unable to respond to emails replied from this message directly. Visit the site, and contact via one of the methods available. -- A special thanks to all the VIP Members of the DSS Legends Discussion Forums & AL7BAR.TK FTA Lounge for the generous donations to the BlackList Group for making all the above possible, the era of Free TV has now returned. 030749-AE-39""

As far as I know there is NO DTV and Nagra2 hack out and it does not look like there will be one in near future so do not fall for scammers, if/when anything comes up it will be on my page and you will see it on all the legit sites also.



Nagra1 swap on fast track // 2005-05-29
It seems like Nagra1 swap should be all completed by middle of next month through out all North America.
I have received the reports that Canadian system is almost switched over, Nagra1 card lost all of the PPV and majority of the channels.
Echostar (US system)is on fast track to switch over to Nagra2, majority of the ethnic channels are gone from the Nagra1.... mid 300 channels (hbo, starz etc...) should be gone around 2nd week of this month and PPV will follow it soon after that.

On a non satellite note a frind of mine started his racing website worldracer.net if you are a racing fan you should check it out.

Russia launches American satellite // 2005-05-23
BEIJING, May 23 -- A Russian Proton-M rocket carrying the US DIRECTV 8 telecommunications satellite has been launched from the Russia's Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

Reports said the launch was postponed for one day for technical reasons.

The US telecommunications satellite was manufactured by the US company SS Loral on the basis of its proven 1300 satellite platform. Its loaded weight is 3,710 kilos, and its designated service life is 15 years.

DIRECTV is a major satellite television operator in the United States, which is owned by News Corporation.

The Proton-M rocket and Briz-M booster unit are manufactured bythe Khrunichev space research and production center.

The Proton is the key heavy-class rocket for the Russian federal space program and is actively used by the Defense Ministry and for commercial satellite launches.

Dishnetwork ready to market Archos // 2005-05-12
Archos apparently is about to introduce a new portable media player dubbed AV700.

The Archos AV700 sports a huge 7" display like the last year introduced MobiNote DVX-POD 7010. The AV700 hard-drive has 60GB.
French NetEconomie reports that Archos entered a partnership with EchoStar, which runs the DishNetwork Satellite TV network. EchoStar is supposed to market an adapted version of the AV400 (AV402) and AV700 to DishNetwork customers. This would enable DishNetwork customers to transfer recorded TV broadcasts or movies onto the portable AV700 and watch them on the go. I guess some DRM is in play here. The AV700 or AV702 should already come in April.

What is weird is that this story is mostly appearing on French news sites, although it has been published already on March 30th, language barrier I guess. Bigouz from french site Generationmp3 pointed us to this story. Both Archos and EchoStar have not made any official announcements yet. ArchosFans reports that this information is from a Investors meeting Archos held in Paris.

Full story here... I4U

Buying HDTV or wait? // 2005-05-02
Should You Get HDTV From DIRECTV?
The satcaster has been tight-lipped on its plans to replace current high-def receivers and dishes.
By Phillip Swann

DIRECTV this week launched the first of four satellites that will enable the satcaster to dramatically expand its High-Definition TV lineup. The company plans to add local channels in high-def this fall for the first time. The launch will begin with 12 markets and slowly expand to other cities. In addition, thanks to the new satellites, DIRECTV says it will carry up to 150 national HDTV channels by 2007. For high-def owners, the news is exciting indeed.
However, there is a catch. When DIRECTV begins offering local HD, it will only be available on new DIRECTV MPEG-4 receivers and dishes, which have yet to go on sale. Yes, that means that any HDTV dish or receiver you buy from DIRECTV today -- or currently own -- will eventually be obsolete. The satcaster says that the new MPEG-4 receivers and dishes will be needed for the local HD signals, and eventually, all of DIRECTV's HDTV programming. (The switch could affect more than 500,000 DIRECTV subscribers.)
When pressed by TVPredictions.com in January, DIRECTV hinted strongly that it will offer either a discount or some other incentive for current dish owners to upgrade to the new MPEG-4 system when it becomes available. However, nearly three months later, DIRECTV has still not revealed its plans for replacing the old receivers.
Because of the confusion, many people have contacted me to ask whether they should buy a current HDTV system from DIRECTV. They are concerned that they will have to buy a new dish and receiver when MPEG-4 is added or, at the least, they will have to commit to some programming package to get a free replacement or a discounted one.
My answer to them: Wait.
Yes, I believe that DIRECTV will eventually offer current customers a deal on the new equipment. However, until the satellite service confirms that, today's buyer runs the risk of being left empty-handed. Who knows? You might might have to pay for an entire new system to get local HD signals in just a few months. (Or commit to a programming package.) Until the deal is revealed, I can't possibly recommend buying a current DIRECTV dish and receiver to get HDTV.
EchoStar, DIRECTV's chief satellite rival, is also planning to switch to MPEG-4 at some point. But unlike DIRECTV, EchoStar has not committed to a specific time frame. So, anyone who buys a EchoStar HD system today will not necessarily need to replace it almost immediately. At least, as of now. EchoStar will likely face a similar dilemma at some point.
So, buyer beware. DIRECTV's future HDTV offering is exciting. But I have to recommend that you wait until the satellite TV service offers a better explanation of what the future truly holds..


Interesting article..... // 2005-04-20

The big deception
Throughout 2002 and 2003, the Coalition against Satellite Piracy and its members spent millions to inform Canadians their industry was suffering. One million Canadian households, or 10% of all home, were satellite pirates and the Canadian economy was $400 million dollars a year poorer because of it.

In April 2004, the number one source of satellite piracy, comprised Directv access cards, was stopped. Digital Home Canada looks at the result of the near end of unauthorized US satellite use in Canada.

In an April 2002 report entitled "Unauthorized Satellite Use In Southwestern Ontario", the report authors concluded that between 560,000 and 715,000 homes in Canada used unauthorized satellite services. Unauthorized satellite services for those of you who don't know is a euphemism for US satellite programming.

The report, written by The Strategic Counsel and funded by the Canadian Cable Television Association, quickly became the official word when describing the depths of satellite piracy in Canada. The report was cited continuously throughout 2002, 2003 and 2004 by the Coalition against satellite piracy (CASST) in media interviews, newspaper and in television campaign.

According to the Coalition against Satellite Piracy, the situation only got worse and by June of 2003, the CASST published that " Figures show that anywhere from 750,000 to a million households are accessing illegal satellite services in Canada. This translates into approximately $400 million per year in lost revenue to Canadian actors, writers, directors, producers, technicians, distributors, broadcasters, advertisers and the many others employed in the production and airing of homegrown television programming."

For those readers the Coalition against satellite piracy is made up of various industry related trade groups including the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Canadian Cable Television Association, Canadian Film and Television Production Association, Canadian Motion Picture Distribution Association, and of course the Canadian satellite companies.

Fortunately in early 2004, the CASST and honest Canadians were greeted with some great news!

DirectTV, the number one satellite company in North America was introducing a new access card that would stop satellite pirates in their tracks. Much to the surprise of many hackers, by the middle of April, the pirates had been shut down.
Fast forward to the end of 2004, and DirectTv remains unhacked!

The Big Lie ?
The reality is there never was a million households pirating satellite television. If a million Canadian households had dropped their legal satellite and Cable subscriptions then the subscriber numbers would have dropped at the big six. In addition, revenues would have plummeted rather than skyrocket.

We can only conclude the CASST's report on satellite piracy was either a very poor research document or the CASST simply fabricated the notion that one million Canadian household's were pirating satellite signals and contributing to an economic loss of $400 million annually.

Why?
In 2002, when the report came out and in 2003, Canada was suffering in the midst of a very bad recession. Despite the recession, Cable and satellite revenues were climbing substantially.

We all know that if Canadians are suffering and supposedly regulated revenues were skyrocketing then a political powder keg would be building.

In addition, to the political ramifications of huge revenue growth during a recession, Canadians were increasingly agitating for a change in policy that would allow US satellite signals into Canada.

The legal introduction of DirecTv into Canada had the potential to wipe out Star Choice (and its parent Shaw Cable), Bell ExpressVu and also inflict serious damage on the remaining cable operators.

Up to April 2002, ExpressVu had been chasing Grey Marketers out of the Canadian marketplace because they realized that if too many Canadians legally subscribed to US satellite services, they could be out of business.

Thus during a time of rapid revenue growth and increased US competition, a report entitled "Unauthorized Satellite Use In Southwestern Ontario" was commissioned and released.

The timing was brilliant. The competition - US satellite - was now no longer a competitor it was an evil pirate. The rising revenues were quickly thrust to the background as the companies "lost" millions from lost satellite piracy revenues.
With one report the industry, the industry had buried one problem (huge revenue increases) and killed another (US competition) under the guise of Canadian cultural protection.

Conclusion
Digital Home Canada in no ways condones satellite or cable television piracy. We frankly believe that satellite pirates should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

In 2002, we too saw the growth in satellite piracy and worried that it could devastate industries on both sides of the border.

Our analysis, however sheds considerable doubt on the validity of the original report and its conclusions. We feel the entire purpose of the CASST and its reports was simply a bait and switch tactic designed to focus the attention of Canadian Consumers on the actions of a few bad apples in order to reduce competition and deflect the spotlight on an industry whose revenues were growing strongly in a recession.

Read more about this and satellite television in the the many Digital Cable and satellite forums in the DHC.

The above article can be read at Digital Home Canada (thank you for the link jwhite)

A little note on google banner ads // 2005-04-18
I would like to remind my readers that I have no control over the rotating ads, this has been done by google but if you come across any shady ad please let me know so I can go in my control panel and blacklist it.


Forum is up and running // 2005-04-14
Many thanks to the guys who invested countless hours (you guys know who you are) to make the Forum secure and ready....
Our Forum threads were deleted by children or childish mind people:( it is all up, ready and running.

Forum will be ready tomorrow // 2005-04-13
Our guys are working to fix the forum (we were infested with BAD bugs lol), it should be done by tomorrow..... sorry for any inconvenience.
Please make sure to change your forums and emails passwords often, it will help you against identity theft (been there:( )



Forum Down // 2005-04-09
The forum is currently down (we got infested with bugs and try to disinfect the forum;) ), should be back up within 24 hours

No more card chart // 2005-04-08
I have removed the card chart from my page, there is no point testing Nagra1 stream which is going to be done very soon.
If/when anything new comes up I will think about adding card chart but I will run the news page only from now on.

Makes you think? // 2005-04-05
I have seen the Quebec top court's ruling today which makes me wonder how it all works?
It is OK for Bell, Starchoice and other agencies to buy US programming but if average person wants to buy and pay for it is "it is illegal"....
Here is the full story.

"Quebec's top court has overturned a ruling that opened the door for Canadians to tap foreign satellite television signals without using a domestic satellite provider.

"This is extremely important," said Luc Perreault, co-chair of the Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft. "It confirms that (accessing television) signals by illegally acquiring codes is against the law."

