Piracy Tech Still Safe-DirecTV Says

[Gregg Lengling]

Despite a potential leak of information concerning
its latest conditional access technology, DirecTV
executives insisted that its newest access
card - the P4 - has not been compromised by
hackers.

In a conference call last week, DirecTV President
Roxanne Austin said the P4 card is still safe.
"We do not have any evidence, nor does the FBI
have any evidence, that the P4 card has been
compromise in any way," she said.

Earlier this month, a college student - working
for a law firm representing DirecTV - was charged
by federal authorities for allegedly distributing
documents on the Internet concerning the new
conditional access technology. Press reports
said DirecTV has spent more than $25 million
to develop its latest anti-piracy efforts.

Austin said DirecTV will continue to roll out
new conditional access technology in 2003,
which will include the swap-out of more
customer access cards.

This year, DirecTV also takes complete control
of its conditional access technology from NDS,
its previous supplier. "We are pretty excited
about some of the innovations we will be
putting in place in 2003," Austin said.