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From: giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: illegal monitoring?
Message-ID: <1141@ucf-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Jan-84 16:21:13 EST
Article-I.D.: ucf-cs.1141
Posted: Mon Jan  9 16:21:13 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Jan-84 02:05:47 EST
References: <6018@mgweed.UUCP>
Organization: University of Central Florida
Lines: 41

<<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
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