The issue was thrown into legal limbo after a Quebec court ruled last year that banning people from paying grey market distributors for access to foreign satellite signals is a violation of Canadians' right to freedom of expression.

The Radiocommunication Act prohibits the importation of satellite TV signals except through a domestic dealer such as BellExpressVu or Star Choice.

That meant Canadians could not watch certain U.S. or foreign networks, such as ESPN, HBO, Nickelodeon or Italy's RAI International, unless they went through an illegal dealer.

Ottawa appealed the lower-court ruling, which acquitted two Drummondville, Que., residents accused of offences under federal communications laws. The appeal decision, which was brought down March 31, overturned that ruling.

The coalition claims Canadian broadcasters and satellite distributors lose more than $400 million a year to illegal satellite signal use.

The group argued domestic broadcasters pay for the right to show a program in this country and that right is devalued if the same program is available in Canada through a foreign satellite service.

They noted that U.S. satellite providers also want to stamp out the practice.

A DirecTV spokesman last year said the satellite provider doesn't want to sell in Canada because the U.S. networks it carries do not have programming rights in this country.

However, D'Argy says that what is at stake for Canadians is the freedom to choose what they watch and hear.

He said the protectionist Canadian broadcast industry prevents him from tuning in to the most democratic of channels -- CSPAN, the American equivalent of the parliamentary or National Assembly stations.

"We are slaves to Star Choice and (Bell) ExpressVu," he said.

The high court's decision comes just weeks after DirecTV, which is based in the United States, launched a $20-million US lawsuit against 19 distributors allegedly selling satellite decoding equipment in Ontario.

Last year, a man living in Florida received a seven-year jail sentence and $24-million US fine after he was convicted of illegally selling satellite television services in a business venture.

The tough penalty in the U.S. contrasts with Canada, where Perreault says people convicted of similar crimes usually make a several thousand dollar, tax-deductible contribution to charities.

About 50 people are charged in Canada annually, he added.

The coalition -- which has been airing television ads aimed at shaming illegal satellite users -- is pushing Ottawa to stiffen penalties. It has called for fines of at least $250,000."

Here is an other scam... // 2005-03-30
Looks like they are trying to use my name in their email to scam people...

"----- Original Message -----
From: "Royce"
To: "Private Members"
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 12:57 PM
Subject: RE: P4|Nagra2 Dishnet|DTV info


Satellite Testing Hobbyists:

Visit :: www. ActivationTV .org ::

Finally you can program your own P4 DirecTV cards, or your Nagra2 Dishnet
cards fully-open! We have succesfully released the first publicly available
P4 card h@ck, to get you back on track watching the channels you want.
You'll also get the best support and information imagineable. Take a look
today:

Visit :: www. ActivationTV .org ::

- Team ACTv "

I have never sold anything and I will NEVER sell or solicit anyone so do not fall for anything that looks like it is coming from me (you can always go to dishnewschats.com to read about all the new scams)

If you receive this email make sure to trace it and report them to authorities!!!!


Dishnet card swap around the corner // 2005-03-21
Dishnetwork is getting close to complete their card swap, majority of the Indian channels have been swapped over to the new card and rest of the channels are being swapped over every day... it means that when you go to those channels with your old card (Rom2, 3 or 10 etc...)you will get the message "please insert your new card".

On the DTV front... I was informed few days ago that if you try to sell used P4 card on Ebay you will get a notification saying that DTV will NOT let you subscribe if you are trying to subscribe with P4 access card.
This is very interesting scenario, may be the security on the P4 is not as good as P5/D1 or DTV suspects that P4 security has been breached.... I have not seen any P4 crack yet and dont know anyone who have seen it either.
This proves the fact that P4 and P5 cards are NOT the same.


PGM speaks about the scammers // 2005-03-17
Recently, a message has been circulating that claims that I, PGM (Pierre G. Martineau), have P4 or P5 emulator hardware or software for sale or testing. This is NOT true.

Since announcing my retirement from the hobbyist scene on April 29th, 2002 (in the Wall Street Journal), almost 3 years ago, I have NOT been involved in any way with the satellite community, neither testing nor inspecting/developing hardware or software. It is a sad commentary on the state of the hobby when someone usurps a well known identity in order to further one's goals at the expense of others.

If anyone has any information regarding who is behind this identity theft, I would greatly appreciate knowing about it so that I may take appropriate action against said individual or individuals. Ps. I always digitally sign important messages, such as this one, in order to validate my identity, something that wasn't done in the message now circulating about me.
Please disregard ANY communications that purport to be from me if they are not signed by my PGP key. Any message can be validated easily since my public PGP key is available on numerous PGP key servers that are
publicly accessible.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 8.0
iQA/ AwUBQieJxbjXfMzPAFapEQILVQCdG10Jf2Ybq5LeFJ48wglsGW
x6ioQAniHf
u498Wuhgf9F1oOzF4Qu7nl1I=qfVv
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Charlie Ergen under investigation // 2005-03-11
Investigators probe EchoStar's accounting practices
Knight-Ridder / Tribune Business News

Mar. 11--A surprise accounting probe has hit satellite giant EchoStar and its maverick leader Charlie Ergen.

Investors slammed EchoStar yesterday, sending shares down $1.87, or 6 percent, to $28.72 after a report revealed the company is the subject of an internal and SEC investigation.

Investigators are looking to see whether the company acted improperly in the way it books the deals it makes with suppliers.

The probe also is focusing on Ergen himself, who may have made inappropriate consulting payments to friends, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

EchoStar spokesman Steve Caulk declined to comment.

This is a major setback for the nation's No. 2 satellite company behind Rupert Murdoch-owned DirecTV. EchoStar's Dish system has been showing considerable success swiping customers from cable operators like Time Warner Cable.

The Dish system made a name for itself as the cheapest guy on the block while providing similar programming to cable and DirecTV.

Depending on the findings of the probe, EchoStar may be forced to reduce its past profits. Ergen might even take the fall, though analysts said they don't expect EchoStar's co-founder to lose control of his company.

Wall Street analysts said they were shocked to learn of the investigation.

"EchoStar historically has been the most conservative in accounting of any company I've seen," said SG Cowen analyst Tom Watts, noting that Ergen is an accountant by training. "This is the last company you would expect to have these issues."

He also called Ergen "one of the cheapest guys around," raising doubts as to whether the EchoStar boss would put any friends on the company payroll.

The trouble for EchoStar began with an audit by its accounting firm KPMG.

The accounting probe was just one headache for Ergen yesterday. He also had a big setback in court. A federal court in Texas denied EchoStar's motion to dismiss a patent infringement claim by TiVo.

Here is an other scam // 2005-03-07
Believe it or not, they send me this email lol.
I guess they do not look through their spam email list to see who receives these.

"Very simple,You will need a Valid Subscription for DirecTv either on a P4 Or P5 card.The way it works is you simply remove your AccessCard from your reciever and make sure to reset the IRD(Unplug for 1 Minute).Next step is to put your VALID Access card Into our 3rd Generation P4/P5 Extreme Cube,or your 2nd Generation Cube With Our New Emulator Boot Strap,please check Emualtor Card for more details.Then once this is done and ird reset you need to power up the Extreme Cube with our included AC Adapter, while doing this you must make sure the Privatized Floppy Disc is inserted Before Putting Emulator card in Your DirecTv System Ird.Once all is completed go to channel 100 for rouphly 2-3 minutes and you can start accessing wide open channels as well as your Local Stations and Ofcourse PPV's **Note** To access your Pay Per View Channels You must leave on your selected PPV channel for 5 seconds and wait for it to open and Your In."


Newer scams everyday // 2005-03-04
There are lots of spam emails going to people claiming P4/P5 and Dishnetwork Nagra2 hacks everyday.... Let me make it clear for you guys once more "THERE IS NO P4/P5 OR NAGRA2 HACK"
These scammers have been using the established names as their scams like dynamica3m (actual site is dynamicasoftware), spacetwister3m (actual site was spacetwister.com and they are gone long ago).
The latest one is using PGM's name (he has been in retirement since 2002).
If you want to keep up with these guys you can go to our forum and read the discussions or satscams.com guys who are trying to keep up with it.

Canadian raids and court orders // 2005-03-01
Today, an Anton Pillar order made up of some two hundred pages was put into effect on the premises of three Ontario outlets that were engaged in activation of directv subscriptions as well as known for their online sales of hardware and software used to decrypt satellite signals without prior authorization from Directv or the CRTC for Canadian Viewing. Two Directv Employees along with a lineup of seven Niagara Regional Police Cruisers showed up at George Street Electronics located on George St in St-Catharines as well as Cruisers Satellite on Ontario St in St-Catharines. Upon entering several people were handed a copy of the paperwork bearing the names of seventeen individuals.

The paperwork links to several websites that were involved in programming of satellite cards, but not operated by all of these individuals. While officials were taking care of business at these places of business another associate was handed documents as well, the role of this associate is unclear as of now. One associate was reportedly doing activation of accounts through an American virtual address set up to allow many subscriptions to be ordered at similar but not identical proxy addresses that all linked to one final mailbox drop, south of the Canadian border.


The websites involved in this whole fiasco, are reportedly Satonline.cx and zedmarketing.com . Although Satonline.cx is operated completely offshore, it is unclear at this time as to why they were a part of today's developments. Reports also have come in that an individual linked to the two store locations in St-Catharines Ontario was visited at his Store location in Dunville Ontario, not a far distance apart.

Today a local St Catharines Newspaper reporter from the St-Catharines Standard had attempted to get inside information for a front page story he was working on to do with this heated event, was told to leave immediately upon entering one of the store locations that were targeted by officials. Perhaps there is some reason why the authorities are trying to keep the wraps down on this breaking news.

Thank you for the above news I WANT MY FREE TV....

DTV files lawsuit against activation fraud // 2005-02-28
DTV is going after activation fraud schemes across USA, Canada and in Mexico.
Here is one report out of USA

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2005--
Lawsuit Claims Defendants Set Up Numerous False Accounts for Other Consumers and Illegally Activated Receivers

DIRECTV, Inc. announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Ft. Lauderdale against seven individuals it claims fraudulently obtained DIRECTV(R) programming services for other consumers by setting up false subscription accounts and illegally activating receivers.

The suit claims that the defendants, of Sunrise, Fla.; Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; Mount Vernon, N.Y.; Orange, N.J.; Laurelton, N.Y.; and Brooklyn, N.Y.; along with a number of unidentified defendants (listed as John Does in the complaint), created false subscription accounts and illegally activated hundreds of access cards and receivers nationwide for individuals, who then paid the defendants to receive DIRECTV programming without authorization or proper payment to DIRECTV.

"We will not tolerate this illegal activity," said Dan Fawcett, executive vice president, Legal and Business Affairs, DIRECTV, Inc. "Anyone attempting to defraud DIRECTV will be identified and may face severe consequences under the provisions of federal and state law.

