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My family owns a small bar in Texas. Recently, I had some friends visiting from out of town that were interested in watching the UFC fight. I don't care for and know very little about cable TV or UFC. We are customers of Time Warner Cable. We scrolled around the cable box menus, found the fight, and purchased it with a click of the remote. Several weeks later we get a letter from a lawyer representing Joe Hand Promotions, the licensed distributor of UFC pay per view. They are threatening heavy fines saying we have broken 47 U.S.C. § 553.

Are we liable here? From what I understand now, because we are a commercial establishment we are not supposed to be able to purchase these fights at the residential rate on our cable box. Is this negligence by Time Warner for providing it to us? What should our course of action be and what penalties can we expect? When I read 47 U.S.C. § 553 it seems like we have done nothing since the cable company provided it. Max fines I can see $1100

Submitted: 128 days and 16 hours ago.

Category: Intellectual Property Law

Value: $45

Status: AWAITING CUSTOMER ACTION

Already Tried:
Small detail I have not mentioned is that the fight did not show up on our bill. There is no evidence that we ever had it. I have been on the phone with their billing department for several weeks and they acknowledge that our boxes were "coded" incorrectly and that is what allowed us to purchase the fight at the residential rate. They also concede that a "hardware" issue probably prevented it from appearing on our bill. They have promised me a bill and statement explaining the problem for about 2 weeks now. I call every day, several times a day. I am concerned that they are liable and trying to squeek out of what they have agreed to provide me in the way of a bill. Any help on this would be hugely appreciated!! The lawyer representing Joe Hand does not believe that it is possible to receive a fight and not be charged. When, or hopefully not "If", I get a bill from TW for the fight does it help me at all or provide any defense?

Answer

47 USC 553 (a)(2) "No person shall intercept or receive or assist in intercepting or receiving any communications service offered over a cable system, unless specifically authorized to do so by a cable operator or as may otherwise be specifically authorized by law."

I think your liability will hinge on whether Time-Warner specifically authorized you to view that event. Did they install the cable into the bar? Did you ever mislead them into thinking that the cable was going into a residential space and not a bar? If they put the cable in, you have been truthful, and they authorized the PPV event, you're probably OK.

As for a fine, the statute authorizes statuatory damages of between $100 to $10,000 plus attorney's fees. The problem is that attorney's fees could add up to be a lot of money.

I would write a letter (or better yet get a lawyer to write you a letter) to the UFC lawyer, explaining the situation, point out that under 553 (c)(3)(C) it states "In any case where the court finds that the violator was not aware and had no reason to believe that his acts constituted a violation of this section, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of damages to a sum of not less than $100," and maybe even offer to pay them the $100 to go away.

If that doesn't work and they are still trying to bully you get a lawyer to work on getting them to go away.

Expert:	MD MILLS
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:	23
Answered:	7/2/2009

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Admitted to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office. Admitted to practice in Washington.

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