On 17 Dec 96 05:04pm, Glenn Fetty wrote to Bill Newman:
 ...
 BN>> Are you sure that the ammendment went through? I thought that it
 BN>> got vetoed as the radio industry was up in arms about it. It
 BN>> would have meant that any scanner would have been illegal as the
 BN>> monitoring of police and fire was also in the admentment.
 GF>
 GF> It passed.  It amended the ECPA of 1986, which banned cell listening, to
 GF> include cell-capable scanners.  There is also a law banning people from
 GF> listening to cordless phones.  But police and fire scanning have always
 GF> been lega, despite some attempts to ban it.....
 GF>
 Legal to monitor, but, technically, illegal to pass on.
 Yet, a simple, harmless report seems to be being ignored.
 If, for example, I were to pass on that I heard on a RDC dispatch channel
 here in Phoenix, that there was a 3rd alarm fire at such and so address, at
 10:34 last night, only here on FIDO would I get in trouble for that. No one
 else cares.
 Now, OTOH, if I were to pass on that I heard that Senator Snotnose was
 talking to his male prostitute five minutes later, I'd be in *real* trouble.
 Same thing if I overheard, for example, a cell call between two large
 Areospace companies discussing a hitherto-undisclosed merger, and I used
 that info to buy stock, making a killing, I'd be in trouble over that, too
 (if anyone could prove that I did so).
 In reality, it's a law designed to keep the bigwigs out of trouble, IMHO.
 It's not being enforced, and, indeed, is next to impossible to enforce
 (especially as precendent has been set to ignore harmless infractions).
Bill Funk:  Internet:  skypilot@starlink.com
	    ASCIi User Group: http://www.starlink.com:80/~ascii
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