"Our Office of Signal Integrity and Legal team have several active fraud investigations underway and we plan to vigorously pursue each of these cases civilly in federal court, and where appropriate, make referrals to the federal and state authorities for criminal prosecution. We are determined to protect our business and our honest customers from these unlawful activities."

DIRECTV claims the defendants violated provisions of the Federal Communications Act, Federal Wiretap laws and state law, all of which state that it is illegal to intercept or assist others in intercepting DIRECTV's encrypted satellite signals without authorization or payment to DIRECTV.

According to the federal and state laws under which the complaint was filed, DIRECTV is entitled to either actual damages, including any profits made by the defendants, or statutory damages that can range from $10,000 to $100,000 per violation, as well as payment of all costs and attorneys' and investigative fees.

In September of last year, DIRECTV filed a similar lawsuit against a Utah couple claiming that the defendants created false subscription accounts and illegally activated multiple access cards and receivers. That case is still pending.

Google ads here and on our chat forum // 2005-02-27
I have added google banner ads on here and chat forum few days ago, this is to cover the cost of both servers.
We get pay per click for these banner ads.... by clicking and using the sites sponsored, you are in turn helping this site and it would be much appreciated.
On the other hand I would like to inform all my readers that I have no control over these banners, these are all being rotated by google so if you see any ads which dont look legit PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THEM(we have noticed few P4, FTA kind of ads, best thing to do is notify us so we can notify google to get them black listed.
When you apply for Google adsense they run a spider on the website and see what the keywords are and then they run the ads accordingly, that is why you will see all the satellite related google ads here.... again we do not promote any advertisers in google ads on our page it is simply a pay per click for us.

Satellite TV coming to your SUVs // 2005-02-26
Electronics makers have an answer for parents tired of listening to Barney reruns and the Lion King playing on their back-seat DVD players: 100 channels.

In the latest step toward transforming sport utility vehicles and minivans into full-blown living rooms, electronics manufacturers are rolling out satellite TV antennas that strap to the roof.

A range of new devices — which can weigh as much as 45 pounds and pull in live TV almost anywhere in the United States — is starting to hit the market, as new technology enables the dimensions to shrink somewhat.

Next month RaySat, a major manufacturer of satellite antennas, plans to enter the market with a large, pancake-shaped device that can track satellites and can receive DirecTV Group and Dish Network signals across most of the United States. In April mobile-electronics giant Audiovox will start offering its own version in select markets. Winegard Co. says it plans to introduce its own gear in April.

The manufacturer that mostly had the market to itself, KVH Industries, is upgrading its services in the face of the competition. The company recently announced that its system, TracVision A5, available since 2003, would receive a new premium movie-channel package from DirecTV and Starz Entertainment Group LLC that offers 750 movies a month on 13 digital movie channels.

ROM10 unlooping // 2005-02-25
Dynamicasoftware guys released the ROM10 unlooping yesterday... this unloops all the recently looped ROM10 cards.

Humax inks deal with DirecTv // 2005-02-24
Thursday February 24, 6:00 am ET

SEOUL, Korea, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Humax, a leading international manufacturer of digital satellite set-top boxes today disclosed it has entered into a development agreement and supply agreement with DIRECTV, Inc. the leading digital satellite TV provider in the United States.

The agreements encompass various set top box models including a portion of the entry-level receivers that will feature interactive services and a HDTV receiver capable of receiving MPEG 4 broadcasts due to ship later in the year. In addition, Humax is producing the new DIRECTV DVR, also due out later this year.

Dr. Dae Gyu Byun, Chairman and CEO of Humax Co. Ltd, says, "Humax is proud to be added to the roster of DIRECTV approved vendors, it's an important milestone in our history. Our business is very much aligned with DIRECTV; Humax was born as a Satellite set top box manufacturer and continues to gain market share worldwide in this segment. Our experience in this space, combined with a dedicated and knowledgeable staff, will prove to be very valuable to this relationship."

Romulo Pontual, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of DIRECTV, said, "DIRECTV is poised to introduce several compelling new products and services in 2005. We are pleased to have Humax as a partner to develop and manufacturer set top boxes for DIRECTV. Humax brings years of proven cost effective set top box design and manufacturing."

Dishnetwork ready with Sirius // 2005-02-21
EchoStar has a Sirius Satellite Radio retail promotion in which DISH Network customers can get a $30 mail-in rebate if they buy a DISH/Sirius plug-and-play receiver.

The satellite TV company revealed the Sirius promotion during a "Charlie Chat" with DISH Network retailers Thursday. In addition to the promotion, the company said it will have a new Sirius receiver - dubbed the SR250 - with a car and home kit. The offering will be available only after the SR200 sells out, EchoStar said.

Also, EchoStar confirmed that it's on track to release in March its DISH Player-DVR 942, the highly-touted dual tuner digital recorder with high def capabilities. The DVR has a 250 GB hard drive with a recording capacity of up to 25 hours of high-def and up to 180 hours of standard-definition content.

Directv announced MPEG4 // 2005-02-18
DIRECTV has selected TANDBERG Television's MPEG-4 AVC technology in a deal valued at $9 million. DIRECTV, which has more than 13.9 million satellite TV customers in the U.S., will commission the first of 26 MPEG-4 AVC HD enabled transponders in the summer of 2005, marking the first North American launch of advanced HD encoding technology by a satellite direct-to-home (DTH) provider. The multiplexers will combine the MPEG-4 AVC encoded HD channels into one bandwidth efficient stream for transmission over satellite. With the launch of the new services, DIRECTV will have the ability to bring local HD programming to most of the U.S. population.

Each fully redundant system will feature the TANDBERG EN5990, the world's first real-time HD encoder for MPEG-4 AVC and a TANDBERG 1+1 HD multiplexing system. The EN5990 is designed to operate in real-time TV delivery environments with no frame dropping. Key features include extensive video pre-processing for noise reduction and horizontal picture resolution resizing. It is based on the company's HD ICE platform, an array of high-end, general purpose DSPs and FPGAs. The HD ICE platform is also the basis of TANDBERG's EN5980 Windows Media 9(TM) HD encoder.

The encoding systems will be installed at DIRECTV's Los Angeles Broadcast Center and Castle Rock, Co. Broadcast Center along with multiple TANDBERG nCompass control systems between the two sites.
http://www.tandbergtv.com

In September 2004, DIRECTV announced the planned launch of four new next-generation satellites aimed at significantly expanding its programming capacity in local and national high-definition (HD) channels, as well as capacity for new interactive and enhanced services and standard-definition programming.
The first two of these satellites, Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2, will launch in 2005 with programming being offered to consumers by the middle of the year. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 500 local HD channels. With these satellites, DIRECTV will have the ability to bring local HD programming to most of the U.S. population, as well as continuing to expand standard-definition local offerings and other enhancements.
The next two satellites, DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, will launch in early 2007. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 1,000 additional local HD channels, more than 150 national HD channels, and other new programming offerings. These satellites will provide DIRECTV the capability to bring local and national HD programming and other advanced services to every U.S. household. Consumers will be able to receive all of these services, as well as existing DIRECTV(R) programming, with a single small satellite dish.
DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, to be built by Boeing, will be among the largest and most powerful Ka-band satellites ever launched. The satellites, which will take advantage of DIRECTV's advanced transmission techniques and state-of-the-art video compression technology, will deliver national HD programming and will be capable of supporting spot beams carrying local HD broadcast channels in all 50 states. Boeing will also build a third satellite for DIRECTV that will serve as a ground spare.
The Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2 satellites, also being built by Boeing, are approaching completion and the satellites were recently converted to be capable of offering both video and a broadband Internet service. Boeing is also constructing a third Spaceway satellite. "Today's announcement is one of the most significant in the history of DIRECTV. We are reinforcing our commitment to best serve our customers with the most attractive and compelling array of programming services available," said Mitch Stern, president and CEO, DIRECTV.

More bad news // 2005-02-13
OTTAWA, Feb. 11 — The Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft issued a statement that satellite signal theft was dealt a serious blow when the RCMP Federal Enforcement Division carried out raids on six locations in Montreal and one in Toronto that were operated by suspected dealers of unauthorized satellite equipment.

The seven raids resulted in the seizure of software, access cards, computers and other types of equipment used to pirate satellite television signals and sell them over the Internet.

CASST estimates these activities generated revenues of "several hundred million dollars."

The police also uncovered more than $300,000 worth of offshore transactions.

"The federal government must now amend the Radiocommunication Act so that when cases lead to convictions, the penalties imposed reflect the severity of the crime," CASST co-chairman Harris Boyd said in a statement.

Members of CASST include Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association, Canadian Film and Television Production Association, Canadian Motion Picture Distribution Association, the Canadian Television Fund, DIRECTV, Bell ExpressVu, A&E Television Networks, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Film and Video Security Office, the North American Broadcasters Association, the Society of Composers, Authors, Music Publishers of Canada and Star Choice.


Same old nothing new // 2005-01-28
Receiving lots of BS emails from the spammers about Nagra2 hack and P4/P5 hack.... also more scammers opening new sites and closing old sites with same scam "we got a fix".
Rest assure if/when there is a hack you will see on the news right here but for time being save your money and buy a subscription if you are desperate.
A good friend of mine is in midst of finishing his site satscams.com and he will be adding all the scammers on that site soon.
Now on the FTA receivers, lots of people are asking me about FTA receiver (cardless receiver aka free to air receivers), once the Dishnet and Canadian Nagra1 swap is completed to Nagra2 cards those receivers would be useless just like anything else that is running on Nagra1 at this time so dont let those FTA guys fool you with their fancy write ups.

Scammers are at it again // 2005-01-03
There is a scammer who is using my name to scam people, this email seems like it is coming from me but it is NOT coming from me. (same thing he did around Oct 10th, look at my Oct 10 news)
If you guys have been following my page you know that I DO NOT sell, endorse or recommend anyone at all.
This is the email that everyone is getting from these scammers.

"Dear Members,

I'm contacting all of our amazing members today to let everyone know that finally there is a legitimate and reliable source for all your private Dishnetwork and free-to-air testing needs. Some of you may remember them from back in the day, they are SpaceTwister. It isn't under the same management, but the software coders are the same great guys they've always been. Check them out for the best of the best:

http://www.spacetwister3m.com/

Happy New Year!

- Royce "

Make sure to report this spam to authorities when you receieve the email!!!!

