(a) Nondiscrimination. The Franchisee shall offer service to all residents and businesses within the Franchise area without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, or sex of the recipient. The Franchisee may, however, refuse to provide service to any Subscriber or potential Subscriber who has not paid the applicable rates and charges for service.
(b) Rules and Regulations.
(1) If the Franchisee promulgates rules and regulations regarding the Cable Service those rules and regulations shall not be in conflict with FCC Rules 76.309(c)(3) and other federal, state, and local laws, ordinances and rules, and the Franchise Agreement. The Franchisee shall, at the time of installation of service, at least annually to all subscribers, and at any time upon request provide written information on (1) products and services offered; (2) prices and options for programming services and condition of subscription to programming and other services; (3) installation and service maintenance policies; (4) instruction on how to use the cable service; (5) channel positions of programming carried on the System; and (6) billing and complaint procedures, including the address and telephone number of the local franchise authority's office.
(2) Customers will be notified of any changes in rates, programming services or channel positions as soon as possible through announcements on the System and in writing. Notice shall be given to Subscribers a minimum of thirty (30) days in advance of such changes if the change is within the control of the Franchisee. In addition, the Franchisee shall notify Subscribers thirty (30) days in advance of any significant changes in other information required herein.
(c) Privacy.
(1) The Franchisee may collect and maintain such information and records a may be necessary to bill the Subscribers for their use of the cable services and to detect any unauthorized Subscribers. The Franchisee may also release such information as the total number of Subscribers in the Franchise area and the percentage of Subscribers who take various cable services. However, such information shall not be released in such a manner which would allow the identification of individual Subscribers and the types of services that they purchased, without authorization from the Subscriber.
(2) At the time of installation of cable service, and annually thereafter, the Franchisee shall provide notice, in the form of a separate written statement, which clearly informs the Subscriber of his or her protection of privacy as prescribed by the 1992 Cable Act, Section 631 (47 USC Section 551). The Franchisee shall adhere to all Privacy Requirements under the above section and other federal, state, and/or local laws relating to the privacy of individuals and/or customers. The Franchisee shall and agrees to hold the City harmless against any claim brought against the Franchisee resulting from violation of privacy statutes, laws, codes, rules or regulations.
(d) Privacy Waiver. The Franchisee, a program service, or program testing service may request that Subscribers agree to the monitoring of individual viewing patterns or practices. The request for such permission must be contained in a document separate from the Subscriber work order or service agreement and be clearly identified as a request. Subscriber agreement to the waiver is not mandatory nor automatic as a result of the request. The subscriber must reply in writing or electronically in the affirmative before the waiver is considered given. The waiver may not be for a period longer than one (1) year and may not be automatically renewable. The Subscriber may revoke the waiver upon thirty (30) days written notice to the Franchisee requesting removal from the program for which the waiver was granted. The Franchisee shall be responsible for notification and for ensuring that the Subscriber is removed from the program. The holder of the waiver may make only such use of the information obtained pursuant to the waiver as is within the scope of the permission granted by the waiver.
(e) Signal Piracy. It shall be a violation of Federal Law, in accordance with Section 633 (47 USC Section 553) of the 1992 Cable Act, for any Person to intercept or receive or assist in intercepting or receiving or making use of any communications services offered over a Cable System without the permission of the Franchisee or as may otherwise specifically be authorized by law. Specific penalties and remedies are delineated in reference to persons who willfully violate the Cable Theft provisions of the Cable Act. Additional penalties and remedies are directed for those Persons who willfully violate the provisions for profit or gain. For the purpose of this subsection it shall be a misdemeanor for any Person to willfully tamper with, vandalize, or injure any equipment or facilities used for the distribution of any communication service offered by the System.
(f) Parental Control. The Franchisee shall, upon request and free of charge, provide the ability to block out any objectionable programming, both video and audio, from the cable TV service entering the Subscribers home. This may be accomplished through the use of the capacity of the convertor utilized for cable reception or a separate electronic device. If a separate device is utilized it shall not interfere with the audio or video quality of adjacent channels.
(g) Subscriber Surveys. Within ninety (90) days of any request by the City and not more than once annually, the Franchisee shall conduct a random survey of no less than 10% of its Subscribers and 5% of nonsubscribers within the Franchise area. The questionnaire shall be prepared and the survey conducted in good faith to provide a reasonable reliable measure of Subscriber satisfaction and an analysis of the dissatisfaction or reasons for not subscribing of those nonsubscribers within the Franchise area. The survey format and manner in which the survey is to be conducted shall be submitted to the AUC for approval prior to each survey.