The Canadian govt. moved to crack down on satellite TV piracy Wed...
The Canadian govt. moved to crack down on satellite TV piracy Wed. with new legislation that would amend the country’s Radiocommunication Act. The bill would impose harsher fines for capturing signals free or decoding U.S. satellite signals coming into…
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Canada: Penalties would be raised to $25,000 from $10,000 for an individual, and to $200,000 from Cdn$25,000 per company. Companies that sell decoder cards that steal signals would face fines of $500,000 instead of $200,000, and continuing offenders could face a fine of $5 million. The measure would enable Canadian broadcasters to take legal action against anyone selling illegal equipment and services, and only licensed satellite providers Bell ExpressVu (owned by BCE Inc.) and Star Choice (owned by Shaw Communications), with some exceptions, would be licensed to import satellite decoders. But Member of Parliament (MP) Dan McTeague, vice chmn. of the Industry Committee that introduced the bill, admitted that it probably wouldn’t become law until 2004, if at all, given that Parliament shuts down Nov. 7 and isn’t expected to resume until after the current Prime Minister resigns before the end of February. McTeague said “it’s a wonderful area for debate, but it'll never see the light of day.” He said the bill could be made a priority and pushed through before Parliament broke, but that was unlikely.