The FCC Puts The Arm On a Puerto Rico Landlord [telecom]

NOTICE OF ILLEGAL PIRATE RADIO BROADCASTING Case Number: EB-FIELDSCR-22-00034240

...

Under section 511(a) of the Act, persons or entities found to willfully and knowingly suffer (i.e., permit) a third party to engage in so-called “pirate radio” broadcasting on their property can face significant financial penalties.5 Accordingly, you are hereby notified and warned that the FCC may issue a fine of up to $2,316,034 if, following the response period set forth below, we determine that you have continued to permit any individual or entity to engage in pirate radio broadcasting from the property that you own or manage.

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Moderator's Note

I had to read the amount shown above three times before I believed

it. This dunning notice is so clearly an example of bureaucratic

arrogance and overreach that I'm saddened to think it's even

possible: if I understand it, the FCC appears to be demanding that

the owner of a building take steps to stop a tenant, squatter, or

transient from using a ten-watt FM transmitter to "broadcast" to

local listeners - or face a fine that could range "up to" over

Two Million dollars.

News flash, FCC: real estate agents have been putting more powerful

transmitters into vacant homes for years, with pre-recorded

anouncements about the selling points that the agents want visitors

to remember while listening from their cars. Why don't you go after

*them*, oh gov-a-mint minions?

Is it so much trouble to obtain a search and seizure warrant that

our Federal employees feel that they are entitled to force

innocent third parties to do their jobs for them?

Bill Horne

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Nonsense.

The PIRATE Act[1] (Pub. L. 116-109, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in 2020) authorizes penalties for unlicensed broadcasting of up to $20,000 per day, with an overall limit of $2,316,034,[2] and allows the FCC to fine the property owners where transmitters are located in addtion to the station operators. The legislation requires the FCC to conduct annual enforcement sweeps in the top 5 markets for pirate activity and make an annual report to Congress.

The specific language is codified at 47 USC 511(a):

Any person who willfully and knowingly does or causes or *suffers to be done* any pirate radio broadcasting shall be subject to a fine of not more than $2,000,000. (emphasis mine)

The same language is used in the implementing regulations, 47 CFR

1.80(b)(c). "Suffers to be done" allows for the FCC to go after anyone who tolerates pirate activity on their property, although it's implicit in the choice of verb that some knowledge on the part of the landlord must be demonstrated -- but the FCC could easily force the issue simply by serving the landlord with a Notice of Apparent Liability. If the landlord does not then take action to evict the pirate, the fines start racking up even if the FCC can't prove that they knew (or should have known) about their tenant's activity prior to receiving notice.

The FCC's procedure used to be more forgiving, in addition to the fines having been lower: the Enforcement Bureau would previously have issued a Notice of Unlicensed Operation prior to proceeding to a Notice of Apparent Liability, but in the new legislation Congress required them to dispense with this extra step.

-GAWollman

[1] Not to be confused with intellectual property legislation of the same name passed in 2004. [2] The actual legislation as enacted says "2,000,000" but elsewhere in the U.S. Code, its is provided that all dollar amounts are to be adjusted for inflation unless the law explicitly specifies otherwise.