TORONTO – An Ontario man, Steve Souphanthong, has agreed to an out of court settlement which will see him pay half a million dollars in damages to EchoStar Communications, NagraStar, Bell ExpressVu and DIRECTV.
The companies had filed a civil lawsuit filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice against Souphanthong, doing business as B-Tech Distribution, and various of his relatives and associates. The man agreed to pay $500,000 instead of facing a judge.
The plaintiffs alleged that Souphanthong was one of the largest manufacturers of piracy devices in North America, and was engaged in creating, designing, manufacturing, selling, trafficking in, and distributing numerous high profile piracy devices and piracy software that caused serious damage to the plaintiffs.
Among these devices were ROM X cards and ISO programmers for use against EchoStar and Bell ExpressVu, and the “Mikobu”, “Apollo 745”, and “Avenger” line of products for use against DIRECTV. Souphanthong, his relatives and associates, also operated several well-known piracy web sites including www.dssstars.com, www.dssstyle.com, www.dssorbit.com, www.dssavenger.com, www.huaccess.com, www.mikobux.org and www.hugadgets.com.
The Plaintiffs executed Anton Piller (civil search) Orders against various premises belonging to Souphanthong and his relatives in 2003 and seized vast quantities of piracy devices, business records, and computer files. The Plaintiffs subsequently brought contempt motions against Souphanthong and other defendants, and obtained Orders freezing certain assets.
"This is one example of many such actions conducted in recent years in both Canada and the United States. The companies have and will continue to fight those who try to circumvent the security system by illegally intercepting the satellite signal being provided to legitimate customers," said the companies, in a statement.
