Ethics question about cable TV

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Hi, I’ve been a lurker here in the past but finally registered today hoping to get help with an ethical question.

Several years ago we got free cable TV because our son got a job with the cable company. Later he left that job and they turned it off. We then got DishNetwork. 2 years later we decided to just use the antenna again, TV isn’t all that great anyway. So I had Dish shut off and plugged our antenna back in. We were surprised to find we were getting cable again. My son (the one who worked for the company) says it happens all the time. He said the installers cut corners by using our existing antenna wire and that they probably hooked us up again while connecting other houses because they often hook up all the loose wires in a box rather than go house to house to find out which one is which. He said we are not stealing cable unless we go to the box and hook ourselves up. I don’t want to be stealing, but I also don’t want to have to climb under the crawlspace and rewire… after all they tapped into my wiring. I have thought about calling them and asking them to hook my antenna up again. What do you think we should do? Thanks for any and all thoughtfull opinions.
 
Q45 said:
Hi, I’ve been a lurker here in the past but finally registered today hoping to get help with an ethical question.

Several years ago we got free cable TV because our son got a job with the cable company. Later he left that job and they turned it off. We then got DishNetwork. 2 years later we decided to just use the antenna again, TV isn’t all that great anyway. So I had Dish shut off and plugged our antenna back in. We were surprised to find we were getting cable again. My son (the one who worked for the company) says it happens all the time. He said the installers cut corners by using our existing antenna wire and that they probably hooked us up again while connecting other houses because they often hook up all the loose wires in a box rather than go house to house to find out which one is which. He said we are not stealing cable unless we go to the box and hook ourselves up. I don’t want to be stealing, but I also don’t want to have to climb under the crawlspace and rewire… after all they tapped into my wiring. I have thought about calling them and asking them to hook my antenna up again. What do you think we should do? Thanks for any and all thoughtfull opinions.
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Unless you get a box you are not hooked up. it is not your responsibilty to disconnect the cable-it is the cable companies.
 
We do not have a box. My son took it back years ago. Apparently our TV will tune in the first 99 cable channels without any box. We don’t watch most of that garbage, but we do watch the regular TV and news, and of course EWTN (which we get that on radio also).
 
Q45 said:
We do not have a box. My son took it back years ago. Apparently our TV will tune in the first 99 cable channels without any box. We don’t watch most of that garbage, but we do watch the regular TV and news, and of course EWTN (which we get that on radio also).
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In that case i would call the cable company and ask how you can officially get on their service
 
The same thing happen to us, sort of. We started receiving cable months after we turned ours off. We kept the actual cable plugged in to our TV set to use it as an antenna for local channels. One day the extra channels showed up. Well, we got a knock on our door, about a week after it came on, it was a cable tech and we were told to STOP stealing cable. Well, years later we moved to a another home. We plugged our TV to the existing cables (as an antenna again) and we got cable TV. This time I called the cable company and told them. I was told that Based on our phone number (which we transferred to the new home) there was a note on their records that we had been “busted”, yes “busted”, before. A manager told us we are on strike number two, next time they will prosecute. I went outside to look at the cable box and there is nothing protecting this box anyone can hook up to it and get cable. My guess is someone plugged all the cables in an attempt to enable it in their home (legally or not who knows). This all happened months ago. We got upset and took our complaints up the chain. We got a written apology and we were told the notes saying we were “busted” and on “strike number two” have been removed. They offered us 6 months free cable, I turned them down, TV is over rated.

I say to you make it legal or call them to have it removed. :o
 
Call them, let them know that you were very surprised to see that you were receiving cable service, since you know you aren’t paying for it, and see what they say.

They’ll either let you keep it, or they’ll thank you for bringing it to their attention, and they’ll disconnect it. Either way, you’re not going to be in any trouble.

But if you don’t say anything, and they find out about themselves later on, then you could be in trouble, even if you weren’t the one that hooked it up. So, you should give them a call and let them know about it.
 
Yea, I’d call them, tell them you’re receiving cable but are not subscribed to it. Then you can watch it until they disconnect it. 🙂
 
Legally we a ok. As I said, our son worked there. He is familiar with this type of case. Anything they pump into your home unsolicited is not your problem. Some companies like to bluff and scare people.
My question is about the ethics. Right now I think I’ll call and tell them about the situation and let them rectify it if they want. But I don’t feel responsible for rewiring. However I am more concerned about my Christian witness. If friends come over and we turn on the TV I don’t want to seem to be stealing or have to rationlize it. I really just wish my antenna was working. It is still on the pole outside.
 
