A proposal to use the Criminal Code to punish those who illegally intercept or receive cable TV without paying for it drew a mixed reaction at public hearing yesterday.
Article 74 of the Cable Television Act (有線電視法) states that those who illegally intercept cable TV content shall be penalized by paying a fine equal to two years of the basic cable rate. If the activity also causes losses to the cable TV system, the offender is also liable for civil damages.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chu Fong-chi (朱鳳芝) has submitted an amendment to punish unauthorized users of cable services with a jail term of no more than five years.
Violators could also be fined NT$1.5 million (US$454,000).
Those found guilty of providing the equipment to receive unauthorized cable TV broadcasts could be sentenced to a prison term of one to seven years.
The legislature’s Transportation Committee is scheduled to review the amendment today, so Chu held the public hearing to solicit opinion from media researchers and legal experts.
Except for Chen Chao-ping (陳朝平), chairman of the Cable Broadcasting Institute of Taiwan, who strongly supported the bill, nearly all the participants questioned the propriety of using the Criminal Code to punish people for stealing cable TV programs.
Chen said that the association estimates that there are about 1.15 million households that receive cable TV without paying for it, about 15 percent of all cable users.
Cable TV operators suffer annual losses of around NT$7.4 billion (US$228 million), he said.
Hwang Dar-yeh (黃達業), a finance professor at National Taiwan University, said people who access cable TV illegally should be punished. Whether they should face criminal charges or should be asked to pay penalties was open for discussion, Hwang said.
Chen Ching-ho (陳清河), dean of the College of Journalism and Communication at Shih Hsin University, agreed, although he also recognized the potential advantages of imposing criminal charges on violators.
“The government was ineffective when it just asked people to wear helmets while riding scooters, but people started wearing helmets when the government announced it would penalize those who did not wear them,” he said.
Kao Fu-yao (高福堯), director of the National Communications Commission’s law department, said the government needs to adhere to the principle of necessity if it decides to use the Criminal Code to punish violators rather than the Civil Code.
Not only does the government need time to educate the public about the new amendment, it should also remember that prosecution for such an offense could only be instituted upon a complaint, Kao said.
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