What started off as a media dream story (with the words “Rupert Murdoch,” “employs” and “hacker” all in the same headline) ended on a very anticlimactic, and somewhat humorous, note. Readers might remember the DISH Network lawsuit that hoped to receive nearly $1 billion in damages from NDS Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation, for allegedly using the world’s “second best hacker” to steal highly sensitive data from DISH (you can read our take on it here).

DISH did win the case, but didn’t get the 10 figure outcome that company lawyers hoped for. Instead, after one day’s deliberation by the jury, NDS was ordered to pay $46.69 for reverse engineering one of DISH’s smart cards and $1,000 in punitive damages.

Both sides are calling this a victory. DISH says they won the case, which they did, but their legal fees clearly outweigh what they earned. And, let’s be honest, this is going to do zero damage to NDS’ credibility. NDS claims a victory because they don’t have to pay one billion dollars to DISH. As NDS attorney Richard Stone said after the jury’s verdict came in, “We’ve been completely vindicated on this whole lawsuit.”