A hacker has told a court that he was hired by News Corp. to develop pirating software. Christopher Tarnovsky said he got $20,000 in cash hidden in electronic devices mailed from Canada for his work, but denied using it to penetrate the security system of a rival satellite television service.

Tarnovsky was testifying in a corporate-spying lawsuit brought against News Corp's NDS Group by Dish Network. Tarnovsky told the court that he was paid on a regular basis by Harper Collins, which was owned by News Corp for the last decade. He said that he developed a pirating program to make DirectTV more secure.

Dish lawyers claim Tarnovsky's hacked into DISH's satellite network, nicked the security code, then flooded the market with pirated smart cards costing DISH $900 million in lost revenue and system-repair costs.