Continuing its aggressive enforcement activity against satellite television piracy, DirecTV Inc. today announced it has filed a federal lawsuit against 80 individuals whom it believes trafficked illegal signal theft equipment imported from Canada for sale in the United States.
The imported pirate technology — which included pirated access cards and the devices used to re-program them — enabled those who purchased the pirate devices to unscramble and view DirecTV programming without legal authorization. The Federal complaint was filed on March 16 in the United States District Court, Central District of California.
DirecTV believes the 80 defendants purchased the illegal equipment from Reginald Scullion and his wife, Frances Callan, both Quebec residents, against whom DirecTV won a $19 million federal judgment in January for the illegal exportation of pirate technology and equipment from Canada to the United States.
It is alleged in the complaint that the 80 defendants acted as dealers for the Scullions, buying programming devices and selling the hacked access cards.
“This aggressive action, against multiple defendants, underscores our steadfast commitment to protect the integrity of our signal,” said Larry Rissler, vice president, Signal Integrity for DirecTV.
“From those individuals buying or selling illegal signal theft equipment, to end users purchasing and using illegally modified access cards, we intend to prosecute those involved in this illegal activity to the fullest extent of the law.”
In addition to the $19 million judgment in January and a prior $34 million judgment received from a federal court in Seattle against an international satellite piracy ring, DirecTV continues to disable illegally modified cards through electronic countermeasures.
DirecTV, through its Office of Signal Integrity, continues to provide technical support to law enforcement officials working to prevent the theft of DirecTV programming signals.
