become one of Mullen's sub-dealers and his closest personal friend for over a year. In summer of 2003 when Mullen travelled under another identity to visit his operations in Florida, US federal authorities were waiting for him at the airport after being tipped off by Canadian investigators working for NDS Inc. Ironically, the NDS Group were accused (in several lawsuits) by Canal+ (dismissed as part of an otherwise-unrelated corporate takeover deal) and Echostar (now Dish Network) of hacking the Nagra encryption and releasing the information on the internet. The jury awarded EchoStar $45.69 actual damages (one month's average subscription fee) in Claim 3. Bell Satellite TV (as Bell ExpressVu) was sued by Vidéotron, a Québécor-owned rival which operates cable television systems in major Québec markets. Québécor also owns TVA, a broadcaster. Bell's inferior security and failure to replace compromised smartcards in a timely fashion cost Vidéotron cable subscribers, as viewers could obtain the same content for free from satellite under the compromised Nagra1 system from 1999 to 2005; pirate decryption also deprived TVA's French language news channel LCN of a monthly 48¢/subscriber fee. The Superior Court of Quebec awarded $339,000 and $262,000 in damages/interest to Vidéotron and TVA Group in 2012. Québec's Appeal Court ruled these dollar amounts "erroneus" and increased them in 2015; despite an attempt to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, a final award of $141 million in damages and interest was upheld. See also Cable television piracy Card sharing FTA receiver Television encryption References External links Murdoch Victory, Jury Rejects Spying Charges BBC - Canal+ TV firm sues over 1-bn 'piracy' loss Murdoch caught up in corporate sabotage scandal Echostar joins piracy fight DirecTV hacker sentenced to seven years Murdoch's Satellite-TV Hacker Tells All DSS Piracy History Lesson Consumer electronics Digital television Copyright law Broadcast law History of television Copyright infringement