[rescue] Re: [geeks] interesting geek toy

[Ron Wickersham]

Bill, you're talking about the Communications act of 1934 where the operating
thought was that someone sent the signals over your land, therefore you could
intercept the signal, decode it in any way, and you were doing it in the
(at that time) supposed freedom of your home.

<rant>
regretfully the replacement acts of the last few years are really draconian.
now it is illegal to (paraphrasing) possess any device that is not usually
found in the home that is capabable of intercepting radio communications.
we can only presume that for now at least a communications receiver that can
be used for ham radio is usually found in a home.   

the act goes further and make it a crime to attempt to build a device to
intercept any communications.  and strangely they explicitly have language
that removes any defense that the apparatus you were constructing didn't have
any chance of working.  i.e. if you build a paper cup and string telephone
to play with your friend it is ok if you are using it to communicate between
yourselves, but if you built it to intercept adult movies from satellites
you have broken the law (even though there is no chance that the device
would actually work!).   and extends the conspiracy law such that it is
the only case where you as an individual, working alone, can be charged with
conspiracy (where your constitutional rights are less). 

and combine that with the "anti-terriorist" acts and you have a court in
washington where the warrants are issued without signature (to protect the
judges) and not delivered to the police, but sealed in a safe, so the
fbi that knocks your door down (to prevent you from destroying evidence)
doesn't even have a copy of the warrant, but operate on the belief that the
warrant is in the safe in washington. 
</rant>

in the other msg, you said only Morse (really contenental code) is all
that is allowed, but RTTY is ok on ham band.

-ron


> Message: 3
> Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2001 14:06:29 -0500
> From: Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net>
> To: geeks at sunhelp.org
> Cc: rescue at mrbill.net
> Subject: [rescue] Re: [geeks] interesting geek toy
> Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org
> 
> On Sat, Jun 30, 2001 at 07:05:30PM +0000, Kris Kirby wrote:
> > It's been a while since I've looked, but I do know that the incident that
> > sparked it was Gingrinch's constituents recording a cell phone
> > conversation picked up on a scanner. :-/
> 
> Yep, they *recorded* it and then *passed it on* to someone else - 
> *that* was the illegal part.  Its not illegal to *listen*.
> 
> They cant keep you from listening to whats on the public airwaves.
> Doing anything else with the signal, tho..
> 
> bill
> 
> -- 
> Bill Bradford
> mrbill at mrbill.net
> Austin, TX
> 
> --__--__--