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From: wjc@ll-vlsi (Bill Chiarchiaro)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Re:  Satellite viewing \"freedoms\"
Message-ID: <1198@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 3-Sep-85 16:39:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.1198
Posted: Tue Sep  3 16:39:47 1985
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     The Communications Act doesn't say you can't listen to whatever you
want.  It does say:

"Section 605 ... No person receiving or assisting in receiving, or transmitting
or assisting in transmitting, any interstate or foreign communication by wire
or radio shall divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport,
effect or meaning thereof,...to any person other than the addressee, his agent
or attorney...or in response to a subpoena issued by a court of competent
jurisdiction, or on demand or other lawful authority...and no person not being
entitled thereto shall receive or assist in receiving any interstate or foreign
communication by wire or radio and use the same or any information therein
contained for his own benefit or for the benefit of another not entitled
thereto...This section shall not apply to the receiving, divulging, publishing
or utilizing the contents of any radio communication, which is transmitted by
any station for the use of the general public, which relates to ships, air-
craft, vehicles or persons in distress or which is transmitted by an Amateur
Radio station or by a citizens band radio operator."

     As long as you don't divulge, the Communications Act does not prohibit
you from listening to anything.  Further, the Act only applies to interstate
and foreign communications.  Thus, a point-to-point link within one state
is not protected at all by the Act.  Nonetheless, anyone with some listening
or operating experience can tell you that radio transmissions don't really
care about political boundaries.

     Finally, upon this reading of Section 605, I noticed that the Act doesn't
prohibit a scanner listener from telling his friend that he just heard about
a fire or some other life-threatening situation.  After all, those are radio
communications relating to persons in distress.


Bill
N1CPK