Dish Network Battles Piracy

Satellite providers like Dish Network and DirecTV have been fighting against piracy for a very long time. Generally, a Dish Network package, which offers more than 250 channels, can be purchased for just $75 per month. However, many individuals have been using illegal subscription to access the Dish channels at zero charges.

Dish Network is determined to bring these pirates to law, and they have been filing lawsuits against suspected individuals in Federal courts. The individuals will have to pay $10,000 in damages to Dish Network, if proven guilty. However, Dish Network has refused to comment on piracy or the lawsuit.

In the email sent to the Sun Herald, Dish Network stated that, “Pay-TV providers have a long history of aggressively fighting piracy. Piracy is tantamount to theft, hurting honest consumers through increased costs to the industry. Pay-TV providers invest billions of dollars in exchange for the right to deliver high-quality programming to our customers.”

The latest lawsuit is filed against John Barrett of Utah Street in Bay St. Louis. Barrett will have to pay for damages, if he is proven guilty before the law. The previous lawsuit filed by Dish Network was against Charles Yelverton of Perkinston back in the year 2013. The reports from US file courts indicate that Yelverton, defend himself and he finally agreed to pay Dish Network for the damages.

Barrett has also refused to comment on this issue but a man, who identified as Barrett’s brother said, “It was legit”. He further stated that Barrett thought that he bought a legitimate satellite device and he didn’t believe that the lawsuit was a big concern.

The man who claimed to be Barrett’s brother further added, “We looked into it. He said he’s not worried about it.” The lawsuit states that Barrett was “circumventing DISH Network’s security system and receiving DISH Network’s satellite broadcasts of copyrighted television programming without payment of the required subscription fee.”

According to the suit, Barrett subscribed to NFusion Private Server, which enabled him to decrypt Dish’s signal and access the channels at zero charges. This is a violation of privacy laws, copyright, and federal communications laws.

The lawsuit states that the security systems enabled by Dish to detect privacy has been circumvented by the pirates. The lawsuit also mentioned, “The black market in piracy devices represents a multimillion-dollar industry in the United States.”