DirecTV Nails Another Pirate

[Gregg Lengling]

Showing that it will go after anyone pirating satellite TV signals, DirecTV said it came to a last-minute agreement with an "end-user" allegedly involved in theft of the service.

On the eve of trial in federal court in Ohio, the defendant in a DirecTV end-user signal theft case agreed to pay the satellite TV company $20,000 as part of a settlement agreement. As part of the deal, DirecTV agreed not to publicly name the defendant when announcing the settlement.

In addition to the cash payment, the defendant is bound by a permanent injunction preventing future engagement in activities associated with signal piracy and signed a "consent to judgment" in the amount of $225,000, which would be entered against the defendant if there's any violation of the terms of the settlement agreement or injunction, DirecTV said.

As part of the investigation, DirecTV said it learned the defendant had purchased more devices than was alleged in the complaint, paid for a membership in a pirate Web site and posted several messages in a pirate discussion forum. DirecTV said it retrieved the postings in the discussion forum by reviewing the content and records of hundreds of pirate Web sites the company sued and shut down during the past several years.