Boxford pirate's coax cable cut

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:16:15 EDT, TVNETDUDE@aol.com said:

> Again we are talking about a radio station here. The FCC doesn't do jail  
> they would rather have the money. In fact, if you look under part 1.84  
> -Practices and Procedures you will see exactly what they are getting for  a 
> violation with no mention of prison time.

That's because criminal law is not within the purview of the FCC.  If
you look at 47 USC 5.501, you will see that Congress has provided for
criminal sanctions:

	Any person who willfully and knowingly does or causes or
	suffers to be done any act, matter, or thing, in this chapter
	prohibited or declared to be unlawful, or who willfully and
	knowingly omits or fails to do any act, matter, or thing in
	this chapter required to be done, or willfully and knowingly
	causes or suffers such omission or failure, shall, upon
	conviction thereof, be punished for such offense, for which no
	penalty (other than a forfeiture) is provided in this chapter,
	by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by imprisonment for a
	term not exceeding one year, or both; except that any person,
	having been once convicted of an offense punishable under this
	section, who is subsequently convicted of violating any
	provision of this chapter punishable under this section, shall
	be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or by
	imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.

(Title V, section 501, Communications Act of 1934)

The decision to prosecute a pirate would be made by the United States
Attorney, not by the FCC, although the prosecutor would usually not
get invovled unless the FCC referred the issue to the Justice
Department.

This only covers violations of the statute; violations of the FCC
Rules are subject only to a fine of not more than $500 per day (much
less, in most cases, than the FCC's maximum civil forfeiture, and much
harder to prove).

-GAWollman