West Virginia Code 61-3D-2 – Acquisition of cable television services
(a) A person who acquires cable television services for himself or another, whether through his own efforts or with the assistance of another, or both, by:
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 61-3D-2
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Cable service: means : (A) The one-way transmission to subscribers of video programming or other programming service. See West Virginia Code 61-3D-1
- Cable system: means any facility within this state consisting of a set of closed transmission paths and associated signal generation, reception and control equipment that is designed to provide cable television service which includes video programming and which is provided to multiple subscribers within a community, and does not include: (A) A facility that serves only to retransmit the television signals of one or more television broadcast stations. See West Virginia Code 61-3D-1
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
- Unauthorized: means that payment of full compensation for cable television services has been avoided, or has been sought to be avoided, without the consent of the supplier of the service. See West Virginia Code 61-3D-1
(1) Making or maintaining any unauthorized connection, whether physically, electrically or inductively, to a distribution or transmission line;
(2) Attaching or maintaining the attachment of any unauthorized device to any cable, wire or other component of a cable system or to a television receiving set connected to a cable system;
(3) Making or maintaining any unauthorized modification or alteration to any device installed by a cable system operator; or
(4) Knowingly permits another person to enter upon his or her property for the purpose of securing cable service in an unauthorized manner as described in subdivision (1), (2) or (3) of this subsection shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be punished in accordance with subsection (c) of this section.
(b) A person who subscribes to and receives cable television services through an authorized connection of a television receiving set at his dwelling and, within his dwelling, makes an authorized or an unauthorized connection of an additional television receiving set or sets or audio system which receives cable television service through such authorized connection, shall not be guilty of a misdemeanor under subsection (a) of this section.
(c) Any person convicted of a misdemeanor under subsection (a) of this section shall be subject to the following penalties:
(1) Upon a first conviction under this section, the defendant shall be fined not less than $100, nor more than $250.
(2) Upon a second conviction under this section, the defendant shall be fined not less than $250, nor more than $500, or imprisoned in the county jail not more than thirty days, or both fined and imprisoned.
(3) Upon any subsequent conviction in excess of a second conviction under this section, the defendant shall be fined not less than $500, nor more than $1,000, or imprisoned in the county jail not less than thirty days nor more than sixty days, or both fined and imprisoned.
Notwithstanding the provisions of section four, article eleven-a of this chapter or section two-a, article three, chapter fifty of this code, the magistrate or court may order restitution not to exceed the value of unauthorized cable services received.