Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 20, 1990 TAG: 9005210214
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: F2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT WHITCOMB
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dish owners do not pay the same fee as cable subscribers for satellite-delivered programming. As a matter of fact, premium movie channels can be legally purchased for as much as 40 percent to 50 percent less than cable subscribers pay. Third-party program retailers are soon to be licensed, and prices are expected to decline further.
Apples for apples, cable does not offer the same advantages.
Features such as digital stereo sound, perfect picture-quality, and satellite pay-per-view providing more than 2,000 program choices a month are not available through cable, not to speak of the enormous channel capacity of satellite TV.
Complete systems are now available for prices less than the cost of an average home stereo-system.
Under federal law, people who sell illegal satellite equipment, and people who use it, are considered criminals. Left unchecked, the continued theft of satellite television signals will cause the demise of cable-delivered services. Programmers cannot survive in an environment of thieves.
In many cases, since it is illegal, business is done under the table and therefore no taxes are paid.
Who are the victims?
The federal government, the programmers and honest satellite-television dealers all lose revenues.
The customer who is persuaded to buy an illegal product is also a loser. He has no warranty on tampered-with equipment. He is going to have trouble getting service on his equipment. If he is basically an honest person, he must suffer guilt.
Descrambler design has recently been updated to incorporate advanced security. Soon, those with illegal units will have them rendered useless, as the industry switches to the new system.
In a matter of days, the new system will carry all the pay-per-view programming, making the tampered descrambler useless for these services.
Anyone who now receives scrambled programming without a legal, paid subscription is stealing it. Anyone who sells equipment to allow this can be sent to prison.
Under the new law, anyone who sells this equipment can be charged with a felony, go to prison for two years, and receive a $50,000 fine. Consumers can be fined $2,000 and get six months in jail.
The bottom line is that those who use illegal descramblers are taking a free ride at the expense of their neighbor. Under the law, they are criminals and will be punished if caught.
To avoid this, they should get rid of the illegal units and replace them with legal ones. If everyone did this, programming costs could be lowered. A couple of phone calls would produce a trustworthy dealer who would provide legal equipment.
by CNB