The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 14

Local Sews Editorial Pages Monday, Noember 17, 1980 Cos Angeles Simee CC Part II Pay-TV Firm Battles Pirates Oak Industries Says Decoder Sales Peril Future Services i SAN DIEGO COUNTY By NANCY RAY, Timet Staff Writer vl- F- i Sty I Heat is on Rancher Charles Key keeps an eye on flames from brush fire raging on the Riverside-San Diego County line just north of community of De Luz. The so-called Turner fire had charred 12,500 acres by late Sunday evening. (Story in Part Page 1.) SDSU's Day Plans to Limit Size of '81 Freshman Class drome" in which the public tends to side with the small electronics firms which have cracked the pay-TV security and made a lucrative business out of it. 'Bad Guys' Image John Gwin, president of Oak Communications, which includes the company's cable and pay-TV divisions, criticized the growing public sentiment that the "bad guys" in this new pirate operation are the companies. "We (Oak) are in the business of providing a service.

We were the first to start subscription TV in the Los Angeles area and we now have the largest audience in the country here. "This piracy hurts us only to the extent that the purchasers of the illegal sets are not dues-paying subscribers," Gwin said. "There will be a much greater loss to the pirate customers. Those decoders, those pirate boxes, will be worth nothing if we do something to change the system." And, he added, "We have the technology right now to do just that." Expensive Move But Oak has not taken that step to turn off pirate viewers, mainly because it would be expensive. Converting the more than 300,000 Oak decoders in Orange and Los Angeles counties to a more secure system would cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Instead, Oak Industries is leading a court battle nationwide to seek enforcement of state and federal laws preventing the manufacture, sale and use of the pirate decoders that are tapping their pay-TV programs and profits. Oak has pay-TV operations in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale-Miami and, most recently, Chicago. It is negotiating for several others. The firm also manufactures 60 to 70 of the electronic equipment used by the cable-TV and pay-TV industry in plants around the world, from Taiwan to Great Britain. 10,000 Employees At the beginning of 1980, Oak employed more than 10,000 people, half of them in the United States and most of them in its manufacturing operations, which turn out only electronics equipment but switches and controls of all kinds, laminated materials, copper foil, testing devices and dozens of other products.

The Oak Industries empire is run from the $6-million corporate headquarters building in Rancho Bernardo's industrial park and by late 1981, a thousand more workers Please see PAY-TV, Page 10 Oak Industries one of the leaders in the subscription television field, is being attacked by hordes of pirates. Thick as gnats in a summer swamp, the attackers come, each taking a tiny piece of the company profiU by selling decoder boxes that pick up Oak's pay -TV programs, allowing free reception of the nightly first-run movie fare that ON TV subscribers are paying $18.95 a month to watch. Despite the "outrageous" prices ($200 to $300 a set) charged by the so-called decoder pirates, business is brisk. Oak executives, recently moved from Illinois to new corporate headquarters in Rancho Bernardo, are not too concerned about the present impact of the piracy on Oak's ON TV stations around the country. Who's Being Hurt? If small electronics firms can supply decoder sets, or the parts and plans for them, to customers, who's being hurt? Certainly not the public.

What disturbs Oak officials is the threat the pirates pose to the wide-open future of non-cable communication, a future that requires the guarantee of absolute privacy to the users. In the future, when Oak turns new research into reality, there will be dozens of home -to -source services offered on TV screens, including medical consultations, tax accounting conferences, bill paying, and a dozen other personal and financial services that cannot be marketed until it can be guaranteed that no eavesdroppers are looking and listening in. And, with the advent of communication satellites, the possibilities are limitless for business and government use of non-cable communication worldwide but only if the system is secure from spies. Would GM tell Ford? After all, would General Motors want to confer over its new model changes with Ford looking on? Oak executives can smile at the recollection of the college student a few year ago who cracked the telephone code by whistling a certain pitch that allowed him and his buddies to make free long-distance calls. But that caper led to a pirate industry of "blue boxes" which gave fits.

Now Oak is experiencing the same sort of first -phase piracy and finding it not to humorous. Carl J. Bradshaw, Oak general counsel, called the decoder piracy "illegal, immoral and unethical" and said Oak and other firms are victims of a "Robin Hood syn 7 By AMY RINARD, Times Staff Writer The number of freshmen entering San Diego State University would be restricted next fall under a plan proposed by SDSU President Thomas Day to limit enrollment at the overcrowded institution. The plan would set a quota for the number of first-time students accepted by the university from outside San Diego and Imperial counties, taking into consideration whether the programs the students want are available elsewhere in the 19-campus state university and colleges system. "I think it places some of California's citizens in a difficult position, and that I regret," Day said.

"I think it's a sensitive subject. What I'm trying to do is at least suggest a way of going about it (that would) minimize concern of local residents and potential students." Dislikes Necessity He said it bothered him philosophically to turn away potential students. "It's my belief, because this is a publicly supported institution, that qualified students who want to come here should have an opportunity to do so." But, he said, "The faculty members are breaking their backs trying to teach all the students we have." In a letter to the university senate Thursday, Day said budget restraints and unexpected growth in enrollment have made it necessary to limit admissions. The enrollment surge, he said, is attributable in part to an exception ally large number of returning students and an increase in the number of units taken by each student. Campus budgets are based on a figure equivalent to the number of students taking 15 units, although individual students may enroll for more or less than that number.

Each year the university proposes and negotiates a full-time equivalency figure on which to base its funding. Large Reduction Foreseen Day estimated that freshman enrollment next year would need to be reduced by 500 to 700 students in order to bring this year's full-time equivalency enrollment of 25,138 down to 24,500 the figure on which next year's budget will be based. This year, 4,300 freshmen are enrolled at the school. About 53 of the fall semester's entering class came from outside San Diego and Imperial counties, which are designated by the state as the university's service area. Day's plan to restrict admissions from outside that area conforms with state guidelines for limiting enrollment, according to Dr.

