TORONTO – EchoStar Communications, along with security partner NagraStar LLC and Bell ExpressVu Limited Partnership, today announced “another victory against satellite piracy in the Canadian court system,” reads a press release.
Steven Rodgers, (a.k.a “Tomico-ind,”) was sentenced to four months in prison after being found in contempt of an Anton Piller Order granted in Toronto by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
This is the fourth time that a satellite pirate has been jailed for contempt of an Anton Piller Order in Canada, say the companies. The order was granted against Rodgers after a joint investigation conducted by EchoStar, NagraStar and Bell ExpressVu.
Rodgers operated “Tomico Satellites” and “Tomico Industries,” as well as web sites: www.tomico-satellites.com, www.tomico-satellites.net, www.anton-Piller.com, www.tomicoreviews.com, www.electronics-elite.com, www.sales-dynamics-firm.com, and www.dss-wholesaledirect.com.
“The web sites are major satellite piracy forums that provide information and distribution of piracy devices and software used to illegally access EchoStar and ExpressVu pay satellite systems,” says the press release.
The Anton Piller Order, granted on August 1, 2006, required Rodgers to provide the companies entry into the web sites and databases, including customer membership lists, in order to preserve evidence for litigation. Rodgers refused entry into certain premises and claimed he didn’t have the authority to grant access to the web sites, turn over customer or supplier records, or take the web sites offline because they were operated by someone else, reads the release.
Then, on September 18, 2006, “Rodgers was found in contempt by Justice Mesbur, who held that Rodgers engaged in acts of intentional misconduct which thwarted the Order and obstructed justice,” it says.
At the sentencing hearing on December 19, “Justice Mesbur held that Rodgers’ continued denials of involvement in the Tomico business, the web sites and the efforts to implicate others were ‘not credible at all’ and ‘everything Mr. Rodgers has done since the Anton Piller Order was served has been designed to thwart it, disobey it and thumb his nose at the legal system.’ His contempt was ‘blatant, deliberate and willful’ and his evidence exhibited ‘blatant dishonesty’ in ‘fabricating a web of lies.’ Rodgers will serve the full four months, without eligibility for parole or remission, in a conventional correctional institution in Ontario,” concludes the release.
