mengm@homxa.UUCP (P.MENG) (03/09/84)
Is it really illegal to hook up an additional tv (via coupler) to an existing cable provided by your local cable company. I realize the cable company would have you believe that (because they want the extra few dollars a month for an additional outlet). But are you really breaking some kind of law ?? What are the penalties?? Would the cable company charge you for it or might they possibly revoke your cable service entirely? How about getting a FM splitter to get access to the stronger FM signal the cable company usually offers (not to mention the MTV stereo signal on 90.1). I guess this would be illegal too. Oh, well. Just curious (really) Peter F. Meng
ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (03/14/84)
Yes this is really illegal. This is sort of like going out and hooking up an extension cord on the wrong side of your electric meter. You might class this as the same type of thing such as hooking up extra telephones to your phone line (which was OK'd by the FCC several years back) but the copyright laws will probably prevent a similar decision. Essentially, it's the cable company's wire and you are subject to their terms. As for penalties, our local company seems to be taking the extra TV thing lightly (like pay the money you owe us and forget about it). What they are really chasing is everyone who tore apart their converters to rewire them so they could get SHOWTIME and PLAYBOY without paying for it. They've since solved this problem by switching the encoding method so it is not easy to steal these services. The other thing they're chasing is those who sell the company converters and those who are hooking up converters to lines that aren't getting cable at all (most apartments around here are prewired). Too many TV's and VTR's are set up these days not to require converters and you can order them mail order to really make it easy for them to detect or worry about extra outlets on lines that are already paying customers. I have quite different feelings about non-cable pay TV (I'll post in a future letter). -Ron