US prosecutors subpoena NDS in hacking probe
Published: October 4 2002 9:13 | Last Updated:
October 4 2002 9:13
The legal battle surrounding NDS intensified late on
Thursday as the pay-TV
technology company, controlled by News Corp, was
served with subpoenas
for documents from the US Attorney's office in San
Diego, California.
NDS said the investigation involves similar
allegations to those made earlier
this year by its rivals Canal Plus and EchoStar
Communications, who have
accused the company of industrial espionage and
copyright infringement
linked to piracy of rival satellite TV systems.
NDS, which has denied the allegations as baseless,
said it was cooperating
fully with the federal investigation.
In March this year, Canal Plus filed a $3bn lasuit
against NDS, claiming the
company broke its access code and posted it on the
internet, allowing pirate
organisation to gain illegal access to the satellite
channels.
EchoStar joined the suit last week, claiming NDS was
behind widespread
piracy of its Dish Network satellite TV system. It
alleged the company had
committed "acts of sabotage" to destroy EchoStar's
competitiveness.
On Tuesday the original lawsuit by Canal Plus was
suspended, after its parent
company Vivendi Universal signed a deal with News
Corp to sell Telepiu, the
Italian pay-TV arm of Canal Plus. Once the deal
closes NDS said the suit
would be dropped altogether.
Echostar, however, is continuing its action against
the company and has
intervened to prevent either NDS or Canal Plus from
detroying any evidence.
NDS is fighting a separate lawsuit by Hughes's
DirecTV subsidiary over
breach of contract and fraud.
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