A law that penalizes the pilfering of cable TV and Internet connections is expected to take effect about two weeks from now as the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) issued on Oct. 16 the legislation?s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
Last April, Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III signed in law Republic Act 10515, also known as the ?Anti-Cable Television and Cable Internet Tapping Act of 2013?.
The law prohibits cable television and Internet tapping and penalizes offenders with imprisonment of two to five years or a fine of P50,000 to P100,000 or both, at the discretion of the court.
If the offender is a corporation or association, the president, manager, managing partner or any officer of the corporation or partnership who directly participated in the violation of the law will be held liable.
With the new law, illegal tapping of any signal offered over cable TV or cable Internet system and the malicious destruction or removal of existing CATV or cable Internet facilities will be prohibited.
The law also prohibits recording, reproducing, distributing, importing or selling of any intercepted or received CATV system/network signals for commercial purposes without the authority of the concerned CATV or cable Internet service provider.
In the IRR, considered as prima facie evidence for illegal tapping are cable wires and devices connected to the services provider (for non-subscribers) and unauthorized wire extensions (for subscribers).
The newly-signed law, which is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 3345 and House Bill No. 709, was passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on January 28, 2013 and January 30, 2013, respectively.
