End of Viewsat?

[toolegit]

Three Plead Guilty in Satellite TV Hacking Case

Three men indicted on a single count of violating the federal copyright law pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia Oct. 23.

According to federal prosecutors, the defendants, Jung Kwak of Oceanside, and Phillip Allison and Robert Ward, both of Seminole, Fla., admitted that beginning in March 2008 they hired computer hackers to break the latest Dish Network encryption design so that the line of satellite receiver boxes sold by Kwak would continue to have a market.

Kwak is the owner of Viewtech, an importer of the satellite boxes that allow users to obtain a limited amount of free programming, most of it consisting of ethnic and religious programs. But by reverse engineering smart cards provided by Dish, the boxes could obtain more signals illegally, prosecutors said.

By late 2007, Dish created a new encryption scheme that would prevent the boxes from gaining access to the signal without purchasing a subscription, prosecutors said.

In his pleading, Kwak admitted meeting and paying $20,000 in cash to another person to dissect the Dish smart card. Kwak also admitted he offered a $250,000 reward to hackers to obtain the latest Dish smart card, according to federal prosecutors.

The three defendants face maximum prison time of five years and $250,000 in fines at their scheduled sentencing on Jan. 22.

Here the Link to the Article post October 26, 2009

   http://www.sdbj.com/article.asp?aID=141924&link=perm               

[BeagleInbetweenUs]

In most cases they wouldn't get the max prison time but in this case they may throw the book at them. Ether way they wouldn't be thrown in with the violent offenders...well the More violent offenders.

[fatham]

Originally Posted by toolegit

Three Plead Guilty in Satellite TV Hacking Cas

Three men indicted on a single count of violating the federal copyright law pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia Oct. 23.

According to federal prosecutors, the defendants, Jung Kwak of Oceanside, and Phillip Allison and Robert Ward, both of Seminole, Fla., admitted that beginning in March 2008 they hired computer hackers to break the latest Dish Network encryption design so that the line of satellite receiver boxes sold by Kwak would continue to have a market.

Kwak is the owner of Viewtech, an importer of the satellite boxes that allow users to obtain a limited amount of free programming, most of it consisting of ethnic and religious programs. But by reverse engineering smart cards provided by Dish, the boxes could obtain more signals illegally, prosecutors said.

By late 2007, Dish created a new encryption scheme that would prevent the boxes from gaining access to the signal without purchasing a subscription, prosecutors said.

In his pleading, Kwak admitted meeting and paying $20,000 in cash to another person to dissect the Dish smart card. Kwak also admitted he offered a $250,000 reward to hackers to obtain the latest Dish smart card, according to federal prosecutors.

The three defendants face maximum prison time of five years and $250,000 in fines at their scheduled sentencing on Jan. 22.

Here the Link to the Article post October 26, 2009

   http://www.sdbj.com/article.asp?aID=141924&link=perm               

JUST WONDERING:

If this is true it would seem that viewsat is "no more".....SO why doesn't the Mods remove the "Viewsat N3 Release" scrolling banner?

Cheers....fatham

[bkirk]

Originally Posted by fatham

JUST WONDERING:

If this is true it would seem that viewsat is "no more".....SO why doesn't the Mods remove the "Viewsat N3 Release" scrolling banner?

Cheers....fatham

Because they want to get "HITS" on the website.

[turdblossom]

These guys and VS have been done for quite some time. But its news like this that will allow peeps to accept that fact.

If & when fta stand alone resurfaces, IMHO it will be by an offshore group (beyond the long arm of the law) and they will design some type of security system to prevent others from reverse engineering their work.

[althor]

Originally Posted by fatham

JUST WONDERING:

If this is true it would seem that viewsat is "no more".....SO why doesn't the Mods remove the "Viewsat N3 Release" scrolling banner?

Cheers....fatham

Because no where in that article was ViewSAT mentioned at all. Only Viewtech.

[AGREEINSURG]

Could say Satview, Taviews, Atsview, Techview, Satech, does not matter. Its all over.

[fatham]

Originally Posted by althor

Because no where in that article was ViewSAT mentioned at all. Only Viewtech.

Excuse me......... and who do you think imported "VIEWSAT" Check the bottom of Viewsats USA web site. IT is clear to me "Viewsat" is "Viewtech's" "child"

[gslrider]

Originally Posted by bkirk

Because they want to get "HITS" on the website.

"Viewsat To Release N3 Hack Soon (Hope To Be True)" what about this screams come to this site? Does it make a promise? Does it have a date for release? Does it advertise to come here for the fix?

Or is it maybe because people like you are clambering on to every little word that there will be a fix, and feel ripped off and disappointed because you didn't listen to everyone saying "don't believe everything you here". Or them saying "Unless you see a fix ready for download, don't get your hopes up." Or the ever popular "It's out when it's out". hmmmm.