If I were you, I’d junk the TV, move the computer to the living room and use the money you save from not having cable to subscribe to good periodicals and books. We do this. You can use your computer to watch DVDs (from Netflix or whatever), and keep up with the news via the internet. We said goodbye to the endless jabbering and commercialism of TV, and I believe our family is much the better for it. :cool:
 
Ethically, the ethics professor to whom I am married says it’s a gray area, as long as you let them know they are broadcasting into your home, it’s their problem, not yours.

As somebody who has cut off a certain cable company because they played fast and loose with our acocunt: Don’t just call them. Send them a snail mail letter, certified, return receipt requested. In it, state that you had cable with them, that you then got a dish, but turned that off, as well. Then, state when you connected your TV to YOUR antenna, ***their ***cable started coming into YOUR home. :twocents:
 
If it’s something that is bothering you then it would seem logical to call and tell them about the problem. At that point they can either disconnect it or you have done everything you reasonablly can. I remember the very first time we ever got cable TV, this would have been in the late 80’s (probably 88 or 89), the installer hooked up and gave us HBO. It turned out he was upset with his boss and his revenage was hooking up everyone with free HBO. We didn’t know this and just assumed it was part of the package. I don’t think we stole HBO for a year, as this was an internal problem for the company. This is of course different than getting a black market cable box and intentionally stealing cable.
 
You are stealing.

You are connected to their wires, receiving a signal intended to be used by paying subscribers. It makes no difference that your set has the ability to interpret “cable” signals, it’s the fact that you are connected to the network’s wires without paying for the use of the signals they carry.

If your TV was connected to an outside aerial/antenna - that’s different. You are pulling in a signal broadcast over the public airwaves, available to anyone who has the equipment to receive it.
Anything they pump into your home unsolicited is not your problem
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No, if your set is connected to their wires, you have given consent to receive whatever signal they “pump” into your home.
 
Yes, it does suck when they take your antenna cable and hook it up to their wires because they don’t want to put another cable through your house. The best thing would be to go up to the attic, unhook their connection and rehook it to the antenna. It’s on your side of the cable box, so they can’t do anything about it.

The only thing I’m confused by is why they hooked you up when you obviously weren’t paying for the service, lazy technician or no. Anyone who works on wiring labels the ends so you can find the ones you need.

edit - And the story where they gave the poster service TWICE, then accused them as stealing TWICE sounds like the company trying to blackmail the family into paying for cable. This happens regularly where I live so I assume it is commonplace. They call it aggressive sales tactics. They even disconnected my antenna cable when they put service into my home (they didn’t hook it up to the cable since my antenna is on the other side of the house, though, but they did obviously snip it… probably an accident when I think about it).
 
Thanks for all the advice. I decided to change the wires myself and not mess with the cable company. After mass I lit a candle by St. Francis and asked him to keep all the creepy crawlys under the house friendly. Last fall I had to redo 16 feet of heat tape and got far too up close and personal with the spiders. St. Francis came through for me. All I had to do was pull the wires to the side of the house, there was enough slack, and then switch the connections. A ten minute job.

I have a statue of the Blessed Virgin in front of our home and a “Pray the Rosary” bumper sticker and I feel my actions should not only be moral but should not even have the appearance of being otherwise. After hearing all the bad cable company stories I decided not to call them.

Peace,
Q
 
Jay2 said:
You are stealing.

You are connected to their wires, receiving a signal intended to be used by paying subscribers.
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I respectfully disagree. He was suppose to have been discontinued. THEY failed to do that correctly. He is not responsibly for THEIR actions.
 
And I agree with Sir Knight.

Please Jay, before you make pronouncements on others, consider the entire scenario, applying logic and reason to the situation. It often isn’t as black and white as it seems.
 
I know that when a company sends you something in the mail that you did not order, you have no legal obligation to return it. I can’t see how this is any different.
 
But then again, we’re not talking about legal obligations. We’re talking about proper Christian ethics, which the law does not enforce.

-Rob
 
I’d say this is somewhat analigous to the case of a company sending something to the wrong location. There’s probably a moral requirement that the recipient notify the sender of the mistake. But while it would be noble for the recepient to take steps to see that the package is correctly delivered I still don’t see that it is a moral requirement.

But I do see a slight difference in this case because by actually using a cable signal it is likely that the signal for those neighbors on the same line is being degraded beyond what it ought to be. It gets tricky because the OP had the right to connect his own wiring to his television with the expectation of using his antenna but the cable company shortcut robbed him of that ability.

If the OP had decided to notify the cable company I think that it would have been reasonable to expect the cable company to repair the original connection to the antenna. As it was, I think this kind of came out a wash. The cable company was spared the expense of sending out a representative and the OP got a few hours of viewing in return.
 
Considering how nasty, inconsiderate and just plain wrong cable companies can be, I think the OP fixing the lines and just getting rid of it was a good solution.
 
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