This says "moving" is against the law????

[edisonprime]

From what I knew, there are no laws against "moving", but it is against FCC regulations. (Yes, there is a difference.) But I was browsing the web and saw this and am now confused...

Why can't you get your local channels when you travel? - The Solid Signal Blog

This paragraph is the part that has me confused...

Suppose you’re one of the lucky folks whose real service address is in the New York or Los Angeles markets. In that case you’ll get your local channels wherever you are in the US. They’re carried on national satellite broadcasts. DIRECTV and DISH still operate under special waivers that allow them to send NYC and LA local channels out nationally. They’re authorized for those very few people who don’t actually have local channels where they live. This doesn’t mean you can pretend to live in a big city to get local channels, though. That’s fraud and it’s against the law.

I don't want to do anything illegal so I'd like verification from you guys about this article. I actually happened to have "moved" to a bigger market myself, but will "move" back if it turns out I'm doing anything wrong. I'll wait for you guys to give me your answers.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Yes it’s illegal, but a victimless crime, unless you consider tour local channels that got screwed out of their retransmission fees.

I would like to see someone actually prosecuted for doing this. It has never happened and never will.

Worse case scenario the providers (Dish or Directv) would change the address back on your account, or they might close your account.

As long as your paying for what your watching, I doubt anyone besides the local channels who are loosing their retransmission fees actually care

 

[mwdxer1]

"Illegal" is not the appropriate term. That term is used way too much. I walk into a bank and steal money is illegal. "Moving" and other things like this, are against FCC rules (if enforced). A provider if alerted may chose to do nothing (as they don't want to take a chance to lose a customer), or drop their locals. Probably contact the customer saying they are in violation and ask if the customer wants their correct locals.

 

[Claude Greiner]

"Illegal" is not the appropriate term. That term is used way too much. I walk into a bank and steal money is illegal. "Moving" and other things like this, are against FCC rules (if enforced). A provider if alerted may chose to do nothing (as they don't want to take a chance to lose a customer), or drop their locals. Probably contact the customer saying they are in violation and ask if the customer wants their correct locals.

Your right, all the provider will do is correct the address.

 

[dishdude]

I ripped the tag off my mattress. Please no one call the cops!

 

[Brussam]

The providers (Dish, DirecTV) would be the people who get penalized for not enforcing the FCC regulations. It happened to Dish before. So the FCC won't be coming after you but Dish is empowered to pull your plug.

 

[NYDutch]

There are a number of legitimate reasons why a billing address would not be the same as the associated service address, so I suspect any significant enforcement would probably require physical verification. The frequent (and legitimate) "movers" such as RV'ers and truckers should be pretty easy to eliminate as needing verification, but the rest may represent too small a segment of the subscribers to justify the expense short of an actual complaint. Even when we're at our NY cottage and use that as our service address it doesn't match our billing address. Our billing address is a little bin at a commercial mail forwarders...

 

[comfortably_numb]

At one time, I thought they had a backend system that verified service address against the IP registered by an internet-connected receiver. This had the dual effect of being able to catch "stackers" as well.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Dumb law, especially considering now most stations broadcast their newscasts online live.

 

[Tampa8]

The providers (Dish, DirecTV) would be the people who get penalized for not enforcing the FCC regulations. It happened to Dish before. So the FCC won't be coming after you but Dish is empowered to pull your plug.

And that's the answer. It is NOT illegal in the U.S. for you or I to find a way to get locals from a different market. If there is a provider involved they are responsible for making sure it does not happen and they must answer to the FCC. Your exposure is if you are doing it from your provider, that provider can cancel your services etc.

 

[NYDutch]

At one time, I thought they had a backend system that verified service address against the IP registered by an internet-connected receiver. This had the dual effect of being able to catch "stackers" as well.

Interesting... I have three different Internet providers, including two that get different IP address regularly. Even our Spectrum IP changes from time to time. Right now the IP is out of Rochester, NY, but the previous one was from Syracuse, NY. Our AT&T IP is from NYC and our VZW IP is from Boston, MA. One H2 is connected to Spectrum, and the other switches between AT&T and VZW. The geo-location apps almost never get closer than 100 miles of us.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Interesting... I have three different Internet providers, including two that get different IP address regularly. Even our Spectrum IP changes from time to time. Right now the IP is out of Rochester, NY, but the previous one was from Syracuse, NY. Our AT&T IP is from NYC and our VZW IP is from Boston, MA. One H2 is connected to Spectrum, and the other switches between AT&T and VZW. The geo-location apps almost never get closer than 100 miles of us.

I used to have a T1 at the office that was registered to Minnesota.

It was great for watching MLB games because I got tigers without blackouts.

I couldn’t get the Twins games, but who wanted to watch the twins back then

 

[comfortably_numb]

Interesting... I have three different Internet providers, including two that get different IP address regularly. Even our Spectrum IP changes from time to time. Right now the IP is out of Rochester, NY, but the previous one was from Syracuse, NY. Our AT&T IP is from NYC and our VZW IP is from Boston, MA. One H2 is connected to Spectrum, and the other switches between AT&T and VZW. The geo-location apps almost never get closer than 100 miles of us.

Yeah, it's not a foolproof system. In your case, and for many people using cellular hotspots as ISP's, the physical location of the IP could be hundreds or thousands of miles away.

