EchoStar Wins Piracy Convictions, Continues to Prosecute Offenders

Englewood: EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:DISH) has announced several major victories in its continued battle against piracy of its satellite signals. Since 2006, EchoStar investigations have led to more than a dozen arrests on piracy charges, including four recent felony convictions.
In late 2005, the FBI arrested a Brooklyn man for illegal activities involving EchoStar’s satellite television broadcasting, leading to a 2006 conviction. The next month, a man in Lumberton, NC, was convicted on charges from the first of his two US Secret Service arrests for piracy. Later that year, a Bogota, NJ, man was convicted after EchoStar prosecuted him on charges stemming from a September police department arrest. Recently, EchoStar won another conviction when a Howell, Mich., man was found guilty of piracy charges.
“Stealing our signal is not only an injustice to our valued, legitimate customers, but also it’s a felony,” said Tracy Thompson, vice president of Programming for EchoStar’s DISH Network. “These convictions are part of our ongoing efforts to reduce piracy and ensure we can continue to provide the best viewing experience to our paying customers.”
EchoStar has continued to work with local and federal law enforcement officials and is currently pressing charges against individuals across the country following arrests on various charges involving satellite piracy. Three additional men are currently facing charges in Bogota and convictions are also being pursued in Shepherdsville, Ky.; Greensboro, NC; Dothan, Ala.; Long Beach, Calif.; Gallup, NM; and Quartzsite, Ariz.
EchoStar views the convictions of persons engaged in assisting and facilitating satellite piracy, and the take down of piracy Web sites, as positive steps in the effort to combat the illegal interception of their signals.
EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) has been a leader for more than 26 years in satellite TV equipment sales and support worldwide. The Company’s DISH Network™ is the fastest-growing pay-TV provider in the country since 2000 and currently serves more than 13.4 million satellite TV customers. DISH Network offers a premier line of industry-leading Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and hundreds of video and audio channels as well as the most national HD and International channels in the US, Interactive TV, Latino and sports programming. DISH Network also provides a variety of package and price options including the lowest all-digital price in America and the DishDVR Advantage Package. EchoStar is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 300 company. Visit www.echostar.com or call 1-800-333-DISH (3474) for more information.

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