Robert O. Bess, assistant vice chancellor of academic affairs for the university system. "As far as I know they are acting in a manner consistent with state law and trustee policy," he said. While Bess said he believes no school in the system ever has used DAVECATLEY Los Angeles Timet North County Still Waits for the Bus By NANCY RAY Times Staff Writer OCEANSIDE As the strike of North County Transit District employees nears the two-week point with no word of further negotiations, bus riders are getting impatient. At bus stops throughout North County, would-be riders frustrated at the skeleton service being provided by non-striking drivers, new hires and management are sticking out their thumbs in hopes of hitching rides from passing motorists.

In local newspapers, irate letters to the editor question why the bus company directors will not meet Fast-growing firm represents only North County public transit. personally with the United Transportation Union leaders. And at a recent transit district board meeting crowded by riders, officials failed to answer shouted questions about the company's withdrawal of a grant application that would have brought in nearly $500,000 for potential employee pay increases. The strike, which has affected some 25,000 North County bus riders since it began Nov. 5, is the latest move in a labor-management confrontation that has plagued the four-year-old bus company for more than half of its existence: To James Banks, head of the UTU Local 81, the stranded riders' sudden interest is heartening but not too helpful.

During much of the last two years, Banks and other bus employee leaders have been fighting in the courts, through state and federal labor relations agencies and even among themselves in an effort to form a single, strong group which can negotiate better salaries and security for the 350 workers of the fast-growing company that offers the only public transit system in the 960-square-mile North County. The walkout, with its morale-raising striker picnics near the transit district yards and its soup-and-coffee service for evening picketers, is almost relaxing compared to the months of talks and court hearings and politicking that preceded it. "We think that the people are just realizing what we've been saying all along, that the district wanted the strike, that they are using it in another attempt to break the union," Banks said. Such talk, transit district leaders say, is not unusual for the head of a striking union. It is aimed at getting sympathy for the strikers and making company officials look like the bad guys, they say.

Jerry Harmon, Escondido coun-Please see BUSES, Page 3 OTHER SAN DIEGO COUNTYNEWS Part Pages 1, 2. Part III, Pages 1,7, 14. quotas to restrict freshman enrollment, he said attempts to limit admissions at campuses throughout the system are not new. At the San Luis Obispo campus, special admissions criteria have been in effect for some years, Bess said. Applicants to the school's popular architecture program, for example, are interviewed before they are admitted.

To counter an enrollment bulge in 1965, the San Francisco and San Jose campuses turned away transfer students with less than two years of completed course work, Bess said. Initial public reaction to enrollment limits generally is not favorable, prompting irate letters from prospective students and their parents, he said. 'Never Works Very Well' "In one sense it never works very well in that by and large the people of California are accustomed to being able to enroll if they meet the necessary qualifications," Bess said. "I have no doubt that given the newness (of quotas) at San Diego that there's going to be a period where there is confusion and substantial unhappiness on the part of the people who are on the losing side." One problem with the plan, Bess said, is that it would not guarantee that overcrowding would be eliminated in specific university programs. Please see FRESHMAN, Page 7 JOHN McDONOUGH LosAngeles Timet Won 't Run From His Troubles Jogging Author Back on Track JZ Dr.

Thaddeus Kostrubala, the best-selling author who pushed jogging as a cure for mental illness in his book, "The Joy of Running," has returned to his stomping grounds, ready to face court battles and launch an international jogging organization. Back in his native Del Mar after a two-year sabbatical in Mammoth and Bishop, the "running shrink" is admittedly facing some high hurdles in reaching his goals. A self-proclaimed "kept man," Kostrubala, 50, is supported by his wife, Teresa, and says he has been unable to find work for three years. In December, 1977, Kostrubala returned from running in the Honolulu marathon to find himself out of a job. The Sisters of Mercy of Burlingame had decided Kos-trubala's appearance in Us magazine reflected unfavorably upon Mercy Hospital, where he served as director of the mental health department at an annual salary of $60,000.

Hospital officials complained the magazine article and accompanying photograph of Kostrubala and Teresa at that time his fiancee in a hot tub depicted the doctor as someone less moral than the Roman Catholic psychiatrist and physician Mercy hired in 1971. Despite appearances, however, Kostrubala insists the two were clothed in the hot tub, and he is trying to find the money to continue the lawsuit he filed against Mercy and the sisters for breach of contract and emotional distress. Kostrubala is working on a sequel to his first book, but all proceeds from it will go into the newly formed International Association of Running Therapies, which, he says, is already in the red. Meanwhile, Kostrubala is fighting a second court battle with one of his three ex-wives. A judge has ruled he owes her $11,000 in child support and legal fees.

"The judge looked at my name and figured I was a rich author," Kostrubala says. "Now I'm a sudden bum." Kostrubala says he is up against insurmountable odds he throws up his hands in despair and looks blank Dr. Thaddeus Kostrubala when asked where the money to fight his legal battles will come from. "So far all I've been doing is defending myself and trying to keep my head above water," he says. Despite his problems, Kostrubala lives by the commandment, "Thou shalt have a sense of humor." Acknowledging that his situation isn't funny Teresa recently suffered her third miscarriage since the court fights began Kostrubala has remained a happy warrior.

"I just laugh and go for it," he says. "If I can't hold onto anything else, I can always hold onto my sense of humor." -TINASUSMAN MELAN1E KAESTNER Los Angeles Times Solitude A bicyclist steers clear of the tide's reach, with shore birds his only companions on the deserted Encinitas beach. I.