Tragedy in Asia needs your help // 2004-12-31
It is sad to see the disaster in Asia:( I request to all my readers for donations to help disaster areas.
Here are the links Canadian Red Cross
USA Red Cross

Spacetwister3M is a scam site // 2004-12-30
There is some one who is trying to rip off people by using the Spacetwister name and here is the email I received from the retired Spacetwister guys.
"Hi royce.
A lot of people look to your site as the news of dss news. I wanted to inform you directly that their is a new website that is generating buzz. http://www.spacetwister3m.com/
This site is in no way affiliated with me and XXX. We are both out of the bussiness and retired. Some scum bag is trying to cash in on the name, and pull a fast one on everybody. They are
offering garbage, and freeware shit for FTA, atmega's and garbage p4 scripts. I think it would be mighty honorable of you to put up a news bulletin, that you have been contacted by the real ST people(defunct of course), and informed that this is not us, but yet another sleaze bag trying to cash in on a misinformed public with another con."

Buyers be aware.




Have a merry Christmas // 2004-12-25
I wish all my readers a very merry christmas and happy new year.

Prolific satellite pirate jailed 7 years // 2004-12-08
From today's Globe and Mail

Prolific satellite pirate jailed 7 years

By PAUL WALDIE

UPDATED AT 11:03 AM EST Wednesday, Dec 8, 2004

To people in London, Ont., Martin Mullen must have seemed like a quiet businessman who ran a successful computer company from his home. But to police in Florida and satellite television giant DirecTV Group Inc., Mr. Mullen ran one of the largest and most sophisticated pirate satellite TV operations they have ever seen.

Mr. Mullen, 50, specialized in making bogus "smart cards," computer cards that satellite TV companies provide customers to unscramble signals.

According to court records, his operation was so intricate that he had more than 100 distributors across North America and even held training seminars for recruits that included an instructional video. DirecTV, which has about 11 million subscribers in the United States, estimated that Mr. Mullen cost the company more than $200-million (U.S.).

Mr. Mullen was arrested last June in Tampa, where some of his U.S. operations were based. He pleaded guilty to fraud and immigration charges and, on Monday, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $24-million in restitution.

"Our code name for this case was Operation Kingpin," said Richard Stone, a Los Angeles-based lawyer for DirecTV and NDS Americas Inc., which makes the smart cards. "There actually aren't that many cases like this out there. This is one of the more significant prosecutions."

Mr. Mullen has a long history in satellite television piracy. DirecTV first went after him in 1996 and won a $5-million judgment. He also faces a lawsuit in Ontario.

His latest scam began some time around 1998, when he set up a company called Multi-Media Images in his London home. The business offered a variety of services including video production and Internet-security programs. "Drawing from over 25 years of experience in the multi-media and video production fields, Marty has a true understanding of the industry," the company's website said.

But according to court documents, Mr. Mullen was also breaking into the computer codes on satellite TV smart cards and cloning thousands of duplicates. His copies were so good they eluded electronic countermeasures that satellite companies use to catch fake cards.

Mr. Mullen's operation grew quickly and he was soon supplying thousands of cards across the United States and Canada. In one three-month period alone, Mr. Mullen distributed 16,000 cards in the United States, court records show.

He also developed an extensive network of distributors and card makers including at least one industry insider. Mr. Mullen gave each new distributor two days of training, a laptop computer with encryption software for making cards and 10 fake cards to get started (all in return for $37,500). He also provided them with full technical support and an instructional video, called Cyber-1 MIP Tutorial Video. And, he set up a secure website to keep his network up to date on the latest techniques.

But DirecTV and NDS had been keeping their eyes on Mr. Mullen. In 2001, NDS hired a private investigator to infiltrate his operation. The agent "created a persona and befriended Mr. Mullen," Mr. Stone said. "Marty opened up and showed him the whole operation."

Mr. Mullen was arrested at the Tampa airport last June on an immigration charge (he had been deported from the United States in 1987 on an unrelated charge and re-entered under a false name). Charges of fraud and satellite TV piracy were laid as well and Mr. Mullen pleaded guilty two months later.

Mr. Mullen is the second major satellite TV piracy case in the past year. In 2003, a Florida court sentenced Steven Frazier to five years in jail `for hacking into smart cards. He was also ordered to pay $180-million in restitution.

Mr. Frazier, 29, had become something of a hero among hackers and even offered to provide free card-hacking tips on the Internet. Prosecutors said he ran a massive international operation, but Mr. Stone said the Frazier case paled in comparison to Mr. Mullen's.

Mr. Frazier "would be at the level of one of Mullen's sub dealers," he said. "He was a big-time guy."

� Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NagraVision North American card swap // 2004-12-06
Nagra Vision is in the process to swap their North American satellite providers (Echostar/Dishnetwork & BellXpressvu) to the new Nagra2 card which has been working uncompromised in Europe for a while now.
The rival company NDS which operates Directv in North America have switched their customers to the new card around April (according to Helen)and that ended all the piracy for DTV system... it looks like the end is coming soon for the NagraVision piracy also.
The estimated time for the swap is mid April for BellXpressvu and around Aug for the American counterpart Echo*.
Echo* is also going ahead with the move to switch their current video format MPEG-2 to more efficient MPEG-4 format and they are also looking to add more HDTV to their line up.

Taking some time off // 2004-12-01
I will be taking some time off from the page and the forum BUT if there is anything interesting (P4/P5 Nagra2 hack ) I will post it as soon as it is confirmed.



No P4 hack out so far. // 2004-11-16
There are lots of scams out but there is NO hack for P4/P5 D1/D2 (none what so ever for DTV).
Here is an other claim from one of the site using my name :(
"I just talked live to "Steve" and he says they sent one to Royce"
No one got in touch with me and I have NEVER received anything yet (common sense tells me that I will not see anything since they never got in touch with me for address also).
IF and WHEN any hack comes out you WILL see it on my news so for time being do not throw your money away by getting scammed.


Quebec judge's decsion on foreign satellites // 2004-10-29
Making it illegal for Canadians to subscribe to television programming via foreign satellite systems infringes on their freedom of expression, a long-awaited judgment concluded yesterday.

Quebec Court Judge Danielle Cote handed down a 153-page ruling that found two sections of the federal Radiocommunication Act violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Those sections deal with so-called grey-market satellite systems for decoding an encrypted programming signal.

"(Cote) had to invalidate the law because the law itself was such an infringement," said Jacques D'Argy of Drummondville, who sought the court order.

D'Argy and his brother-in-law, Richard Theriault, were charged in December 1998 with using DirecTV, a U.S. satellite system, to access U.S. signals.

Cote acquitted them in September 2000.

In June 2001, Superior Court Justice Jean-Guy Boilard rejected an appeal by government lawyers.

But in May 2002, the Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the acquittals and sent the case back to Cote.

The Supreme Court of Canada declared in 2002 that anyone who sells technology allowing consumers to access encrypted signals from U.S.-based satellite systems is committing a federal offence.

D'Argy, representing himself throughout all the court proceedings, said yesterday he always wondered "why can I import the New York Times but not (the U.S. television network) Fox."

He also noted that, at one time, "I could have spent a year in jail for watching the American Congress on C-SPAN. Does that make sense?"

"Isn't that terrific!" exclaimed Alan Gold, a Toronto lawyer who represents several grey-market satellite dealers in Ontario.

"I'm delighted, we've been waiting for this decision."

Calling it "very, very important and wonderful news," Gold said it means the federal government will no longer be able to control what Canadians watch on TV.

"This will give people the freedom to pay money and subscribe to the stations they want," he added. "It is the beginning of the end for the systems we now have."

The Coalition Against Satellite Signal Theft - which is made up of Canadian broadcasting, cable and satellite-TV interests - is studying Cote's lengthy decision.

"The only thing we know is that it's in favour of the plaintiffs," coalition official Harris Boyd, senior vice-president (industry affairs) at the Canadian Cable Television Association, said from Ottawa.

Francine Robichaud of the federal Justice Department said, "Lots of questions are raised in that judgment."

As a result, she said, the department "will take the time to analyze it in detail before deciding whether or not to appeal."

Cote extended a grace period of one year before her ruling would come into effect.



Rest in peace Krists // 2004-10-24
One of the very valuable member from cardcoders died in accident last week, I was out of town and did not know till I came back home.
My prayers and thought to Krists family, friends and the guys at cardcoders.
They are taking donations for the young family of Krists at cardcoders and I urge all my readers to pitch in to help the member of community.
Here is the Donation Link

An other scam // 2004-10-10
There is a scammer who is using my name to scam people, this email seems like it is coming from me but it is NOT coming from me.
If you guys have been following my page you know that I DO NOT sell, endorse or recommend anyone at all.
This is the email that everyone is getting from these scammers.
"Dear Member,

Due to popular request, I am contacting you all today with a recommendation
in regards to what dealer you should visit if you are looking for reliable
and high quality private Dishnet E3M support and software services. My
personal recommendation would be a site that has been loyal to us for years
now, and has the reputation to prove it. Their scripts have been up and
running fully for the past five months with no downtime. They not only have
top-notch private software that's easy to use, but have full technical and
customer support to please all their members. I totally vouch for them, and
recommend you purchase a membership right away. You can visit them at:

http://www.dynamica3m.com/

Regards,

Royce
DishNewsOnline Webmaster"

This spam/bulk email is traced to ez-web-hosting guys I have already email them about it and I will suggest all the people who are receiving this email to get in touch with the above company and let them know about this spam/bulk scam email.

update on the scam email

ez-web-hosting closed the account and they created an other account to send more emails "DO NOT FALL FOR THESE SCAMMERS".

Not much on the DTV front // 2004-09-27
There is not much to report on DTV and they are winning the war against hackers lately.
I have seen and read lots of scams where these dealers are telling end users that they have activation scripts and PPV wiper...... it is a scam there is NO PPV wiper available these dealers are simply subscribing the cards as I reported in my Sept 13th news.
I am also testing a Dishnetwork freeware script from Satfreetalk guys , they want me to test their freeware script VS commercial scripts to see how it fairs out.

Winexplorer's Dexter faces Directv lawsuit // 2004-09-17
The well known author of popular programs such as WinExplorer and BasicU is now looking at facing the wrath of DirecTV's corporate lawyers. It appears that DirecTV is going full force at "Dexter" for DMCA violations. Court documents implicates Dexter of authoring WinExplorer and BasicU for none other than DirecTV piracy.

My guess is that at the end Directv will be looking for the information of the dealers who bought all the private keys of him and it will be quite easy to track it down since all the business was done using PayPal.

I wish you good luck Dexter!!!!!!!

False advertising for P4/P5 // 2004-09-13
I have seen lots of dealers advertising for P4/P5 programming but it is all misleading, all they are doing is charging the customers $199 for X amount of months with no PPV and porno available... end user think that it is a hack,it is NOT a hack these guys are activating your P4/P5 cards with total choice package and this is how it works.
You get the package from DTV let us say $39.99 a month and you can add up to 6 receivers for $4.99 a month so your total will be around $384 for 7 receivers for 6 months.. if these guys are charging $199x7 = $1393 so they can pocket roughly $1000 on 7 customers for 6 months, even if they get platinum package which is $99 a month times 6 months is $594 add $144 for additional 6 receivers for 6 months and your total would be $738 if they are charging $199 it comes to $1393 and they are profiting $655 for 6 months on 7 people.
Nothing wrong with making money if people know what they are paying for.
There is an other scam going around where these guys claim to sell hardware piece to add to receivers (FTA receivers) to pick up DTV channels, it is all BS.


