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From: jhs@mitre-bedford.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re: Loss of fredom in communications!
Message-ID: <1078@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 17:31:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1078
Posted: Wed Aug 28 17:31:17 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 08:41:55 EDT
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
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Maybe it's time to start pressing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution
on this point.  "No law, ordinance, regulation, or executive order shall be
valid or binding if it abridges the right of a citizen to receive and gain
information from radio signals from any source whatever."

The manufacturers of scrambling and encryption equipment should be more than
glad to put their attorneys to work polishing up the amendment into a suitable
form of legalese.  Likewise the manufacturers of consumer satellite dish
antennas and VCRs.

There are a lot of tricky issues within Government on this subject, but right
now the mood is to get everybody to "button up" their communications.
Therefore, stating this principle right in the Constitution would be a good
way to relieve everybody of any other protection and force them to focus on
encryption.

The key question is whether or not the public would care enough to vote for
it in a referendum.

						-John Sangster
						jhs at MITRE-Bedford