JOSSIP REPORTS As Rupert Murdoch's NDS-EchoStar pay-TV hacking lawsuit continues this morning, an inside source tells Jossip that NDS chief Abe Peled will appear in the courtroom, in person, to testify.

On April 30 he submitted a video deposition to the California court, but suddenly disappeared to London without testifying in person, though he was scheduled to appear as a witness for his company, which makes DirecTV's customer access cards.

Peled's NDS, a News Corp. subsidiary, stands accused of hacking EchoStar's access cards and posting the information on the web for pirates to use to gain free access to NDS competitor NagraStar (which EchoStar provides service to).

In an interesting twist, Peled escaped testimony because NDS listed him as a witness, which meant plaintiff EchoStar felt it didn't need to subpoena him to testify. Oops.

But today, we're told, they'll get to question him. Murdoch, meanwhile, is not expected for the 8:30am local call time.

Guess what keeps getting more glamorous? The espionage trial between EchoStar/DISH Network and News Corp.'s NDS unit, a five-year old case launched with EchoStar accusing NDS of hacking, in the 1990s, its security code and posting it on the web, allowing anybody to create falsified security cards and scam themselves some free DISH Network satellite TV, all because Murdoch refused to merge their pay-TV companies.

The Rupert is now refusing to testify in the civil trial, even though he'd basically just have to nod or shake his head to acknowledge whether or not he knew about the alleged hackings. If he did know, argued the judge overseeing the trial, the jury might be inclined to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in punitive damages. (EchoStar's chief Charles Ergan already took the stand.)

But Murdoch doesn't want to take the stand. Any really, why should he? Doesn't a rebuttal to a news outlet count as valid testimony? Murdoch told ABC News "that he 'absolutely' denied NDS was involved in any hacking," though we're unclear whether is "absolutely denying" the same thing as "absolutely not doing."