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From: chip@t4test.UUCP (Chip Rosenthal)
Newsgroups: net.tv
Subject: Re: Are there alternatives to CABLE TV?
Message-ID: <1070@t4test.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-Aug-84 04:12:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: t4test.1070
Posted: Wed Aug 29 04:12:47 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Sep-84 10:38:06 EDT
References: <1118@hou4b.UUCP>
Organization: Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
Lines: 45

--- REFERENCED ARTICLE ---------------------------------------------

>Subject: Are there alternatives to CABLE TV?
>Newsgroups: net.tv
>From: dhd@hou4b.UUCP
>Date: Thu, 23-Aug-84 10:31:38 PDT
>
>What alternatives can I pursue at this point?
>Does anyone out there have any information on dish antennas?
>How much are they?
>Can I get cable-type programming and channels this way?

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Fat chance.

There is a ruckus right now in the San Jose area with the local cable
company locating dishes which are probably picking off broadcasts such
as HPO, and sending nasty notes to the owners of these dishes.  The notes
are something to the effect of, "Give us $400 and burn your antenna, or
we'll see you in court.  Have a nice day."  (But this issue has been
discussed already elsewhere on the net.)

The point is, one of the things I got out of the deluge of news articles
(San Jose Mercury...not USENET) was that if you call up HBO, tell them
that you have an antenna, you are picking up their unencoded signal, and
you wish to have them pay them for use of their services, they will laugh
in your face.

So, it is illegal to pick up their signal (as the majority of recent
court rulings would seem to indicate), and it is impossible to legally
acquire their signal except through your friendly neighborhood mass
video merchant.  If I remember correctly, this fact is to be used in
the citizens suit against the local cable company.  (Yes, the folks
who received the letters have filed suit.  And of course the cable
company then launched a countersuit.)  But for the life of me I can't 
recall how it will be used, nor can I figure out what difference it 
makes.

So, the moral of the story is buy a VCR.  Or give up television.

-- 

Chip Rosenthal, Intel/Santa Clara
{ idi|intelca|icalqa|kremvax|qubix|ucscc } ! t4test ! { chip|news }