UPDATE
News Corp unit cleared of piracy in DISH suit

SANTA ANA, California (Reuters) - A federal court jury on Thursday broadly cleared News Corp’s NDS unit of satellite television piracy charges in a suit brought by DISH Network that could have been worth more than $1 billion.

The jury awarded only $1,500 in damages from NDS for a single test incident with a satellite television smart card.

Sometimes the bad guys win.

U.S. jury reaches verdict on NDS, mistrial possible  Read more 

One Corporate Spying Lawsuit Goes to Jury, but This Isn’t the First Time a Company in Media Baron’s Empire Has Been Accused of Hacking

Today a federal jury in Los Angeles resumes deliberations in a corporate espionage lawsuit filed against a company owned by Rupert Murdoch seeking $1 billion in damages.

Two previous lawsuits alleging similar claims of corporate espionage by Murdoch’s company, however, never made it to a courtroom, and a fourth is still pending. Critics say the company’s business tactics extend beyond playing hardball to predatory piracy and even illegal conduct.  Read more 

EchoStar-NDS Group Trial Nears Conclusion

The parties are in the final days of what was expected to be a month-long trial. In the suit brought by then-Echostar (now Dish Network) and the security firm it co-owns, NagraStar LLC, the digital-broadcast satellite company alleges that NDS, a rival security firm owned by News Corp., hacked Echostar smart cards. …

… Echostar is asking for $93.8 million in damages for itself and NagraStar for the actual cost of the swapping out the compromised cards.  Read more 

What is Rudd playing at with his Murdoch embrace?

as much as I’d trust, well, Judy “Kneepads” Miller at the Times; we know the playbook, and we’ve seen the play before. If Bush wants to outsource his casus belli to a winger billionaire, good for Him, but as for me, I’d want to see a chain of evidence of positively forensic quality on this, and even then I’d want the IAEA to check that even that wasn’t faked.  Read more 

WSJ “Opinion Journal” today:
“Democrats and Cannibals
The Kos kids try but fail to devour party moderates.”
BY KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL Friday, August 17, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT
And what else do we know ’bout good ol’ Henry Cuellar?  Read more