Dish on your dish.

• Author: Mitchell, Teresa

Bell ExpressVu is a company that distributes direct to home (DTH) television programming and encrypts its signals to control reception. Bell and Star Choice Communications Ltd., the appellants in this case, are the only lawful distributors of this product and service in Canada. However, a number of other businesses sell systems to Canadian customers that allow them to decode the encrypted signals so that they can receive and watch American DTH programming. They also supply US mailing addresses for Canadian customers since US broadcasters will not knowingly authorize their signals to be decoded by persons outside the US. Bell asked the Supreme Court of Canada for an injunction blocking these businesses under the federal Radiocommunications Act. The Court granted the injunction. Justice Iaccobucci wrote "... the issue is whether s. 9(1)(c) prohibits the decoding of all encrypted satellite signals, with a limited exception, or whether it bars only the unauthorized decoding of signals that emanate from licensed...