I read in the small print you must have autopay and paperless billing, which saves Dish Network a lot of money and hassle.
So yea, looks like Dish knows the first bill people stop paying when they are in tough times is the TV bill, they are looking to get around that with the free HD as the leverage.
I heard a indentity theft expert interviewed the other day, he said that far more people get ripped off the old fashioned way with paper bills then they do with modern electronic transactions over the internet. Its far easier to get an old bill out of the trash, or peak into a companies records and pull the info, then it is to break passwords, encryption, https, etc.
The real fear I have over autopay is the loss of control, I also would like the ability if I get in trouble to be late on the bill, instead of the TV provider getting paid first. But, for the trade off of free HD, that just means you have the responsibility of contacting Dish Network first and canceling or making some sort of arrangement, instead of just blowing off the bill.