To innocent 911 victims // 2004-09-11
Our thoughts and prayers are with you!!!!!!

Scammers are desperate // 2004-09-06
These guys are using what ever means they can to fool people, here is the BS story published on one of the site.

"Satellite Pirate Nabbed - Highly Sensitive Documents and Hardware Seized!

Friday was not an ordinary day for Conrad Hemmings, a Toronto Based software engineer, who was awaken by the aggressive knocking of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Local Toronto Police at his front door.

Hemmings a self described hacker has been a key figure in a six month probe into criminal satellite decryption and development of satellite television decoder equipment that was to be sold at a premium through various underground websites who carry such devices and software.

When officials entered the Hemmings residence they found hundreds of documents and plans pertaining to the decryption of a new satellite card that is used by subscribers of American Based satellite provider Directv inc. There was also a full range of satellite equipment on the premises that was fully functional and illegal decryption was taking place in the home.

Officials for Directv had been tipped off of the coming raid by Canadian officials that were monitoring the Internet communications of Hemmings and other parties involved in an elaborate group effort to market this new technology that would allow Directv subscribers to view unauthorized programming without paying for it, using the devices and software that Hemmings had devoloped.

Hemmings was known by his friends on the Internet chatrooms by his online alias, cracker and was a frequent user of Internet relay chat, a system that is used by millions of people to chat with each other on the web and exchange files as well.

"We Got to him on time, We know he was the only one with the design and manufacturing plans, we did well to act as planned" said a media relations official of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Toronto Detachment. "There was potential here for Hemmings to launder millions of dollars if he would have released this system of his" adding that " This business of piracy affects Canadians with the black market sales as well as underground export to the United States" Directv Officials were unavailable for comment."

The above story is NOT true and these guys are trying to set the ground for a new scam.

An other site is sending spam emails telling people that they will be releasing the P4 hack by end of Sept. and they are taking pre-orders at this time...... if you have more money than brain you can go ahead and do a pre-order:)
I am sick of writing over and over that there is NO P4 hack out... if/when anything comes up you will see it on my news.



BlackBird Sept 1st kill // 2004-09-05
The manufactures of BlackBird added a melicous file in their unit which caused the receiver to render useless on Sept.1st:(
They did release a file few hours before the dooms day to patch the receivers but if you were out of town, away from computer or for any other reason did not apply the patch your receiver is dead and you need to send it in to get it fix (pay for the fix and shipping).
This is a sly tactic that have been used by greedy manufactures/dealers in the past also:( Just makes you wonder about the other FTA receivers if they are using same tactics.
I have asked the BlackBird guy on my page to take care of his customers and I hope rest of the BlackBird dealers step up to the plate also.
There are more BS stories about possible "P4" hack going around again, all I can say is that after reading my page for that many years if you still fall for the scam.... "you are a fool"


More scams and stories // 2004-08-25
The scams keep on rolling but no hack for P4, P5, D1 etc...
I have seen some creative video which looks believeable to rookies, I have heard some empty promises but in reality there is NOTHING available at this time.


Dishnetwork ECM // 2004-08-12
There is a ECM in the stream which is causing receivers to go blank screen.
Blackbird etc..... are down also.

Forum offline // 2004-08-11
A power serge knocked our forum offline, it should be back on in the morning.


Reading for the impatient people // 2004-08-08
I receive 4-5 emails a day people telling me that they have seen P4/P5 hacks with their own eyes and it is coming from their friends's cousin's uncle's little brother:) and I always reply "ya okay" (dont want to be rude). Reality is that P4/P5 hack is not going to be done in some one's basement, there are only about 6 labs in the world which are capable of decrypting these cards (having right technician/hacker and equipments) People say that H card was hacked and then HU was done very fast, why can P4/P5 be hacked? There is no question that anything can be hacked but rest assure it will not be done by street hackers, school kids and average Joe, it has to be done in one of the 6 sophisticated labs mentioned above or it has to be leaked from inside. It is going to be different story with P4/P5 cards....

My stolen domain guys are ready for scam again // 2004-07-30
My domain was stolen in April and those guys tried scamming people with P4 loader.
They are ready for new scam again, if you go to stolen domain dishnewsonline.com you will see they are linking to other pages.
Beaware people I have never sold anything on my page ever and I WILL NEVER SELL ANYTHING.
Besides all that THERE IS NO P4/P5 hack.

An other dishnet ECM // 2004-07-22
Dishnetwork is getting quite active lately.... they looped the cards few weeks ago, hit the long running Dishplayers 7100/7200 day before yesterday and they are hitting receivers again today.
My guess is that they are trying to discourage all the people who switched over to dishnetwork after DTV swapped the old cards and the new DTV card is not compromised yet.

Dishnetwork ECM // 2004-07-20
There is ECM in the stream which is causing the receivers to display "a serious error...." message including the long running dishplayer which has never been hit in the past.
DTV sued large number of well known dealers/pay sites owners/operators few days ago... it is hard to believe that they are still so active even though their new card is not compromised yet.

Canadian authorities active again // 2004-07-16
There were few raids in Eastern Canada and Alberta last week, dsscanada and few other related sites in Ontario were taken down by authorities.
We also seen the very first jail sentece handed out by Canadain judge for satellite related case last week also.
It is not too surprising to see all these activities by Canadian authorities...... since DireTV has switched their HU card to new card which is not compromised majority of the hackers have switched over to Dishnetwork and their daughter company in Canada.

For the people who keep writing me hehehe // 2004-07-09
There is NO P4/P5 hack out!!!!!!
Remember if/when there is one I will post it on my news (that would be the biggest news).
I see and read about 100s of scams every day..... just remember if/when there is a hack those people will know how to get in touch with me... but for time being save your money and headaches.

More sites claiming BS fixes. // 2004-07-04
There is absolutely NO hack for P4/P5.... just more sites lying, cheating and scamming people by false claims.
Buyers be aware!!!!!!!

Dishnet card unlooping scam // 2004-06-23
There are few groups of scammers who are hijacking well known sites or registering close enough names to well known sites and then coming up with scams... BE AWARE there is NO unlooping for recently hit dishnetwork cards and there is NO P4/P5 hack yet.


DirecTV to Narrow Anti-Piracy Campaign // 2004-06-15
Satellite TV Giant Will No Longer Prosecute Users for Mere Possession

San Francisco and Palo Alto, CA – After discussions with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) Cyberlaw Clinic, satellite television giant DirecTV has agreed to modify its nationwide campaign against signal piracy in order to reduce threats and lawsuits against innocent users of smart card technology. Chief among these changes is a promise to no longer sue or threaten to sue people merely for possessing smart card devices.

“American innovators and hobbyists shouldn’t have to fear legal action merely for possessing new technologies that have many legitimate uses,” said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. “We’re also pleased that DirecTV has agreed to stop targeting general purpose devices in its campaign and will investigate all substantive claims of innocence.”

Over the past few years, DirecTV has orchestrated a nationwide legal campaign against hundreds of thousands of individuals, claiming that they were illegally intercepting its satellite TV signal. The company began its crusade by raiding smart card device distributors to obtain their customer lists, then sent over 170,000 demand letters to customers and eventually filed more than 24,000 federal lawsuits against them. Because DirecTV made little effort to distinguish legal uses of smart card technology from illegal ones, EFF and the CIS Cyberlaw Clinic received hundreds of calls and emails from panicked device purchasers.

In August 2003, EFF and CIS created the DirecTV Defense website to provide innocent users and their lawyers with the information necessary to defend themselves. The organizations also began a series of discussions with DirecTV about ways to reform its anti-piracy tactics and protect innocent consumers.

As a result, DirecTV has agreed to make several changes to its campaign. The company will no longer pursue people solely for purchasing smart card readers, writers, general-purpose programmers, and general-purpose emulators. It will maintain this policy into the forseeable future and file lawsuits only against people it suspects of actually pirating its satellite signal. DirecTV will, however, continue to investigate purchasers of devices that are often primarily designed for satellite signal interception, nicknamed “bootloaders” and “unloopers.”

DirecTV also agreed to change its pre-lawsuit demand letters to explain in detail how innocent recipients can get DirecTV to drop their cases. The company also promised that it will investigate every substantive claim of innocence it receives. If purchasers provide sufficient evidence demonstrating that they did not use their devices for signal theft, DirecTV will dismiss their cases. EFF and CIS will monitor reports of this process to confirm that innocent device purchasers are having their cases dismissed.

“While EFF still disagrees with DirecTV over other aspects of its campaign, we’re pleased that we could find mutual ground on these issues,” said CIS Executive Director Jennifer Granick, who represented EFF in the negotiations. "We hope to continue working with DirecTV to resolve the remaining disputes so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of smart card technology."

Smart card readers and their various derivatives have many legitimate uses, including computer security and scientific research.


Contact:

Jennifer Granick
Clinical Director
Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
jennifer@granick.com
+1 650 724-0014

Jason Schultz
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
jason@eff.org
+1 415 436-9333 x112

Posted at 04:14 PM


I personally think that part of the reason for DTV to slow down is that their new smart card is not compromised and they dont have any reason to waste their money and energy on the legal end.


Dishnetwork ECM!!!!! // 2004-06-10
Dishnetwork sent a nasty ECM today which looped majority of the ROM3 cards, none of the unlooper is working on those cards at this time.
And yes there is NO P4/P5 hack out yet either just in case you are wondering about it:)

Keep sounding like broken record // 2004-06-09
Yes it is still the same "There is NO P4/P5, D1 etc.... hack out so save your money and save yourself from headaches".
There are lots of scammers trying to scam people by false claims (I like the latest one "DTV is sending out memos to their dealers that P4 is hacked hehehehehe).
Bottom line is there is no hack yet and if/when anything comes up I will update my news ASAP.


100s of more P4 scams coming out every day // 2004-05-31
I am sick of typing same thing over and over that THERE IS NO P4 HACK, so quit asking me about the new sites which come and go every week.
If/When there is any thing legit you will read it right here on my news.
For time being go for walks, take you wife or girlfriend out for dinner, play baseball, tennis or other healthy activities.
I have changed the date on this news from May 12th to May 20th and now 20th to 31st of May, above is still true "THERE IS NO P4 HACK" just lots of spams and scams.

No P4 hack on the horizon yet // 2004-05-04
There are hundreds of scams (activation, PPV wipe etc...) and scammers out claiming the P4/P5 hack but there is NO P4 hack yet.
If/when there is one you will see on my news section right away.
We have a section in our Forum under P4/P5 rumor (I call it BS section) for all the stories.
We also have a thread under P4 call "I got scammed" for the people who want to avoid the scammers.
Bottom line is if you get a spam email or a bogus site claiming the have a P4/P5 hack do not fall for it.

