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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!duke!ucf-cs!giles
From: giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Cordless Phone Follies
Message-ID: <1131@ucf-cs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Dec-83 17:18:19 EST
Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1131
Posted: Tue Dec 27 17:18:19 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 28-Dec-83 06:09:25 EST
References: <2117@allegra.UUCP>
Organization: University of Central Florida
Lines: 40

Yes, the moral of the story is painfully obvious:

	Constitutional Rights do not automatically extend
	to cover new technologies in the United States!

Does this mean that the IRS can confiscate the floppies for my
computer without a search warrant?  Or in the spirit of this
case, that they can require that I surrender the discs to them
to be copied?  (They are only taking *information*, not material
possessions).

If, through some gross miscarriage of justice this case is not
thrown out by a higher court, what will happen next?  Will the
police affix induction coils against telephone lines to pick up
the stray signals from the line?  After all, how is that morally
different from actually connecting the wires to the line?

I admit that drug dealers belong behind bars, but there are clear
precedents for handling open telephone conversations -- after all,
telephones were intially all party-lines, right?

I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way.  Even if I'm not
alone, consider the effect the *perception* that the ham radio
community condones such invasions of privacy in the United States
will have on international conversations with hams under repressive
regimes.  After all, for them, they are taking a chance with the
lives of both themselves *and* their families when they talk
freely.  For them, the price of letting one criminal go free will
seem to be very cheap.


Bruce Giles
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