[Rebel 1]

Its time for a new kid on the block and its almost Halloween. They might come back with a new paint job, who knows

[kuvanito]

either way tak the f.... banner down please

[DRAG RACER]

REMEMBER WHERE GETTING CLOSE TO HALLOWEEN IT'S TRICK OR TREAT TIME !!!!!!!!!!!

[hjmcduck]

Originally Posted by kuvanito

either way tak the f.... banner down please

Pretty pushy telling the Admins and mods what to do on their site. Talk like that will get your ass banned there bud.

[mr_big742]

price of fines $250.000 time in jail 5 years ripping off dick and bev for 4 years priceless keep strong brothers

[toolegit]

FBI's press release:

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
October 23, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of California
Contact: (619) 557-5610
Three Plead Guilty to Violating Digital Millennium Copyright Act

United States Attorney Karen P. Hewitt announced that Jung Kwak, 33, also known as “Mr. Viewsat,” of Oceanside, California, Phillip Allison, 35, also known as “thebroken,” and Robert Ward, 54, also known as “TDG” and as “thedssguy,” both of Seminole, Florida, have tendered pleas of guilty to conspiring to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The three defendants were charged in a one-count indictment handed up by a federal grand jury sitting in San Diego on July 9, 2009.

In connection with their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted that beginning in or about March 2008, they determined to hire computer hackers to break the latest DISH Network encryption scheme, known as Nagra 3, so that the line of satellite receiver boxes sold by defendant Kwak would continue to have a market. According to the indictment, and in connection with their guilty pleas, the defendants admitted that Mr. Kwak owns and operates Viewtech, Inc., in Oceanside, California. Viewtech imports “free-to-air” or “FTA” satellite receiver boxes and sells them to the public through a network of retailers under the brand name “Viewsat.” According to the indictment, there is a limited amount of free programming available by satellite to owners of FTA receiver boxes, much of it consisting of ethnic and religious programming in numerous languages. Yet, millions of Viewsat FTA boxes have been sold to the public. The popularity of FTA boxes is due to the fact that they are designed to make it a simple process for a purchaser to obtain subscription-based satellite television, such as that offered by Echostar’s DISH Network, for free. DISH Network licenses copyrighted works from the copyright holders, encrypts the signal, and sells the right to view to DISH subscribers. Subscribers to DISH Network programming obtain from DISH a “smart card,” which is inserted into a DISH satellite receiver box. The smart card decrypts the programming that the subscriber is authorized to view. Over the years, DISH has changed its encryption algorithms and employed other countermeasures to attempt to defeat theft of its signal. To illegally decrypt the DISH signal, the FTA boxes must appear to have DISH smart cards. That is done by reverse-engineering DISH smart cards and creating computer code which, when downloaded to an appropriate FTA box, will emulate the existence of a smart card and trick the system. In the past, as DISH encryption and countermeasures were defeated, the code has been posted on the Internet and made available for download to anyone.

In the late fall of 2007, DISH announced that it had created a new encryption scheme and would start shipping new smart cards to its customers. As the new encryption scheme was deployed, owners of FTA boxes would no longer be able to view DISH programming without a subscription, and sellers of FTA boxes would lose their market.

The defendants admitted in their plea that Mr. Kwak authorized Messrs. Allison and Ward to locate persons to work on cracking Nagra 3. Mr. Kwak agreed to provide funding and a substantial reward for success. Messrs. Allison and Ward admitted that they solicited a third party to join the scheme. Mr. Allison admitted purchasing a specialized microscope to be used in dissecting and analyzing smart cards for the third party and was reimbursed by Mr. Kwak. Mr. Kwak admitted meeting with and paying $20,000 in cash to the third party for photographs of a dissected smart card purported to be a Nagra 3 card. Mr. Kwak also admitted that he offered a reward of $250,000 if the EPROM (eraseable programmable read-only memory) for the Nagra 3 card could be obtained.

The defendants tendered their guilty pleas before United States Magistrate Judge Anthony J. Battaglia, subject to final acceptance of the pleas by United States District Judge Janis L. Sammartino on January 22, 2010, at 9:00 a.m.

This case was investigated by Special Agents of the Cybersquad of Federal Bureau of Investigation in San Diego.

DEFENDANTS Case Number: 09cr2646 -JLS
Jung Kwak Oceanside, California Age: 33
Phillip Allison Seminole, Florida Age: 35
Robert Ward Seminole, Florida Age: 54
SUMMARY OF CHARGE

One Count — Title 18, United States Code, Section 371: Conspiracy to Violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Maximum Penalty: five years’ imprisonment and $250,000 fine

AGENCY

Federal Bureau of Investigation