Good reading on P4 card // 2004-04-28
Signal thieves say fight not over yet
DirecTV says card hasn't been hacked
By Craig Pearson Star Staff Reporter

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

DirecTV says satellite signal hacking is now so difficult that theft of its programming will no longer be common. Others though, believe the game is merely heating up.
"DirecTV has won," said a former pirate equipment dealer in Windsor, who did not want to give his name. "They've actually succeeded in doing what they've been trying to do, and that's kill it (signal theft), at least in the mainstream."
As a city with perhaps the highest ratio of black market satellite dishes on the continent ? thanks to our proximity to the Detroit market, which provides lots of customers for black marketeers ? many TV pirates worry that the DirecTV free ride is over.
Others disagree.
"Somebody's going to hack into it because there's too much money to be made," said one local pirate satellite fan who closely monitors Internet chat on the topic. "There are 1,000 guys out there trying to get into this card, so somebody's going to get in.
"The first person with a legitimate script is a millionaire overnight."
As the largest satellite television company in the United States, with 12.2 million subscribers (compared to No. 2 EchoStar with 9.5 million), DirecTV has long been aggressive with its electronic counter measures designed to zap illegal cards.
One technique is to periodically replace its access cards with newer, tougher-to-crack cards. The data stream to the current cards, known as HU or P3 cards, has been slowed to a comparative trickle ? and few seem to have an illegal "fix" for the new P4 cards.
"As far as we know, the card has not been hacked," said Robert Mercer, DirecTV director of public relations.
"I don't think we could ever say a card is completely unhackable.
"But will a hack be commercially available? Anything man devises, I guess man can revise. But you get to a point where the card is so sophisticated and complex you can't easily hack it unless you're Einstein in a major electronics lab somewhere."
Mercer won't say when the P3 stream will end completely, though the buzz on the Internet is that it won't last the month.
Lots of rumours suggest illegal hacking of the P4 is imminent, while some code writers who claim to have a fix are charging as much as $125. The new cards themselves are going for more than $200 ? and DirecTV already has a P5 on the market.
"I think we've had a serious impact on the pirate community," Mercer said. "Our strategy is to target every link in the pirate food chain, from the code writers, manufacturers and distributors on down to the end-users."
Besides attacking many black market entrepreneurs, DirecTV is suing more than 24,000 end-users in the United States.
Cease-and-desist letters demand that satellite pirates sign an agreement never to steal DirecTV's signal again, forfeit all their illegal equipment, and pay $3,500 US.
If not, DirecTV launches a suit in court, where American law allows for fines of up to $10,000 for every piece of illegal equipment (such as hacked access cards and program loaders).
Meanwhile, the former local dealer said satellite pirates will likely move on to other avenues, such as card-less receivers with nicknames like Blackbird and Silver Bullet, available on the Internet in Canada.
"Everybody's saying ?Now that DirecTV's done, move over to Dish Network,'" the dealer said.
"Dish Network is a whole new game because you don't need to even use a card. You can just program a circuit board."

Buyers be aware // 2004-04-26
There are way too many P4/P5 scams going on as we speak, bottom line is there is NO P4/P5 hack.
Our Forum is buzzing with rumours/speculations but all those are just rumours and misguidence.

I am also receiving lots of inquiries about Space Twister, I have no idea what is going on there..... I wrote them last week with no answer and I just sent them an other e-mail today.

Update!!!!!Here is the update I received on Space Twister from an unknown source
"SpaceTwister guys were arrested by Police and had 160 packages in the car getting ready to ship. They are in deep shit for that.Web site gone and will not return. Not sure how safe end user will be!!!! This is the Truth...no BS."

Canadian satellite piracy ring busted // 2004-04-25
Mounties crack satellite TV piracy ring
(Globe & Mail)

By RHOAL SOGUIN Saturday, April 24, 2004 - Page A16

QUEBEC -- A satellite-television piracy ring was collecting as much as $300,000 a week in Quebec City alone, selling reprogrammed access cards to owners of Bell ExpressVu receivers, the RCMP said yesterday.

Consumers could buy the cards for $150 to $200, giving them illegal access to television signals. Anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 of the cards were being sold each week, police said as they announced nine arrests in connection with the ring.

The fact that so many people in Quebec City alone have been willing to purchase illegal access cards is an indication that the average consumer does not consider this to be a form of theft, police said.

"We are here to tell them it is a crime," Inspector Marc Proulx, head of the RCMP Quebec City detachment, said.

The RCMP arrested nine people in Quebec City and Montreal in connection with the ring, and seized access cards and equipment used to allow consumers to steal satellite signals.

Police could not say how long the pirating network had been operating. They withheld the names of the woman and eight men arrested.

The special RCMP police operation named Project Console was launched in September of 2003 in co-operation with the federal Department of Industry, Bell ExpressVu and the Canadian film industry. The police operation was aimed exclusively against illegal distributors and not consumers.

Bell ExpressVu and its competitor, Star Choice, are the only two satellite-signal providers authorized by the federal government to offer the service to Canadians.

The Coalition for Freedom of Choice in Satellite TV argued that Canadians will continue to break the law if Ottawa does nothing to compel the companies to offer more programs at cheaper rates.

There is NO P4 hack // 2004-04-23
I have been receiving lots of e-mails people telling me the stories but let me inform you THERE IS NO P4/P5 hacks out yet.
There are few scams/not telling the truth fixes out, one is "activation" and yes it is really an activation..... you send them money and they send you card, you insert it in the receiver and in few hours (some times over night) it comes on and you will get all channels except PPV (you can purchase up to 25 PPV).
This is how it works, you send them $200-$300 for it and they call DTV to subscribe the card (they only need card number receiver could be just any number)you get to watch till it is done (DTV is giving you one extra month with platinum package) that means you will not know about the scam for 60 days.
I have been informed that there is one company out there who is using stolen credit cards to call in the activation (I can not confirm that).
Bottom line is there is not actual P4/P5 hacks at this point.
Check out our Forum for all the latest discussion on this topic.

Part 1 accomplished // 2004-04-19
We are getting ready to close in on the thieves/scammers who stole our domain name dishnewsonline.com from NetworkSolutions and they were scamming people by selling P4 hardware etc... which does not exist at this point.
RCMP and Toronto Police have report on this scam and they are investigating on these people from this side of border.
The site is suspended as we speak by the hosting company and domain name is on freeze by Enom so they can not run anywhere.
The final part is to expose these scammers and that is coming up next.
Mr. Albert A. Zakarian have helped us tremendously and I am waiting to hear back from him!!!!!
Next part is going to be very interesting, let us see how these guys are going to hide.

Very interesting reading // 2004-04-18
Former anti-piracy 'bag man' turns on DirecTV

SecurityFocus Apr 16 2004

'The investigators were required to coerce people into paying money for stealing services when we had no proof whether they had done so or not.'
-- Ex-cop John Fisher's lawsuit against DirecTV

A one-time enforcer in DirecTV's anti-piracy campaign is suing his ex-employer for wrongful discharge, after he allegedly resigned rather than continue to prosecute the company's controversial war against buyers of hacker-friendly smart card equipment.

John Fisher, a former police officer, alleges in a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Court late last month that he joined DirecTV as a senior investigator in July, 2002, expecting to serve a legitimate investigative role tracking signal pirates. He wound up instead "as little better than a 'bag man for the mob,'" the lawsuit claims. He's seeking unspecified damages, and an end to DirecTV's tactics.

At issue is DirecTV's end-user campaign, aimed at shutting down and collecting money from TV watchers who use smart card programmers and other equipment to get free or expanded satellite TV service. Because there's no way to trace people who are passively receiving DirecTV's signal, the company turned to a strategy of physically raiding equipment sellers that cater to pirates, using the authority of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The company then sends out threatening letters to everyone on the seized customer lists.

The letters accuse the recipients of violating anti-piracy laws by purchasing equipment like customizable smart card programmers, and demand a cash settlement beginning at $3,500, or face litigation and possible damages of $100,000 or more. Since last year the company has sent out tens of thousands of such letters and filed lawsuits against over 9,000 people who've ignored them or refused to settle. None of those lawsuits have yet gone to trial.

DirecTV began facing criticism over the campaign after it targeted some innocent techies who had perfectly legal uses for the equipment they purchased. The company says the number of non-pirates swept into its dragnet is minuscule, but advocacy groups and lawyers have received enough consumer complaints to prompt the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Stanford Center for Internet and Society to launch an informational website apprising crackdown targets of their legal rights. EFF says innocent people are settling with DirecTV for no other purpose than to avoid costly litigation.

Fisher's lawsuit provides a rare glimpse at the inner workings of the end user campaign, which, from his description, resembles nothing so much as a high-stakes boiler room operation. Fisher and his colleagues spent their days fielding calls from worried recipients of the threatening letters, confronting the targets with evidence of their "illegal" purchases, and persuading them -- with tough talk and black-and-white assertions about what is, in reality, a largely unsettled area of law -- to surrender the equipment and cough up the settlement money.

Fisher "a Good Cop"
The office culture rewarded workers who made collections in marginal cases -- one investigator allegedly tried to win a settlement from someone who had purchased nothing but a leather case. "It was a very competitive environment and the investigator who generated the most revenue was not only praised but also given a nice dinner or similar gift," wrote Fisher. A tote board on the wall charted the total amount brought in by the office, and when it logged its first million of the year, a congratulatory e-mail went out.

The lawsuit claims the company knew that between five and ten percent of their targets were innocent. After a time, Fisher "fully realized the end user campaign was an elaborate extortion racket," the lawsuit alleges. "The letters were full of lies or misrepresentations and the investigators were required to coerce people into paying money for stealing services when we had no proof whether they had done so or not." Fisher resigned in October.

Though Fisher quit the job, the lawsuit argues that DirecTV effectively fired him by instructing him to behave unethically. "Mr. Fisher was forced to resign because of intolerable working conditions," says his attorney, Jeffrey Wilens. "Normally a lawsuit of that nature is based upon harassment, racial or sexual harassment, but sometime it's based on working conditions that require an employee to break the law or engage in unethical practices."

DirecTV confirmed that Fisher worked for the company on its end user campaign, but would not comment on the circumstances of his departure. The company denies asking Fisher to do anything unethical or illegal. "We certainly can say that Mr. Fisher's allegations are baseless," says company spokesman Robert Mercer.

The Maywood, California police department confirmed that Fisher worked there as a patrol officer and detective until 1998, when a shoulder injury sustained in the line of duty forced his retirement. "I worked with him myself, and I can tell you he was regarded as a good cop, and somebody who could be counted on to help out, and he was a very moral and ethical person," said Sergeant Robert Leach.

