47 U.S.C. § 330 : US Code - Section 330: Prohibition against shipment of certain television receivers

Search 47 U.S.C. § 330 : US Code - Section 330: Prohibition against shipment of certain television receivers

(a) No person shall ship in interstate commerce, or import from
any foreign country into the United States, for sale or resale to
the public, apparatus described in subsection (s) of section 303 of
this title unless it complies with rules prescribed by the
Commission pursuant to the authority granted by that subsection:
Provided, That this section shall not apply to carriers
transporting such apparatus without trading in it.
(b) No person shall ship in interstate commerce, manufacture,
assemble, or import from any foreign country into the United
States, any apparatus described in section 303(u) of this title
except in accordance with rules prescribed by the Commission
pursuant to the authority granted by that section. Such rules shall
provide performance and display standards for such built-in decoder
circuitry. Such rules shall further require that all such apparatus
be able to receive and display closed captioning which have been
transmitted by way of line 21 of the vertical blanking interval and
which conform to the signal and display specifications set forth in
the Public Broadcasting System engineering report numbered E-7709-C
dated May 1980, as amended by the Telecaption II Decoder Module
Performance Specification published by the National Captioning
Institute, November 1985. As new video technology is developed, the
Commission shall take such action as the Commission determines
appropriate to ensure that closed-captioning service continues to
be available to consumers. This subsection shall not apply to
carriers transporting such apparatus without trading it.
(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), no person shall ship
in interstate commerce or manufacture in the United States any
apparatus described in section 303(x) of this title except in
accordance with rules prescribed by the Commission pursuant to the
authority granted by that section.
(2) This subsection shall not apply to carriers transporting
apparatus referred to in paragraph (1) without trading in it.
(3) The rules prescribed by the Commission under this subsection
shall provide for the oversight by the Commission of the adoption
of standards by industry for blocking technology. Such rules shall
require that all such apparatus be able to receive the rating
signals which have been transmitted by way of line 21 of the
vertical blanking interval and which conform to the signal and
blocking specifications established by industry under the
supervision of the Commission.
(4) As new video technology is developed, the Commission shall
take such action as the Commission determines appropriate to ensure
that blocking service continues to be available to consumers. If
the Commission determines that an alternative blocking technology
exists that -
(A) enables parents to block programming based on identifying
programs without ratings,
(B) is available to consumers at a cost which is comparable to
the cost of technology that allows parents to block programming
based on common ratings, and
(C) will allow parents to block a broad range of programs on a
multichannel system as effectively and as easily as technology
that allows parents to block programming based on common ratings,
the Commission shall amend the rules prescribed pursuant to section
303(x) of this title to require that the apparatus described in
such section be equipped with either the blocking technology
described in such section or the alternative blocking technology
described in this paragraph.
(d) For the purposes of this section, and sections 303(s),
303(u), and 303(x) of this title -
(1) The term "interstate commerce" means (A) commerce between
any State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico, or any possession of the United States and any place
outside thereof which is within the United States, (B) commerce
between points in the same State, the District of Columbia, the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or possession of the United States
but through any place outside thereof, or (C) commerce wholly
within the District of Columbia or any possession of the United
States.
(2) The term "United States" means the several States, the
District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the
possessions of the United States, but does not include the Canal
Zone.