On Fri, Mar 28, 2003 at 01:10:56PM -0500, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>
> http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/archives/000336.html
>
> Quoting:
>
> Here is one example of the far-reaching harmful effects of
> these bills. Both bills would flatly ban the possession, sale,
> or use of technologies that "conceal from a communication
> service provider ... the existence or place of origin or
> destination of any communication".
>
> --
> Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
I find another thread of concern to some of us who are hams
and radio and satellite TVRO hobbyists.
Quoting from the Mass version of the bill...
(b) Offense defined.--Any person commits an offense if he knowingly:
(1) possesses, uses, manufactures, develops, assembles, distributes,
transfers, imports into this state, licenses, leases, sells or offers,
promotes or advertises for sale, use or distribution any communication
device:
(i) for the commission of a theft of a communication service or to
receive, intercept, disrupt, transmit, re-transmits, decrypt, acquire or
facilitate the receipt, interception, disruption, transmission,
re-transmission, decryption or acquisition of any communication service
without the express consent or express authorization of the
communication service provider; or
(2) "Communication service. " Any service lawfully provided for a charge
or compensation to facilitate the lawful origination, transmission,
emission or reception of signs, signals, data, writings, images and
sounds or intelligence of any nature by telephone, including cellular or
other wireless telephones, wire, wireless, radio, electromagnetic,
photoelectronic or photo- optical systems, networks or facilities; and
any service lawfully provided by any radio, telephone, fiber optic,
photo-optical, electromagnetic, photoelectric, cable television,
satellite, microwave, data transmission, wireless or Internet-based
distribution system, network or facility, including,
but not limited to,
any and all electronic, data, video, audio, Internet access, telephonic,
microwave and radio communications, transmissions, signals and services,
and any such communications, transmissions, signals and services
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
lawfully provided directly or indirectly by or through any of the
aforementioned systems, networks or facilities.
------- end of quote --------
Whilst I am no lawyer, this would seem to possibly render
illegal radio and satellite TV receivers that could be used or are used
to lawfully receive those radio communications the public is explicitly
permitted to listen to under the ECPA (18 USC 2510 and 2511) if the
originator of the communication does not provide explicit permission to
listen and the transmission involves use of facilities for which
a fee is paid (such as space on a leased tower).
Included in this category are unencrypted public safety
communications such as police and fire calls, aircraft, ships, trains
and the like all of which can be picked up on the ubiquitous police
scanners (and more sophisticated radios that some of us own as well).
And obtaining explicit permission from all the parties involved in such
communications is not always easy, nor in many cases do local agencies
want to grant it.
And also much more likely to be included under the rubric of at
at least this very broad Mass language are unencrypted non-scrambled
back hauls, news feeds, and free to air MPFG and analog services available
from TVRO satellite dishes. These are pretty clearly communications
services and watching them in the privacy of one's home for private
non-commercial purposes has been legal under the provisions of the late
80s Satellite Viewers Rights Act (provided they weren't scrambled).
Of course compared to the larger issues raised by the DMCA
language and the apparent prohibition of NAT and anonymous mailers
this may seem minor...
But it is worrisome to some of us working on software defined
radio code in Mass... which might or could be used in ways that
might be found illegal under this bill.
--
Dave Emery N1PRE, [EMAIL PROTECTED] DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493
PGP fingerprint 1024D/8074C7AB 094B E58B 4F74 00C2 D8A6 B987 FB7D F8BA 8074 C7AB
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