## Facts

- Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. produced Polish-language programming and contracted with Echostar Satellite Corp. to distribute it via satellite, with EchoStar authorized to market the service using Telewizja Polska’s trademarks and required to account for subscribers and revenue.
- The agreement commenced April 30, 1998 and ran three years, expiring April 30, 2001, with a limited post-expiration continuation provision tied to pre-purchased multi-month subscriptions.
- After expiration, EchoStar allegedly continued selling new subscriptions and using Telewizja Polska’s trademarks, and allegedly failed to properly account and pay for post-expiration subscriptions.
- Telewizja Polska sued asserting Lanham Act § 43(a) and related state-law claims (including breach of contract and unjust enrichment); an earlier dismissal was reversed on appeal and the case returned for further proceedings.
- Before trial, EchoStar sought to use archived images of Telewizja Polska’s website obtained from a commercial archiving vendor, supported by the vendor’s affidavit stating the images were genuine.
- Telewizja Polska moved in limine to exclude the images, arguing EchoStar failed to authenticate them under Federal Rule of Evidence 901 because the vendor lacked a sufficiently long operating history to show reliability.

## Issues

1. Whether archived website images obtained from a commercial vendor, supported by the vendor’s affidavit, are sufficiently authenticated under Federal Rule of Evidence 901(a).
2. Whether challenges to the archiving vendor’s limited business history require exclusion for lack of authentication, or instead affect only the weight of the evidence.

## Decision

- The court denied Telewizja Polska’s motion in limine.
- The court permitted EchoStar to use the archived website images at trial.
- The court found the vendor affidavit and circumstances of acquisition sufficient to make a prima facie showing that the images were what EchoStar claimed them to be.
- The court treated objections based on the vendor’s operational history as matters for cross-examination and factfinder evaluation, not a bar to admissibility.

## Legal Principles

- Under Fed. R. Evid. 901(a), the proponent must introduce evidence sufficient to support a finding that the item is what it is claimed to be.
- Authentication imposes a prima facie threshold; once met, competing arguments about accuracy and trustworthiness generally go to weight rather than admissibility.
- Website and other digital materials may be authenticated through witness testimony or affidavits describing the capture, storage, and retrieval process used to generate the proffered exhibit.

## Conclusion

The court held that archived website images supported by a vendor affidavit satisfied Rule 901’s authentication requirement and denied categorical exclusion based on the vendor’s limited track record, leaving reliability disputes for adversarial testing at trial.


Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite Corp., No. 02 C 3293, 2004 WL 2367740 (N.D. Ill. 2004)