rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (01/04/84)
Interesting topic on monitoring vs. eavesdropping vs. wiretapping, etc. As far as I know in FCC rules, The Communications Act prohibits divulging the contents of any communication except those from broadcast stations and amateur stations. In other words, it is illegal for me to tell you what I heard on a police scanner, CB radio, marine band, cordless phone, etc. It is NOT illegal for you to receive transmissions from a police scanner, marine radio, microwave system, cordless phone or whatever, as long as you keep it to yourself. This should include scrambled stuff on TV. As far as I am concerned, anything that is transmitted on "Broadcast" frequencies by stations licensed for public broadcasting, belongs to anyone that has the capability to watch/hear it. My feeling is that services that want to get paid do not belong on standard broadcast frequencies! Notice that the FCC purposely has avoided making any decisions on this. Interesting to note that "ON TV" has hired a detective to locate "illegal" receiving setups. It was reported in a Chicago paper that they can drive around and pick up signals from your set to determine what channel you are watching and if it is channel 44 they will prosecute. I would love to blanket the area with a signal operating on the local osc frequency of a TV tuner that would be tuned to that channel.
giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (01/10/84)
<<eeck--- this sentence isn't dressed yet....>> > Interesting to note that "ON TV" has hired a detective to locate "illegal" > receiving setups. It was reported in a Chicago paper that they can drive > around and pick up signals from your set to determine what channel you > are watching and if it is channel 44 they will prosecute. I would love > to blanket the area with a signal operating on the local osc frequency > of a TV tuner that would be tuned to that channel. Lovely. I remember the local moral mafia (sorry for the insult to the mafia) taking photographs of car license plates at local adult bookstores several years ago. I seem to recall that they then published the tags in the local paper, harassed the owners at work, or some other upstanding and moral activity. What will happen now? If some station (cable or broadcast) shows a movie/ show/documentary which group * doen't like, will * go around in their cars determining who is watching it? I can see it now, with selectors set to the 'Playboy Channel' and the automatic dialers starting prerecorded sermons on sin. What *are* the laws regarding privacy in the Chicago area? Could that station be hit with a megabuck suit for invasion of privacy? I generally don't like such apparently trivia lawsuits, but this reeks of big brother too much. After all, think of how much you could determine about a person knowing `only' what shows [s]he watched. Or for that matter, why should you be open to a law suit solely because your television is tuned to channel 44. Perhaps you enjoy watching encoded television shows. Like, you know, they're sortta like koans, man! Next thing you know, typewriters will be contraband (as in most of the world today). Bruce Giles --------------------------------------------- UUCP: decvax!ucf-cs!giles cs-net: giles@ucf ARPA: giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay ---------------------------------------------
rmd@hpcnoa.UUCP (01/19/84)
#R:mgweed:-601800:hpcnoa:15300001:000:445 hpcnoa!rmd Jan 14 16:12:00 1984 Doesn't the cable companies' own argument apply to them in this case? They are running around monitoring radio signals with information not intended for their use. It is OK for them to receive these signals but it should not be OK for them to make use of the information they obtain from such eavesdropping -- just as the eavesdroppers on other radio broadcasts may not sell them or use them for financial gain. Rick Dow hpfcla!rmd