richard1980 wrote:47 U.S.C. § 553: "No person shall intercept or receive or assist in intercepting or receiving any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so by a cable operator or as may otherwise be specifically authorized by law."
There's no doubt about it. Connecting the cable line to the TV without being specifically authorized to do so by the cable company is definitely illegal, regardless of what signal is coming through the line and if it's filtered/encrypted or not.
I too am confused by Adam's apparent double standard.
So if the cable company chose to put up a big video screen in my neighborhood for a bit "thank you customers!" party, but didn't want non-customers like me to view it, intending it to be viewed only by its subscribers, I'm violating the law if I see it?
Of *course* that's ridiculous--but strictly speaking, the cableco could do that and could prosecute anyone who *isn't* a customer who dared to view it. After all, those people would be receiving the communication offered over the cable system, yet the cableco would not be authorizing them.
I noticed you didn't comment on my broadband question: if you're paying for 8 megabit service but discover you're actually getting 20 megabit service, are you stealing? Or did the cableco make a business decision not to spend the money on physically differentiating between 8 megabit and 20 megabit service, and chose to provide only the one service? That could be a valid business plan that makes them the most money. That kind of thing actually happens all the time...companies get whatever money they can from their customers, differentiating not on the product but only on the prices they can get individually from each customer.
I mean, if you're paying for only the 8 megabit service, you can't call and complain that you're only getting 10 megabit bandwidth; that privilege is reserved for the 20 megabit paying customers.
So the cableco has made a business decision: even though a customer says "I don't want your TV service," the cableco sends it down regardless. IN THE CLEAR. There's no "intercepting" going on; they've simply chosen not to spend the money to put traps on your line. I need do nothing other than use a normal TV--no DMCA violation here, no hacking an encryption scheme, no climbing the pole myself to modify their equipment or their signal. Nada.
Of course, I can't call and bitch about TV picture or signal quality--just like the broadband example.
Go ahead, prosecute me. They won't, of course, because they know they have no standing and it would fail--just like with the broadband example.