Telecom-Request@Mit-Mc.ARPA (03/30/84)
TELECOM Digest Tuesday, 27 Mar 1984 Volume 4 : Issue 39
Today's Topics:
Cordless Telephone Conversations and the Law
RFI fix, and bugs???
Charge-a-call plus
ATT cuts international credit card calls
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Saturday, 24 Mar 1984 20:03-PST
Subject: Cordless Telephone Conversations and the Law
From: lauren@Rand-Unix (Lauren_Weinstein)
a239 1443 24 Mar 84 AM-Phone Evidence,390 State Court Says Cordless
Phone Conversations Not Private By BILL VOGRIN Associated Press Writer
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Police can lawfully monitor and record
cordless telephone conversations heard over an ordinary FM radio and
use the recordings as evidence in court, the Kansas Supreme Court
ruled Saturday.
In overturning a Reno County District Court judge, the high court
decided that cordless telephone conversations are the equivalent of
oral communications and not subject to wiretap laws.
Attorney General Robert Stephan hailed the ruling as ''a great
decision for victims and for law enforcement.''
''The Supreme Court has obviously plowed new ground and, in my
opinion, they plowed the furrows straight and true,'' Stephan added.
The state Supreme Court sent the case - involving charges of
possession of cocaine and conspiracy to sell marijuana against Timothy
and Rosemarie Howard of Hutchinson - back to court for a new trial.
Justice David Prager, in writing the decision for the court, said,
''Owners of a cordless telephone located in a private residence who
had been fully advised by the owner's manual as to the nature of the
equipment, which involves the transmission and reception of FM radio
waves, had no reasonable expectation of privacy.''
In other words, the Howards had no valid expectation of privacy
when they decided to use a cordless telephone which was advertised as
having a range of 50 feet and is basically a radio unit.
Prosecutors alleged the Howards used their cordless telephone for
drug dealing.
The conversations, which Judge William F. Lyle ruled were
inadmissible as evidence, were recorded in 1982 after a neighbor of
the Howards picked them up while he was randomly tuning a standard
AM-FM radio.
The neighbor told police about the conversations and the Kansas
Bureau of Investigation provided a tape recorder and tapes and asked
the neighbor to record more communications.
A similar case is pending in Rhode Island, but is not expected to
be resolved until later this year.
During oral arguments before the court last month, Herbert R. Hess
Jr., attorney for the Howards, urged the court not to set an
''illogical precedent'' by allowing the use of the recorded
conversations.
He contended that what occurs in the privacy of the home is
protected constitutionally and statutorily and said a 1968 federal law
governing wiretaps applies in this case.
ap-ny-03-24 1742EDT
------------------------------
Date: 25 March 1984 12:13-EST
From: Peter J. Castagna <PC @ MIT-MC>
Subject: RFI fix, and bugs???
Well, well. I was reading my old mail, and I came across your RFI
fix. It is very elegant. However, you neglected to mention the
voltage rating on your .001 uf capacitors (I forget the exact numbers,
but the FCC demands that the connection to the phone line be able to
stand a certain surge voltage), and you also neglected to mention that
your fix negates your modem's FCC acceptance, since it is on the telco
side of the connection. Basically this would seem a legalistic rather
than academic point; however, there is a very real reason for FCC
acceptance. If there is a 300 volt common-mode surge (for instance,
if there is a short to a power-line, or a lightning-strike in the
neighborhood) it takes time for the .001 uf capacitors to charge.
Therefore, for a short period of time you will be demanding a
very-large current to charge your capacitors, and where will this
current have to come from? From the telco amplifiers and connections.
The normal capacitive load of a phone to earth ground is on the order
of a hundredth to a tenth of what your fix demands. This depends
partly on the telco line layout, but mostly on the phone itself. I
don't know about the practical(legal) aspects, but it seems to me that
the fix you suggested will possibly cause excess damage to the phone
network in case of ground potential surges.
------------------------------
Date: Sun 25 Mar 84 16:20:23-PST
From: David Roode <ROODE@SRI-NIC>
Subject: Charge-a-call plus
Location: EJ286 Phone: (415) 859-2774
The following appeared in the Peninsula Times Tribune, Saturday, March
24, 1984:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge, resolving a dispute between the
American Telephone & Telegraph Co. and one of its ex-subsidiaries,
ordered the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Co. to provide AT&T the
connections it needs to install coinless credit-card phones in
California.
In a strongly worded, 10-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Harold H.
Greene told Pacific neither it nor the California Public Utilities
Commission may take any step to deny AT&T the right to install the
special phones.
The dispute between AT&T and Pacific Telephone began early this year
when AT&T tried to arrange connections to install a new type of
advanced, credit-card pay phones at such locations as the Los Angeles
airport and the Olympic Games sites. The phones do not accept coins,
but rather operate by having the caller insert an AT&T Calling Card or
an American Express card.
Pacific said that the matter came under the jurisdiction of the
California Public Utilities Commission, and that it could not provide
the hookups without an order from the state agency.
------------------------------
Date: Mon 26 Mar 84 16:09:33-CST
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20.ARPA>
Subject: ATT cuts international credit card calls
AT&T CREDIT CARD CALLS TO BE CUT FOR 18 NATIONS
=================================================
Washigton (AP) - March 22, 84 - AT&T, faced with a growing problem of
telephone fraud, received special permission Friday to stop accepting
credit card phone calls to 18 nations.
The AT&T request for "special permission" to withdraw and modify
international tariffs, or rate schedules, was filed Friday with the
FCC.
The commission prompty approved the request and authorized AT&T to
make the changes on just one day official notice.
AT&T said the company will probably file the modified tariffs Monday.
The restrictions could take effect Tuesday.
The countries singled out by AT&T were identified as receiving an
unusual amount of fraudulent calls in recent months. They are:
Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Greece, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica,
Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Trinidad, and Venezuela.
... ATT will block credit card calls only from specific area codes in
the US where a high fraud rate has been noted, which ATT would not
identify.
.... "In addition to having an advers effect on ATT revenues, toll
fraud burdens the general body of ratepayers"
[ HAH, didn't I suspect it !!! Hello, AT&T were you out
you out there and were you reading my last article ??? ]
... AT&T said there has been an alarming increase in telephone fraud,
from $71 million in 1982 to $108 million in 83.
[ They talk as if the 82 figure is a good excuse for not
having done something then. I still think, they simply
charged it to overhead and didn't care much. Now, that
AT&T can't do that anymore, we see action. Ver strange.
I think I'll sue them for negligence with my money. (-: ]
------------------------------
End of TELECOM Digest
*********************