Las Vegas judge awards $20 million to DISH Network, other companies

By Steve Kanigher

Monday, Aug. 8, 2011 | 5:31 p.m.

A federal judge in Las Vegas awarded $20 million in damages to satellite television programmer DISH Network and two other companies who accused two Henderson businessmen of making and distributing devices that could be used to gain unauthorized access to DISH Network programming.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson ordered the judgment last week against defendants Michael and Jason Cho and Mamertine, an Oklahoma corporation. The judge also issued a permanent injunction against the defendants and indicated they would be subject to additional damages of $110,000 for each violation of the injunction.

DISH Network LLC, a Colorado company affiliated with a Nevada corporation also known as DISH Network, serves more than 14 million customers who pay subscriptions or make pay-per-view purchases for access to programming. DISH and fellow plaintiffs NagraStar and EchoStar Technologies, also tied to Nevada corporations, alleged that both men did business as NFusion and could be contacted at 2880 Bicentennial Parkway in Henderson.

The lawsuit alleged that the defendants made and distributed devices called NFusion receivers that were designed to circumvent DISH's security system. The receiver could grab data off the Internet and with the help of a satellite dish to enable the user to intercept DISH's encrypted satellite transmissions, according to the plaintiffs. The lawsuit described this as a new form of satellite piracy known as Internet Key Sharing.

The defendants denied the allegations.