Las Vegas defendants deny cable TV piracy charge

Grace Leong

Thursday, July 5, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Two Las Vegas Valley residents are denying charges by cable television operator Cox Communications Inc. that they illegally used "pirate" cable television decoding devices to steal its programming and services.

David Poire and Dee O'Reilly acknowledged in separate affidavits that they had bought non-Cox cable converter boxes after seeing an advertisement in Popular Mechanics magazine.

But they claimed they didn't connect the cable boxes to their television sets after they were told by family, colleagues and friends that the use of such devices is considered cable theft.

Cox sued 39 Las Vegas Valley residents in March, alleging they violated the federal Communications Act -- which prohibits the unauthorized reception of cable television programming -- when they used what it called "bootleg 'pirate' converter-decoder devices."

O'Reilly, in court papers filed June 21, said she bought the cable box from a company called Millenium Enterprises in 1996 and allegedly didn't realize that it was an illegal item since the product was advertised openly in the magazine.

Both Poire and O'Reilly also disputed Cox's charges that they had violated a Nevada statute, NRS 704.800, which deals with the "unlawful taking of services, goods or products supplied by a public utility with the intent to avoid payment."

They alleged this statute doesn't apply because cable television isn't a public utility and Cox, a private corporation, isn't controlled by the state in the same manner as public utilities like Nevada Power Co., Southwest Gas Corp. and the Las Vegas Valley Water District.

They also said the Nevada Attorney General has ruled that the statute doesn't apply to tampering with equipment used in cable television operations or to the unauthorized reception of a cable signal.

Poire on Monday filed a motion to withdraw his motion to dismiss after Cox agreed to drop its lawsuit against him.

Trevor Atkin, Poire's attorney, said Cox agreed to drop its lawsuit against him because Atkin was about to "file an addendum for attorneys' fees and costs in addition to having the case dismissed against Poire only."

Atkin, who said Cox failed to state with "specificity any date or time of such alleged interception or the specific program that he allegedly intercepted," said it's "fundamentally unfair to ask him to defend his actions on a date that is uncertain, and that he is unable to determine what his conduct was on that date."

"If Cox stated a given date when the alleged interception occurred, the defendant could defend himself by showing that he was not present on that date, or that his electricity was out, or any number of other alibis," Atkin said.

Paul Larsen, O'Reilly's attorney, said Cox's complaint was filed in "extreme bad faith for the sole purpose of extorting an unwarranted settlement" from O'Reilly because it was allegedly "undertaken without any reasonable factual investigation."

Larsen said Cox's complaint violated federal rules of civil procedure because Cox has not provided any evidence showing that O'Reilly used the device in the last three years.

But Cox refused to dismiss its complaint against O'Reilly, citing in a June 19 letter to Larsen, numerous decisions made by various courts supporting Cox's position, and demanding $5,000 to settle its lawsuit.

Steve Schorr, Cox's vice president of public and government affairs, explained why Poire and O'Reilly were sued.

"Everyone on that list of 39 defendants was given numerous opportunities to discuss and clarify their situation before the lawsuit was filed. But O'Reilly and Poire never got in touch with us."

The Greenspun family, owner of the Las Vegas Sun, owns a minority interest in Cox's Las Vegas system.