Closing arguments have been heard in the case brought against technologists NDS by the US DTH platform DISH in a Santa Ana court in California. The News Corp company is accused of maliciously hiring a team of hackers in order to crack the Nagra technology used by DISH. NDS supplies conditional access technology to DISH’s larger rival DirecTV.
Dish is looking for an award of $181 million, based on the $90 million cost of swapping out its smart cards following the alleged hack and a further $90 to cover lost profits. DISH lawyer Wade Welch said an alternative would be for the jury to award $10,000 for each of the 100,000 alleged offences.
For NDS Darin Snyder said DISH had failed to show that the hackers who broke the code were linked to NDS. The evidence showed that a hacker who posted the DISH codes on the internet was linked to an Ontario grouping and not NDS.
The jury is expected to begin its deliberations this morning (local time).
