Joint committee passes revamped telecommunications theft bill
Patrick Chinnery
Issue date: 1/28/04 Section: State and Local
After almost a year of contentious debate, Tennessee's telecommunications theft bill moved one step closer to becoming law Monday.
A joint committee created specifically to address the conflict created by the bill unanimously passed a significantly revamped version of House Bill 457/Senate Bill 213, one that has both proponents and opponents of the original bill unsatisfied.
However, Sen. Larry Trail (D-Murfreesboro), said in the meeting that that was exactly the reaction he wanted.
"It was our consensus, because we were ... unable to pull the two sides any closer together, we asked Mr. [Tom] Tigue [legislative attorney] to draft a bill that might be equally unacceptable to both sides," Trail said. "He came up with a bill that sent a lot of people crying to my office, so he must have done a pretty good job."
Lawmakers are trying to address theft of digital cable services (including television and high-speed Internet access) and Pay-Per-View movies. Items and actions that the legislature are trying to ban include digital cable descramblers, theft of Internet access through wireless "hotspots," and some encryption devices.
Though they could have been construed as illegal in the original draft, devices such as routers (Internet service splitters to be used inside a home or office) and firewalls (software designed to prevent unauthorized access into a computer) would be acceptable with the new legislation.
The cable industry claims that current telecommunications theft law provides too weak of a deterrent.
"We've had a problem in getting judgements, getting the courts to award sufficient damages when we find people that are stealing cable," said John Ferris, an attorney hired by cable companies.
The Monday's amended bill includes revised criminal and civil penalties.
After Monday's amendment was added, a first offense of less than $1,000 of theft would be punished by fine only, although an offense involving five or more communications devices would automatically be construed as a class D felony.
A joint committee created specifically to address the conflict created by the bill unanimously passed a significantly revamped version of House Bill 457/Senate Bill 213, one that has both proponents and opponents of the original bill unsatisfied.
However, Sen. Larry Trail (D-Murfreesboro), said in the meeting that that was exactly the reaction he wanted.
"It was our consensus, because we were ... unable to pull the two sides any closer together, we asked Mr. [Tom] Tigue [legislative attorney] to draft a bill that might be equally unacceptable to both sides," Trail said. "He came up with a bill that sent a lot of people crying to my office, so he must have done a pretty good job."
Lawmakers are trying to address theft of digital cable services (including television and high-speed Internet access) and Pay-Per-View movies. Items and actions that the legislature are trying to ban include digital cable descramblers, theft of Internet access through wireless "hotspots," and some encryption devices.
Though they could have been construed as illegal in the original draft, devices such as routers (Internet service splitters to be used inside a home or office) and firewalls (software designed to prevent unauthorized access into a computer) would be acceptable with the new legislation.
The cable industry claims that current telecommunications theft law provides too weak of a deterrent.
"We've had a problem in getting judgements, getting the courts to award sufficient damages when we find people that are stealing cable," said John Ferris, an attorney hired by cable companies.
The Monday's amended bill includes revised criminal and civil penalties.
After Monday's amendment was added, a first offense of less than $1,000 of theft would be punished by fine only, although an offense involving five or more communications devices would automatically be construed as a class D felony.
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magickal1
magickal1
posted 1/28/04 @ 1:48 PM CST
Another Bold step take by the outstanding lawmakers of Tennessee. Good Grief. The intention was to make theft of a service a criminal offence yet now what has been done according to the language is to make almost every person in tennessee a criminal. (Continued…)
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