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Topic: Hacker on News Corp Payroll?
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| Dead Air | Posted – 4/26/2008 5:40:45 PM | show profile Over at Fishbowl NYC they have picked up on a lawsuit initiated by DISH Network Corp. against a division of News Corp, accusing News Corp of corporate chicanery.... http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/scandals/hacker_on_news_corp_payroll_for_10_years__83222.asp The gist of the complaint is that DISH is accusing News Corp of trying to hack DISH's infrastructure, oops... I'll quote the article... A computer hacker testified on Wednesday that a News Corp. unit hired him to develop pirating software, but denied using it to penetrate the security system of a rival satellite television service. Christopher Tarnovsky ? who said his first payment was $20,000 in cash hidden in electronic devices mailed from Canada ? testified in a corporate-spying lawsuit brought against News Corp's NDS Group by DISH Network Corp. The plaintiffs claim Tarnovsky, one of the "two best hackers in the world," was tasked with hacking into DISH's satellite network and stealing code which would then allow the NDS Group to flood the market with knock-off smart cards. Had he succeeded, the estimated cost to DISH would have been $900 million. Tarnovsky says he's been on the Harper Collins payroll for the past 10 years. UPDATE: We called Erin Crum, director of corporate communications at Harper Collins, for comment. She was unaware of the story and said she call us back. After waiting 30 minutes, we called her back and she said she had no comment, citing the fact that "it's a News Corp. lawsuit." Calls to News Corp.'s PR have yet to be returned. UPDATE: Teri Everett, senior vice president corporate affairs & communications, emails us the following statement: Statement from NDS on Echostar Litigation The Echostar litigation dates back to 2002 and involves allegations which NDS has vigorously denied. Our position remains the same. There is no validity to these allegations. A significant proportion of the claims have already been dismissed over the years. The litigation process and associated discovery have only strengthened NDS' position that we had nothing to do with the Echostar piracy. The hacking of Echostar was the result of inferior technology arising from inadequate investment in research and development by Kudelski. NDS, on the other hand, invests heavily in research and development ? at that time we reinvested over 30 percent of our revenues into R&D ? and the result is that we have zero piracy and the platforms of our customers are completely secure. We are confident our position will be upheld at trial. ...end quote Yikes. |
| Dead Air | Posted – 4/27/2008 12:33:35 PM | show profile Debate club... Frank, normally I imagine you as having some serious conservative roots. You then do something like this and it reminds me of how partisan you actually are. What does the original post have anything to do with your follow up post. You have a real bad habit of justifying actions through illogical arguments. Case in point right here. News Corp is hacking DISH Network, that's OK because GE is funding terrorism in Iran? How are those two linked? You keep reminding us of you're journalistic credentials, yet you flunk the most basic ideas of journalistic linkage. Granted, GE's involvement with companies in Iran is dicey at the least, to then go and link that to the death of soldiers in Iraq is downright dishonest. I'll quote you..."If my child were killed in Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt." two points... a)I am calling bullshit on this. Show me proof. I want to see proof from you. b)Your upset with GE killing our soldiers in Irag. You might want to direct some of your concern to our government who started this fiasco and continue to perpetuate it. I also did a little research on the subject matter. Besides GE, do you know who else you should be raising you ire about deals with Iran? Halliburton...I wonder what the administration (and BOR for that matter) thinks about that. |
| nasa | Posted – 5/23/2008 9:33:53 PM | show profile | email poster Case Adjudicated The law suit was for $1 billion or $1.6 billion with triple damage possibilities if DISH prevailed. DISH was awarded $45.69 damages ( the average cost of one month's subscription to DISH programming). The jury sent a pretty compellng message to DISH. |
