US DoJ unseals charges over DISH piracy conspiracy
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has unsealed charges against three Puerto Ricans for their alleged roles in a conspiracy to provide pirated DISH Network services to thousands of Puerto Ricans.
On Friday, November 2, assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski, of the DoJ’s criminal division, and US attorney Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez for the District of Puerto Rico announced the federal indictment against the three.
Colorado-based DISH provides satellite TV to its customers for a fee and has, according to DoJ, invested heavily in measures to ensure its services are not intercepted by copyright infringers.
Arnaldo Vazquez, Awildo Jimenez, and Higinio Lamboy are each charged with one count of conspiracy to circumvent protective systems, infringe copyright and traffic in satellite decryption devices.
They’ve also been charged with one count of trafficking in technology designed to circumvent technology copyright protection systems and one count of circumventing a technological measure that protects a copyright work.
According to the indictment, Vazquez and Jimenez ran a company which provided pirated services from DISH satellites to customers for a fee. Lamboy has been identified as their salesman and repairman for the hardware that they provided to customers.
The indictment alleged that the three were part of a “complex scheme” to steal the copyright-protected content by intercepting encrypted DISH signals that were distributed to DISH customers and decrypted through DISH-issued hardware.
“For example, the indictment alleges that the defendants used DISH’s network control words, or decrypted code, and placed them onto an internet key sharing (IKS) server, which was under their control,” said the DoJ.
The DoJ added that the control words helped in the decryption and distribution of the pirated content.
Customers of the defendants were also given receivers programmed with software that allowed them to bypass DISH’s anti-piracy measures. This allowed the customers to connect to the bootleg IKS server to access the copyright-protected content.
Finally, the indictment claimed that the defendants used online chat forums to discuss their criminal enterprise, resolve technical problems, and facilitate the payment for their criminality and purchase of equipment needed to further their scheme.
An indictment is merely an allegation, and all three defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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