 

[AZ.]

Interesting... I have three different Internet providers, including two that get different IP address regularly. Even our Spectrum IP changes from time to time. Right now the IP is out of Rochester, NY, but the previous one was from Syracuse, NY. Our AT&T IP is from NYC and our VZW IP is from Boston, MA. One H2 is connected to Spectrum, and the other switches between AT&T and VZW. The geo-location apps almost never get closer than 100 miles of us.

For over a year my IP address was in Canada?....I live in Northern Arizona....lol

 

[NYDutch]

I used to have a T1 at the office that was registered to Minnesota.

It's amazing how much Internet speeds have changed in a relatively short time. I recall the time some years before I retired as a systems administrator/analyst when we were finally able to get a dedicated T1 and were thrilled with the 1.5 Mbps symmetrical speeds. Now all three of my services are at least 20 times faster than that...

 

[pattykay]

From what I knew, there are no laws against "moving", but it is against FCC regulations. (Yes, there is a difference.) But I was browsing the web and saw this and am now confused...

Why can't you get your local channels when you travel? - The Solid Signal Blog

This paragraph is the part that has me confused...



I don't want to do anything illegal so I'd like verification from you guys about this article. I actually happened to have "moved" to a bigger market myself, but will "move" back if it turns out I'm doing anything wrong. I'll wait for you guys to give me your answers.

Even the act of "moving" back could be considered fraud, if there is any gain (financial or otherwise) on your part in doing so. I have done this myself, to get free Dish Mover deals (when I needed a technician visit anyway) upon "moving" back to my actual address, even though I never actually physically moved. So sue me, Dish!

 

[renegade734]

I have been 'moved' for almost ten years. I am still waiting for anyone to question my eligibility. If there's ever a problem, I'll drop locals entirely and rely only on my OTA.

 

[Ronnie-]

Let’s not add comments that would take the thread into pit territory please.

 

[bobsie]

I have a different situation. In my local area, all but one of the local channels on Dish are from one station. CBS on channel 011-00, ABC on 012-00, Fox on 013-00 and NBC on 025-00. The first 3 are local to where I live (Alpena, MI) while the NBC station is from the Saginaw/Flint MI area. Yet the local cable company (Charter/Spectrum) has the first 3 AND also locals from the Cadillac MI area and the NBC station in Cadillac as well. How can two different providers offer completely different local channels? I thought FCC rules would prohibit that. I do not know why Dish selected the Saginaw/Flint area local NBC when even their weather forecasts do not include Alpena. Can I individually request they switch local NBC station to the Cadillac NBC station since they do include us in their local newscasts and weather reports and is closer to Alpena? Saginaw/Flint is further away (certainly NOT local).

 

[pattykay]

I have a different situation. In my local area, all but one of the local channels on Dish are from one station. CBS on channel 011-00, ABC on 012-00, Fox on 013-00 and NBC on 025-00. The first 3 are local to where I live (Alpena, MI) while the NBC station is from the Saginaw/Flint MI area. Yet the local cable company (Charter/Spectrum) has the first 3 AND also locals from the Cadillac MI area and the NBC station in Cadillac as well. How can two different providers offer completely different local channels? I thought FCC rules would prohibit that. I do not know why Dish selected the Saginaw/Flint area local NBC when even their weather forecasts do not include Alpena. Can I individually request they switch local NBC station to the Cadillac NBC station since they do include us in their local newscasts and weather reports and is closer to Alpena? Saginaw/Flint is further away (certainly NOT local).

The short answer is that the rules for broadcast station carriage are different for cable and satellite. To get into a little more detail, it sounds like your market (Alpena) is a "short market" (lacking an in-market NBC station) so it is necessary to import an out-of-market affiliate to fill in the gap. There are two different types of out-of-market stations that can be offered: distant networks and Significantly Viewed stations. The important distinction is that distant networks do not require retransmission consent from the station, while Significantly Viewed stations do require retransmission consent (and thus some form of payment to the station). Significantly Viewed stations are considered "local" to the out-of-market areas where they meet the criteria for Significantly Viewed status, but those areas are individual counties and communities, not necessarily the entire market, even if that market is a neighboring "short market" like yours. In such a case, for Dish to carry that station to serve your entire market, they would have to use two different copyright licenses with different rules governing each license, with the station being considered Significantly Viewed in part of your market, and "distant" for the rest of the market. The alternative may be to split your market into multiple "markets" for the purpose of the satellite-delivered local package, with different out-of-market NBC affiliates being offered in different parts of the Alpena market, so that everyone would get the affiliate that is the most "local" to their area. In these cases, Dish seems to prefer to import an affiliate from farther away, that is truly distant to the entire market. That way, there is no legal question over which copyright license is being used to carry the station, or any confusion over whether or not the station needs to be removed during a retransmission consent dispute. It is also possible that the Saginaw/Flint station just happened to be on a spot-beam that covers the entire Alpena market, while the spot-beam for the Cadillac locals might not cover the entire Alpena market. By contrast, cable providers do not need to worry as much about being able to cover their entire service area with the same locals under the same copyright license, since cable service areas are broken down into multiple local franchise areas. Even individual local franchise areas can be split even further for copyright purposes, if a station is considered to be Significantly Viewed for only a portion of the franchise area, for example.