H-2321              _______________________________________________

                                           SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL NO. 550

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

By House Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Representatives P. King, D. Nelson, Isaacson, Armstrong, Addison, Lewis, Fisch, Barrett, Niemi, Zellinsky, Taylor, C. Smith, Hastings, Sanders and Long)

Read first time 3/8/85 and passed to Committee on Rules.

AN ACT Relating to the theft of cable television services; adding new sections to chapter 9A.56 RCW; repealing RCW 9.45.250; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  A new section is added to chapter 9A.56 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) A person is guilty of theft of cable television services if:

          (a) With intent to avoid payment by himself or another person of the lawful charge for any service of a cable antenna television system, he:

          (i) Tampers or makes connection with the equipment of the supplier, whether by mechanical, electrical, acoustical, or other means; or

          (ii) Offers for sale or otherwise makes available, to anyone other than the cable antenna television system for such system's own use in the provision of its services, any telecommunications decoder or descrambler, a principal function of which defeats a mechanism of electronic signal encryption, jamming, or individually addressed switching imposed by the cable antenna television service provider of any such telecommunications service to restrict the delivery of such service; or

          (iii) Knowingly misrepresents a material fact; or

          (iv) Uses any other artifice, trick, deception, code, or other device; and

          (b) He wrongfully obtains cable television services for himself or another.

          (2) For the purposes of this section the telecommunications decoder or descrambler described in subsection (1)(a)(ii) of this section or the device described in subsection (1)(a)(iv) of this section does not include any nondecoding and nondescrambling channel frequency converter or any television receiver type accepted by the Federal Communications Commission.

          (3) Theft of cable television services is a gross misdemeanor.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 9A.56 RCW to read as follows:

          Upon conviction of theft of cable television services, the court shall order the seizure of any decoder, descrambler, or other device the use of which is prohibited under section 1 of this act as contraband and dispose of it at the court's discretion.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  A new section is added to chapter 9A.56 RCW to read as follows:

          (1) Any person aggrieved by any violation of section 1 of this act may bring a civil action in the appropriate superior or district court in the state of Washington.

          (2) The court may:

          (a) Grant temporary and final injunctions on such terms as it may deem reasonable to prevent or restrain violations of section 1 of this act;

          (b) Direct the recovery of full costs, including awarding reasonable attorneys' fees, to an aggrieved party who prevails.

          (3) Damages awarded by any court under this section shall be computed in accordance with either of the following:

          (a) The party aggrieved may recover the actual damages suffered by him as a result of the violation and any profits of the violator that are attributable to the violation that are not taken into account in computing the actual damages.  In determining the violator's profits, the party aggrieved shall be required to prove only the violator's gross revenue, and the violator shall be required to prove his deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the violation; or

          (b) In addition to actual damages the party aggrieved may recover an award of statutory damages for all violations involved in the action, in a sum of not less than two hundred fifty dollars or more than ten thousand dollars, as the court considers just.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  Section 1, chapter 94, Laws of 1973 1st ex. sess. and RCW 9.45.250 are each repealed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5.     If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.