Multiple Lawsuits
Jeffrey Wilens, Fisher's lawyer, is a tenacious opponent of DirecTV's ongoing crackdown. In 2002, he sued the company for extortion on behalf of seven clients who claimed to have ordered smart card programmers and other equipment for legitimate purposes, and subsequently received DirecTV's threatening letter. But last year a county judge ruled that DirecTV's mailings were connected with litigation, and were therefore privileged; he dismissed the case and awarded DirecTV nearly $100,000 in attorney's fees.

Undeterred, Wilens filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles under the mob-busting Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) organized crime statute, again claiming extortion. A federal judge dismissed that case as well, using similar reasoning as the county judge. Both cases are under appeal.

In March, Wilens filed another, nearly-identical RICO suit in Colorado, where he says case law is more favorable. He followed that up with the Fisher suit, and a separate lawsuit accusing the company of violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act by coercing the Canadian operator of the Pirates Den online forum into handing over users' private communications. (The forum operator, also a defendant, has claimed the messages were seized and given to DirecTV by a Canadian court). All three cases are now pending.

"He seems to keep trying to shoehorn some of these legal theories into another kind of case," says DirecTV's Mercer. "What did Albert Einstein say about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?"

"I don't hate DirecTV," says Wilens. "You don't hate the sinner, you hate the sin. I regard their conduct to be outrageous. I wouldn't be spending my time in these cases if money were the primary focus."

No more HU and no P4 hack in sight // 2004-04-17
HU is almost all gone from the stream and there is NO P4, P5, D1 etc..... hack out yet, DO NOT LET SCAMMERS FOOL YOU... and yes there are tons of them out there waiting to scam people.

HU card is leaving us // 2004-04-15

Channels are slowly dropping of the HU cards, PPV is all gone.
I will say it should be gone by the end of this month unless DTV runs into some major glitches.
Remember there are NO P4 hacks out so DO NOT fall for any scam.
Check out our Forumb for the latest Info.

End of HU coming? // 2004-04-13
It looks like DTV is almost ready to remove the HU stream, in common language, End of HU card is around the corner.
If you to Fox sport channels you will see the message "please insert your new card".
This is going to be tough on end users since there is NO P4 hack on the horizon.
Scammers will try to scam people by saying that they have a hack for P4 but make sure you do not get taken in by scammers.
Also spread the word about my domain was hacked on April 8th and those guys are scamming people by saying they are me and they are also try to sell P4 loaders etc.... WHICH DOES NOT EXIST.

Chat forum domain is gone also:( // 2004-04-12
My dishnewschat domain got taken away also:( (transfer got completed today).
Remember these guys are the same scammers as the one who stole my dishnewsonline.com domain earlier.
I have registered dishnewschats.com and it will be up and running shortly.

We will bounce back // 2004-04-10
This is my message to those a**hole who stole my dishnewsonline.com domain and he is trying to scam people saying that he teamed up with Royce....
I am not going to get scared or discouraged by your tactics, I will bounce back.
For my readers, you guys should know that my site is always an information site, I have NEVER sold anything and I will NEVER sell anything on my site and I will NEVER permote/join forces with ANYONE so do not fall for scammers.
My chat forums DNS was hacked and altered by same scumbags, it will take 24-48 hours to get it back again because of long weekend.
I am fighting with Network Solutions to get my dishnewsonline.com get back from these scammer also.

Do not use my contact from the page because that e-mail is hacked also, use dishnews@shaw.ca for time being till I have the php codes fix on the page.

Misleading sites // 2004-04-06
I have received lots of inquiries about this site saying that they are rated #1 on Royce's page... Ok people give your head a good shake before writing me about it, do you see them on my page? NO.. do you see them on my card chart? NO.... do you see them mentioned anywhere on my webpage? NO.
Why would you believe a site who is spamming you with lies?
You want to see who is rated on my page? look at the left side of screen and click.

Forum Login Problems // 2004-04-02
We know about some people having problems accessing our forum, we hope to have this fixed by 4/26.


Space Twister update // 2004-03-31
I received a phone call from Space Twister guy today and I was informed that problem is not with space twister, it was an other company who gets their cards unlock from Space Twister.
Cards were sent from south of the border and were confiscated by custom, the company closed their site even after Space Twister replaced their cards out of their own pocket.
I was told that Space Twister will no longer send or receive any more cards.

Forum back online // 2004-03-30
Our Forum was hacked yesterday and it is back online again!!! unfortunately we lost all the information from March 24th to today because our last back up of the Forum was done on March 24th (thanks to Neo!!! for his hard work I do not back anything and we would of lost everything, if you lost any information in between those days just re-register.

On an other note I got to see Silverman private stuff for dishnetwork and it looks very good, great job Silverman.

Lots of rumours flying around about Space Twister but nothing confirmed yet if I get any confirmation I will update you guys.

Forum closed // 2004-03-29
We have an intruder (maybe a 13 years old kid) who hacked in to the server and took over as "admin slapper" I turned the power off and slapped the slapper hehehe.
We will fix everything as soon as we get hold of our Forum security guy.

Stories and rumours // 2004-03-26
I have seen these postings on chat forums by this fellow ArcticWind for last few weeks, I ususually do not get involve in these kind of things but in this case I would like to inform his postings are NOT based on truth, here is what he post
"03/23/2004 07:03 PM by ArcticWind
The SpaceTwister-DishChat Connection
Remember DishChat and the countless thousands of people that got scammed? The owner-founder of DishChat is Angel, the very same Angel formerly partnered with the now jailed Dawn and Tony of Emulator1 and the very same Angel now with SpaceTwister. Everything Angel touches turns to scam, this is not speculation or rumor, its fact. This section has a flawless history at exposing scams by this group of people and associates, so consider yourself warned the next time you send money and your cards to SpaceTwister and they are not returned and the website suddenly goes dark or allegedly changes ownership again and of course the owners took all the sites money and cards. Some crisis will arise much like the recent ECM and they will vanish. Have any doubts? Just do a google search! Complaint after complaint is posting. All these people cannot be wrong..."

Let us start with Emulator1 and its partners, it was not Angel, Dawn and Tony who were partner in it, Emulator1 was run by T and Dawn got invloved with him later, people in the know knew quite well who ran Emulator1 those days (BTW T and Dawn are NOT in jail either).
Angel owned dishchat those days and he did a great jod doing it specially when he got AJ to run it for him (nobody knew about it but AJ was looking for a job and I introduce them to each other yes it is the same AJ who ran SFSinfinite later on and did a great job there also) anyway AJ left to go with SFS and Angel handed the site over to this young guy Jas and his parents, these guys could not/did not run site properly and drove it to the ground, this is the story about the dishchat.
After handing dishchat over to Jas Angel started SpaceTwister, he ran it nicely untill he found out how aggresively Nagra was getting after people (Emulaor1 lawsuit etc...) he decided to walk away from this satellite stuff and ATR took over Space Twister.
Here is the first hand knowledge about Angel (not like some Arctic stories).

ROM10/ ROM3 unlocker for public sale/Dishnet ECM // 2004-03-23
I just received the news that long awaited ROM10/ROM3 unlocker combo is available to public for a decent price, it is done by Space Twister group.
Dishnet ECM!!!! at around 3PM pacific time dishnetwork sent an ECM that is causing receivers to go "serious problem....."

Nagra lawsuit gets nod from the judge // 2004-03-20
Pending Nagra lawsuit against NDS and few others gets OK by California judge.
Involved parites will see the subpoena in next few weeks.
I am surprised that the lawsuit got OK, I have looked through all pages myself and in my opinion the whole thing look like a big bundle of lies, I do not think Nagra has any chance or hope to win this case but this will cause headaches for NDS and involved parites.... huge legal fees and running around.

On an other note my e-mail is not fixed yet but if you really need to get hold of me you can use dishnews@shaw.ca

E-mail down // 2004-03-16
My hosting company switched this site to a bigger, faster and better server last week and it is working really good.
They switched my e-mail over to the new server last night it will take 24-48 hours to make the switch, I can not receive any e-mail at this time if there is anything important you can go to the Forum and PM me.

Dynamica update // 2004-03-15
I received an e-mail from Dynamica explaining to me what happened with their site few days ago, here is their e-mail.

"hi royce,

as you can see www.dynamicasoftware.com is back in our control. i don't know which is worse but what actually happened was there was a hacker who brute forced the password into the domain registrar (not our site). so they simply changed the domain to point to one of those antipiracy sites. basically the whole thing was a joke on us. since that password was never used for anything else our data is safe. now we have changed the domain registrar's site password too something so long and rediculous that it would take years to guess it. everything is normal. we're glad that we didn't use that password anywhere else or there would have been a big problem.

i know you must hate to mess with the news once you put it up but now you have all the facts. if dave had taken over our site we sure wouldn't have it back already.

Thanks,

Dyna "


Dynamica site // 2004-03-13
It looks like Dynamica site/server is taken over by DTV, I will post on it more when I find out exactly what is going on.
Here is what Dynamica wrote me about the problem.
"Looks like they just screwed up our domain, they are probably upset because we moved from rackspace.. hehe. We will most likely get a new domain. No personal information is stored on the server though, just the ird numbers, wich we can wipe. But i dont think they will go as far as the server, it is in hongkong and it is out of their juristiction. The reason they can take our domain is because it is a .com, and i've heard regardless what provider, verisign, wich is US company still handles the domains for .coms. Our provider was www.gandi.net wich is in france. But they still got it.
Other than the domain, our software still works fine, wich uses our servers IP anyway. if you would like to change our link on the chart for now to http://210.245.151.10 that would be great, until we sort this all out. You know it will most likely be 24-48 hours for our new domain to take effect once we purchase it. Thanks, -Dynamica"

SpaceTwister unlooper/unlocker // 2004-03-11
I received SpaceTwister unlooper/unlocker for reviewing today, it came nicely packaged but the unit did not look like professionaly made for the cover it is boxed in.
I took it home to test and was pleasantly surprised how fast it unlocked the cards!!!! this is the fastest unlocker I have used so far... tried unlooping some ROM3s but did not have any success but keep in mind these are the 3 stubborn cards which could not be done with Toro or emulator1 unlooper in the past either.
I also got 3 of their latest auto digital locks for the receivers and those are very well made.

Buyers be aware // 2004-03-03
I am receiving lots of e-mails regarding unlockcards.com possible scam about P4 loaders and the dishnet unlocker/unlooper.
To best of my knowledge there is NO software available to do P4 cards so P4 loader is a vapour ware.
As for the dishnet unlocker/unlooper there are only few guys in the market right now who got that, the very first one came from emulator1 it did R3 unlocking and unlooping the 2nd one came from Toro group which fixed R2 along with unlocking R3 and the latest one is coming out of spacetwister, I did not see or test it.

Space Twister unlooper // 2004-03-01
I spoke to space twister guys early on today, they informed me that their unlooper is ready and pre-orders will be filled first,it will be shipped out on March 5th.
There looped cards will not be fixed with this unit currently but they know what happened and they will have add on to this unlooper to fix the current ECM.
I will be testing one of their unlooper later part of next week.

