47 U.S.C. § 325 — False, fraudulent, or unauthorized transmissions

(a) False distress signals; rebroadcasting programs. No one within U.S. jurisdiction may knowingly send, or cause someone else to send, a false or fraudulent distress signal or a message about one. No broadcasting station may rebroadcast another station's program, or any part of it, without that station's express permission. (b) Consent to retransmission of broadcasting station signals. (1) A cable system or other multichannel video programming distributor generally cannot retransmit any part of a broadcasting station's signal, unless: (A) the originating station gives express permission; (B) the station is instead asserting carriage rights under section 534, having chosen that option under this subsection; or (C) the station is instead asserting carriage rights under section 338, having made that same choice. (2) This consent requirement does not apply to: (A) retransmitting a noncommercial television station's signal; (B) a satellite carrier retransmitting, outside a station's local market, a station's signal directly to subscribers, if that station was a "superstation" on May 1, 1991, was being retransmitted under the section 119 statutory license as of July 1, 1998, and the satellite carrier follows the Commission's network nonduplication, syndicated exclusivity, and sports blackout rules; (C) retransmitting network stations' signals directly to home satellite dishes under the section 119 statutory license; (D) a cable operator or other non-satellite multichannel provider retransmitting, outside a station's local market, a signal obtained from a satellite carrier, if that station was a superstation on May 1, 1991, and was being retransmitted under the section 119 license as of July 1, 1998; or (E) for six months starting November 29, 1999, a satellite carrier retransmitting a station's signal within its own local market directly to subscribers, under the section 122 statutory license. "Satellite carrier" and "superstation" here mean what section 119(d) of title 17 said, as of October 5, 1992. (3)(A) Within 45 days of October 5, 1992, the Commission had to start writing rules to govern how stations exercise retransmission consent under (b) and carriage rights under section 534, plus rules needed to enforce the limits in (2). The Commission had to consider how granting retransmission consent affects basic cable rates, and make sure its rules did not conflict with keeping basic-tier rates reasonable under section 543(b)(1). This rulemaking had to finish within 180 days of October 5, 1992. (B) The resulting rules had to require TV stations, within one year of October 5, 1992 and every three years after, to choose between retransmission consent under (b) and carriage rights under section 534. If more than one cable system serves the same area, the station's choice applies to all of them. (C) The Commission also had to revise its retransmission consent rules, and the rules enforcing the (2) limits, to: (i) match the same three-year election periods as (B); (ii) stop a station that gives retransmission consent from using exclusive contracts or refusing to negotiate in good faith (charging different distributors different prices based on competition is not, by itself, bad faith); (iii) stop a distributor from refusing to negotiate in good faith for retransmission consent (again, different prices to different stations based on competition is not bad faith); (iv) stop a station from coordinating or jointly negotiating retransmission consent with another station in the same local market, unless the stations share common ownership the Commission allows; (v) stop a station from limiting a distributor's ability to carry another signal into that station's market, a "significantly viewed" signal, or another signal the distributor is allowed to carry under sections 338, 339, 340, or 534, unless the stations share common ownership the Commission allows; and (vi) starting 90 days after December 20, 2019, let a distributor satisfy its good-faith duty in (iii) by using a "qualified MVPD buying group" to negotiate with a "large station group" on its behalf, as long as that buying group itself negotiates in good faith; make it a bad-faith violation for the buying group to leak negotiation details to a member unlikely to accept the final deal; and require a large station group to negotiate in good faith with a qualified MVPD buying group under (ii). (4) If a station chooses retransmission consent under (3)(B) for a cable system, section 534's carriage rules stop applying to that cable system's carriage of the station. The same idea applies to a satellite carrier and section 338, if the station chose retransmission consent under (3)(C). (5) A station's use of its retransmission consent right does not interfere with or replace the carriage rights under sections 338, 534, or 535 held by any other station that chose carriage instead. (6) Nothing here changes the compulsory copyright license in section 111 of title 17, or existing or future licensing deals between stations and video programmers. (7) Definitions for this subsection: (A) "network station" means what section 119(d) of title 17 says; (B) "television broadcast station" means an over-the-air commercial or noncommercial TV station licensed under the Commission's rules, not including low-power or translator stations; (C) "qualified MVPD buying group" is an entity that negotiates on behalf of two or more distributors, none serving more than 500,000 subscribers nationally and together not serving more than 25 percent of an area's distributor households, using standardized contract terms, and that takes on the legal duty to pass along all fees collected to the large station group; (D) "large station group" is a group of commonly owned stations that generally negotiate retransmission consent as one unit and includes only stations reaching more than 20 percent of the national audience; (E) "local market" means what section 122(j) of title 17 says; and (F) "multichannel video programming distributor" means what section 522 of this title says. (c) Broadcast to foreign countries for rebroadcast to United States; permit. No one may set up or run a radio broadcast studio, or similar place or equipment, that sends sound to a foreign radio station for broadcast there, if that foreign station's signal is strong enough, or positioned so, that it can regularly be received in the United States, without first getting a Commission permit. (d) Application for permit. The application must contain whatever information the Commission's rules require. The Commission grants or denies it the same way it handles station license applications, renewals, or modifications under section 309. The permit can be revoked for false statements in the