Theft of subscription television services.
(1) A person is guilty of theft of subscription television services if, with intent to avoid payment of the lawful charge of a subscription television service, he or she:
(a) Obtains or attempts to obtain subscription television service from a subscription television service company by trick, artifice, deception, use of a device or decoder, or other fraudulent means without authority from the company providing the service;
(b) Assists or instructs a person in obtaining or attempting to obtain subscription television service without authority of the company providing the service;
(c) Makes or maintains a connection or connections, whether physical, electrical, mechanical, acoustical, or by other means, with cables, wires, components, or other devices used for the distribution of subscription television services without authority from the company providing the services;
(d) Makes or maintains a modification or alteration to a device installed with the authorization of a subscription television service company for the purpose of interception or receiving a program or other service carried by the company that the person is not authorized by the company to receive; or
(e) Possesses without authority a device designed in whole or in part to receive subscription television services offered for sale by the subscription television service company, regardless of whether the program or services are encoded, filtered, scrambled, or otherwise made unintelligible, or to perform or facilitate the performance of any other acts set out in (a) through (d) of this subsection for the reception of subscription television services without authority.
(2) Theft of subscription television services is a gross misdemeanor.
NOTES:
Severability—1989 c 11: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [ 1989 c 11 s 33.]
Severability—1985 c 430: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [ 1985 c 430 s 7.]