Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

DISH Network sues Henderson men over alleged piracy

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DISH Network LLC is suing two Henderson businessmen, charging their company is engaging in satellite television piracy by selling systems that enable users to watch DISH Network programming for free.

DISH Network, based in Englewood, Colo., filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas last week against Michael Cho, Jason Cho and their company Mamertine Inc., which does business as NFusion.

DISH Network, along with associated companies EchoStar Technologies LLC and NagraStar LLC, say in the suit that Mamertine and NFusion, based in Tulsa, Okla., and the Chos "are satellite pirates who distribute devices that enable consumers to illegally intercept and decrypt DISH Network's pay-television programming without authorization and without payment of a subscription fee."

While cable and satellite TV theft has been a long-running problem, DISH Network says in the suit that the Chos have developed a new method of stealing programming called "internet key sharing" or IKS. This involves connecting an NFusion satellite TV receiver to the Internet to obtain the keys needed to decrypt the DISH Network programming, the lawsuit says.

Officials at Mamertine could not be located for comment. A request for comment on the allegations was placed with an attorney who last year represented Mamertine in unrelated litigation in federal court in Green Bay, Wisc., with satellite TV box distributor Infinity Systems LLC.

A contract introduced in that case said NFusion was in the process of procuring patent or trademark protection for its invention that involved production of receivers able to intercept satellite transmissions and to allow customers access to more than 800 channels on a fixed-fee basis.

Nfusion was also working on plans for a computer service through television sets, the contract said.

DISH Network, which boasts more than 14 million customers, alleges in the suit violations of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the Communications Act of 1934 and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

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