application, or if the Commission, after a hearing, decides continuing it no longer serves the public interest. (e) Enforcement proceedings against satellite carriers concerning retransmissions of television broadcast stations in the respective local markets of such carriers. This subsection sets out how a TV station can enforce its retransmission-consent rights against a satellite carrier, after the six-month window in (b)(2)(E) ends. (1) Complaints by television broadcast stations. If a station believes a satellite carrier retransmitted its signal into its own local market without consent, it can file a Commission complaint listing: its name, address, and call letters; the carrier's name and address; the dates of the alleged retransmission; the address of at least one person in the local market who received it; a statement that the station never authorized it; and the station's counsel's name and address. (2) Service of complaints on satellite carriers. Any satellite carrier that retransmits a station's signal is automatically treated as having named the Commission's Secretary as its agent for legal service. A station serves its complaint by filing the original and two copies with the Commission's Secretary, and sending a copy to the carrier's chief executive officer by two commonly used overnight delivery services, marked "URGENT LITIGATION MATTER." Service counts as done one business day after the complaint is handed to the delivery services. The Commission's Secretary then mails the original complaint to the carrier's chief executive officer, by certified mail. (3) Answers by satellite carriers. The carrier must file its answer with the Commission within five business days of being served, and send a copy to the complaint's listed counsel by overnight delivery and regular mail. (4) Defenses. A carrier can use only these exclusive defenses: (i) it did not retransmit the station into that market during the stated time; (ii) the station gave written, officer-signed authorization for exactly the retransmissions the carrier made, for the whole period in question; (iii) the retransmission happened after January 1, 2002, and the station had chosen carriage rights under section 338 instead, as against the carrier; or (iv) the station being retransmitted is noncommercial. (5) Counting of violations. Each day a particular station is retransmitted without consent to one or more people in its local market counts as one separate violation. (6) Burden of proof. The station must prove the carrier retransmitted it to at least one person in its market on the day claimed. The carrier bears the burden of proof for every defense it raises, except the "we never retransmitted it" defense in (4)(i). (7) Procedures. (A) Within 60 days of November 29, 1999, the Commission had to issue procedural rules for this subsection, replacing the section 312 procedures. (B)(i) Within 45 days of a complaint being filed, the Commission must issue a final decision stating how many violations the carrier committed. The Commission holds live hearings only if the written filings show a genuine factual dispute; otherwise it rules on the papers alone. (ii) The Commission can order the parties to exchange documents, and, if needed, take depositions beforehand, but only if it first decides that is necessary to resolve a real factual dispute, while still meeting the 45-day deadline. (8) Relief. If the Commission finds the carrier retransmitted the station to at least one person in its market, and the carrier failed to prove a (4) defense, the Commission must: (A) find the carrier violated (b)(1) for that station; and (B) within 45 days of the complaint, issue an order that includes: (i) a cease-and-desist order stopping further retransmission of that station into its market, until the carrier proves compliance; (ii) if the carrier violated (b)(1) for more than two stations, a broader cease-and-desist order stopping all further retransmission of any station into its market, until the Commission, after notifying the station, confirms compliance; and (iii) an award of the complainant's costs and reasonable attorney's fees. (9) Court proceedings on enforcement of Commission order. (A) Once the Commission issues a final order granting relief: (i) the station can ask the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, within 30 days, to enforce the order; and (ii) the carrier can ask that same court, within 30 days, to reverse the order. (B) The carrier's appeal under this process replaces any other state or federal appeal rights. That district court has personal jurisdiction over the carrier if the carrier, or a commonly controlled company, delivered satellite TV programming to more than 30 customers in that district over the past four years. If that court lacks jurisdiction, the case goes to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia instead, which can find jurisdiction based on the carrier's FCC licenses. A station's request to enforce a cease-and-desist order gets a highly expedited schedule, with no discovery allowed. The court must enforce the Commission's order unless the record shows manifest error and an abuse of discretion. (10) Civil action for statutory damages. Within six months after a Commission order, a station can sue the carrier in any U.S. district court with personal jurisdiction over the carrier, for statutory damages tied to violations the Commission already found. This suit cannot be transferred under 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a). If the court finds the carrier violated (b), it must award the station $25,000 in statutory damages per violation, plus costs and attorney's fees. But the court can only award these damages if the station has already filed a binding promise to donate everything above $1,000 of the award to the U.S. Treasury for public purposes, and the station owes no tax on that donated amount. Discovery is allowed in this suit only if needed to resolve a real factual dispute about a (4) defense. In this suit too, the (4) defenses are the only ones allowed, and the carrier bears the burden of proof on all of them except (4)(i). (11) Appeals. (A) The losing party in district court can appeal to the Court of Appeals with jurisdiction over that district. The Court of Appeals cannot stay a decision against a carrier unless the carrier shows clear and convincing evidence it will likely win on appeal, and posts a bond covering the full award plus any extra amount the court requires. (B) If the Commission denies a station's complaint, the station can appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (12) Sunset. No new complaint or civil action can be filed under this subsection after December 31, 2001. But this subsection still applies to any complaint or lawsuit filed on or before that date.