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Three months ago, several hundred cable subscribers in Queens, N. Y., were shocked to see their TV screens go haywire. Their local cable operator, Time Warner Inc.'s American Cablevision of Queens, had shot an "electronic bullet" through the cable system, disabling unauthorized cable boxes that were being used to steal signals for premium services. When the owners turned in their boxes to the cable company for repair, they were charged with cable piracy.

The bullet is a software program that blows out the illegal chips in the cable box that make the piracy possible. Since the incident, cable systems across the country have besieged the Hatboro (Pa.) division of General Instrument Corp. (GI), maker of the cable boxes, for copies of the new zapping software. They're inspired by American Cablevision's record: It netted $115,000 from 230 of the 317 cable pirates in out-of-court settlements. In the next six months, about 25 cable systems are expected to fire bullets on their systems, says a GI spokesman. Meanwhile, GI's archrival, Scientific-Atlanta Inc., says that it's working on its own version of the cable-box zapper.