Dishnetwork ECM // 2004-02-27
There was a nasty dishnetwork ECM yesterday, few of the commercial and freeware cards got looped.
My spacetwister cards got looped.
I think the only card that can be unlooped at this point is ROM2, ROM10 and ROM11 do not have unlooper yet and current ROM3 unloopers can not fix this last ECM.

Echostar civil lawsuit // 2004-02-25
I got a chance to look through the civil lawsuit against NDS and few other defendant, it was amazing to see the amount of lies and stories there.
Reg aka ttrk (supposably the freedom fighter) affidavit should be the nail in the coffin for this whole lawsuit because of his lack of knowledge on the echostar hack issue (he was not even close to the people who were involved in it).
The whole thing looks like personal vendetta than a legit lawsuit in my humble opinion.

Wonderbox news // 2004-02-24

We had to take everything down and relocate them.
I will get in touch with you to explain it more in detail. I'd appreciate it if you could change the links to the new server (www.sfs-infinite.net). I don't want you to go in details in your news, because i don't want you to get caught in the middle of this mess. Let me contact you first, then you can make up your mind."

I guess this is good news for you guys!!!!

Bill C2 amendments // 2004-02-23
There are changes coming in bill C2, it is going to be higher fines and sentences for breaking radio communictaion rules Bill C-2 amend

I came across an interesting article which was published in satbiznews few days ago, here is the article.
NEW MOVES UP ANTE FOR SATELLITE TV SERVICES, HACKERS

Even as DirecTV prepares to carry out News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch's directive on completing the swap out of older security cards, EchoStar Communications is gearing up to combat a major new threat to its conditional access system.

Both moves, if successfully completed, could leave satellite TV hackers and their customers in the cold, at least for a while, but may also result in both services seeing a short-term downturn in their net subscriber additions.

DirecTV, sources confirmed, hopes to finish the swap out of the remaining third-generation access cards, known as "P3s" or "Hu" cards, as soon as the end of March. At that point, DirecTV plans to begin the process of shutting down the data authorization stream used to activate P3 cards, by removing the P3.keys for a handful of channels at a time.

The company employed the same technique for eliminating the second-generation card authorization stream starting in August 2002. How long the process will take before the P3 data stream can totally disappear will depend on how smoothly it goes and how many calls DirecTV receives. The P2 data stream shutdown took longer than DirecTV had hoped, and thus some predict that DirecTV’s timeline for the P3 might be overly optimistic.

The third-generation access card was introduced by DirecTV in March 1999, making it the longest used satellite access card in history. Murdoch, in an interview In December, said one of his first priorities when News Corp. acquired control of DirecTV was to accelerate the conclusion of the P3 swap out to the newest DirecTV card, dubbed the "P4" and/or "D1."

The first version of that card was introduced in March 2002. If DirecTV does turn off the P3 data stream, It will back hackers who claim they have broken that card into the proverbial "put up or shut up" comer. Several hackers, who have provided reliable Information to Satellite Business News in the past, claim they have a P4 hack ready to go, though it is impossible to independently verify those claims until the P3 data authorization stream no longer exists. Moreover, there are Indications that those hackers do not plan to make their P4 hack, if it is real, available in such a way that consumers will be able to modify their DirecTV cards on their own.

Meanwhile, a well-known hacker web site has started selling a satellite receiver that appears to be the first completely bootleg unit capable of stealing all channels transmitted by, among others, EchoStar and Canada's ExpressVU as well as any other DBS service that uses the security system from Swiss-based, Kudeiski, owner of the NagraVision conditional access technology.

The web site calls its box the "Black8ird; and bills it as a "legal free-to-air receiver that magically opens all [EchoStar and ExpressVU] channels" with no conditional access card required. The units are being sold for $370.00 (U.S.). Several usually reliable sources who have seen or posses a "Blackbird" said this week it does steal all EchoStar and ExpressVU channels, though there is some disagreement over how well it operates.

There are also those who argue its price and distribution method will keep it more of a novelty rather than widely used consumer product. Even so, its introduction will likely force EchoStar to advance its plans to introduce a new data authorization stream, a surefire method to thwart the "Blackbird," and begin a swap out of its oldest access cards. EchoStar has introduced new access cards in its last several receiver lines and some of its existing cards can be modified via satellite to accept a different data stream.

But millions of EchoStar's oldest access cards would have to be swapped out to eradicate the "Blackbird’s" threat. EchoStar and Nagra, which jointly own the security system EchoStar and Express Vu use, have a "Blackbird" and are already working on ways of foiling its use in the near term, sources said.

In the past, EchoStar has said it was eager to see DirecTV finish its card swap on the grounds it made no sense for one service to invest heavily in a swap while its competitor could easily be stolen. Inasmuch, the convergence of security developments at both services could result in them employing new security cards within a year or so.

While that will be welcomed by programmers and the services alike, it could also produce a near-term hit in net additions for DirecTV and EchoStar because of the large number of so-called "partial pirates." Many of those consumers--who pay for some services in the belief it protects them legally, but also use hacked cards-deactivate their accounts once they are no longer able to steal.

More than a million DirecTV viewers in North America steal the service. At least 400,000 homes in the U.S. and Canada are believed to be stealing EchoStar and/or Express Vu's service. DirecTV and EchoStar declined comment.
I have received lots of e-mails from people about this article let me add this on the bottom of this article "THIS IS DONE BY SATBIZ NEWS AND IT IS ALL SPECULATION NOTHING OFFICIAL." Royce

Wonderbox site // 2004-02-22
I have seen the wonderbox site saying "out of business" this morning and there is a big thread in our Forum about it.
I was not notified by the wonderbox guys so it is as big of surprise to me as you guys, I did speak to AJ earlier today and he said that he quit working with them since Dec 21st.
I have e-mailed the other guys asking what is going on and I will let you guys know as soon as I find out, meanwhile you can log in here Forum and do some reading.

Forum down temporarily // 2004-02-20
It should be fixed shortly, for technical readers we have static ip issue (our ip has been changed and new one was not implemented to our dns because of too many officers and not enough soldiers hehehehe )
Forum is back up and running again!!!!
Here goes an other Friday without a hash but there was major black listing on the bins.

Updates on the current events // 2004-02-12
I will be out of town for next few days, in case of an ECM you can log into Forum and check out the latest status.
There are few threads in the Forum about xtremedss... you can go there and read.

Black Bird // 2004-02-06
I received a cardless receiver (works with Dishnetwork and similar systems plus free to air) called black bird from dsscanada.ca today, a friend of mine has it running as we speak, very easy to setup... this is what he said about it.
"plugged in the Black Bird and it was very easy to setup...tell it what dish you want...download the channel guide and voila...took about 60 secs to download all channels...all ratings were there...nothing missing that was on that sat...good picture quality ...key entry was unnecessary as they were there automatically...but easy enuff to change if necessary...anyone that can program a vcr could use one without a manual"

NDS is not home free yet. // 2004-02-05
This is the press release by NDS few days ago.
"ANNOUNCEMENT FROM NDS
London, UK ? February 3, 2004: NDS today announced that the federal investigation into allegations made by certain of the Company?s competitors has been closed.
The U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, California informed NDS today that it has completed its investigation of those allegations against the Company and has concluded that, based upon information and evidence gathered, the claims against the Company did not warrant further investigation or action.
As previously announced, the U.S. Attorney?s office in San Diego, CA, served NDS Americas, Inc, with subpoenas in October 2002.
The subpoenas sought documents in connection with an investigation of claims that NDS had caused the publication of computer code to enable third parties to compromise certain satellite pay television broadcast systems.
The investigation was transferred to the U.S. Attorney?s Office in Los Angeles, CA. NDS
cooperated with the investigation."

What it means is that criminal investigation is over but..... civil lawsuit is hard to fight against, in criminal court prosecution has to prove that crime is comitted but in civil lawsuit defence has same burdon to prove that they did not do it.
I think we will see "a war of the roses" shortly.


XtremeDSS news // 2004-02-03
This is strictly my personal guess, I do not think they will come back but I have been wrong on few occasions in the past.
This is the e-mail I received few hours ago.

"I will inform you in the next few days of EVERYTHING that is going on. I was told about the post that was made by someone about the comeback. I CANNOT log into any sites. I'm emailing you from my cell which is the ONLY reason we can talk. I want to come back and take care of everyone. I'm not a bad guy.. Please belive me when I say what I've done, you will agree that it was for the best. Security and Customer saftey is top priority."

Your guess will be as good as mine after reading the above e-mail.

Dishnet ECM // 2004-02-01
There is dishnetwork ECM in the stream this morning which causes receiver to display "a serious problem...." to show on the screen.
Both of the commercial software are running fine for me so far on ROM10 (I was informed that ROM3 are down).

No news on xtreme yet // 2004-01-30
Xtremedss suppose to be online on Friday but I got no news from them yet.
It was surprisingly quite day for Friday (usually a hash day).

Tuesday ECM // 2004-01-27
There was a big ECM today, card chart is updated.
I just received an e-mail from xtremedss informing me the that they will be back, here is what they wrote.
"Hey.. this email is just to inform you of changes.. We will be back.. but want to take care of some things prior to the return. As posted in your forum there are problems and we will give free months. I'm emailing you from a remote cell phone server and will not be able to check many things untill friday of this week. Sorry for all the trouble and thankyou .."

Server problems fixed // 2004-01-23
My hosting company moved the webpage from older server to new server which caused the page to go haywire over the last few days, everything got fixed last night!!!

New hash in the stream // 2004-01-20
There is new set of hash in the stream, I will update my page when I go home after work.
Even though I have working software from XtrmeDss, I have removed them from my page till they can get their server problems sort out.

Hashing report for this Friday:) // 2004-01-16
We have the usual Friday hash, took few scripts down.
Card chart is updated.
Forum is up and running fine if you need to see or post anything.

Server down // 2004-01-14
Our forum server is down due to ip address change, it should be online by end of the day.

Dishnetwork ECM // 2004-01-12
There is dishnetwork ECM in progress right now which is causing the "you are not authorized to watch this channel" message.
The dishnetwork scripts I am testing are working fine at this time.


Card chart page changes // 2004-01-11
A big "thanks" to DevXprime to add the last year stats to the performance chart!!!! (you will find "previous year" right underneath the company name under performance chart).
He also added the new look and link to the top chart page.

Friday hash? oh yes it is Friday:) // 2004-01-09
There was hash in the stream which caused some cards to go down (mostly no745 kind of codes).
My card chart is updated

Usual Friday hash in the stream // 2004-01-02
There are 2 hashes in the stream but it did not effect anything on my card chart, I was told that these hashes are targetted toward fuse 3Ms.
I am waiting for my card chart guy to fix the software (top page, live chart and calendar is not detecting year 2004) so I can update the status of all the software including wonderbox which is being reported down but it did not go down, it was error on my part.