federal case DirecTV and NDS vs. Robert Lazarra ended in a one million dollar out-of-court settlement. In 2009, the US Ninth Circuit court ruled in DirecTV, Inc v. Hoa Huynh, Cody Oliver against DirecTV's claim that inserting a smart card into preexisting television equipment constitutes "assembling" a pirate device. DirecTV cannot sue on this theory, dismissing DirecTV's attempt to punish individuals twice for a single offense and upholding a lower court decision that 47 U.S.C., section 605(e)(4) does not apply to individuals owning interception devices solely for personal use. This decision protects legitimate security researchers. DirecTV sued its smartcard vendor NDS, accusing News Data Systems of “breach of contract, fraud, breach of warranty and misappropriation of trade secrets” for its role in designing the now compromised H- and HU- series cards. Canal Plus and EchoStar have also sued NDS, alleging that the company reverse-engineered and leaked information about their providers' rival encryption schemes. Québécor-owned cable television operator Videotron sued Bell Satellite TV on the grounds that free signals from compromised satellite TV encryption unfairly cost the cable company paid subscribers. After multiple appeals and rulings against Bell, Québécor and TVA Group were ultimately awarded $141 million in 2015. One of the most severe sentences handed out for satellite TV piracy in the United States was to a Canadian businessman, Martin Clement Mullen, widely known for over a decade in the satellite industry as "Marty" Mullen. Mullen was sentenced to seven years in prison with no parole and ordered to pay DirecTV and smart card provider NDS Ltd. US$24 million in restitution. He pleaded guilty in a Tampa, Florida court in September 2003 after being arrested when he entered the United States using a British passport in the name "Martin Paul Stewart". Mr. Mullen had operated his satellite piracy business from Florida, the Cayman Islands and from his home in London, Ontario, Canada. Testimony in the Florida court showed that he had a network of over 100 sub-dealers working for him and that during one six-week period, he cleared US$4.4 million in cash from re-programming DirecTV smartcards that had been damaged in an electronic counter measure. NDS Inc. Chief of Security John Norris pursued Mullen for a decade in three different countries. When Mullen originally fled the United States to Canada in the mid-1990s, Norris launched an investigation that saw an undercover operator (a former Canadian police officer named Don Best)