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From: parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S)
Newsgroups: net.ham-radio
Subject: Cordless Phone tapped in New Jersey
Message-ID: <790@ihu1h.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 17-Mar-86 16:57:06 EST
Article-I.D.: ihu1h.790
Posted: Mon Mar 17 16:57:06 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 19-Mar-86 04:53:43 EST
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 67

x
From the March 11, 1986	issue of the New York Times:

		    Cordless Phones Raise
		    An Eavesdropping Issue

		    By Joseph F. Sullivan


   "TRENTON, March 10 -	Cordless telephones are	at the	cen-
  ter  of  a  debate  in the New Jersey	Division of Criminal
  Justice over whether current wiretap	laws  apply  to	 the
  interception of conversations	pulled out of the air."

   "Last December someone recorded  hours  of  conversations
  that	George	Spanos,	 a  Republican	newly elected to the
  Plainsboro Township Committee	...., had over his  cordless
  telephone with two political associates...."

   "Mr.	Spanos,	who works  for	the  New  Jersey  Office  of
  Telecommunications and Information Systems at	state police
  headquarters...said he was shocked  when  he	learned	 his
  private conversations	were being recorded....."

   "...[the tapes eventually] found their way to  Donald  R.
  Belsole, the director	of the Division	of Criminal Justice.
  Mr. Belsole said the tapes might form	the basis for  crim-
  inal	charges.   But first, he said, he and his staff	have
  to agree on whether the state's wiretap statutes apply."

   "Mr.	Cantu, who received the	tapes of Mr. Spano's conver-
  sations  from	 an  intermediary, said	he believed they had
  been made by a ham radio operator...."

   "Mr.	  Belsole   agreed   that    the    state    wiretap
  statues.....would  cover  the	 situation, but	he said	that
  other	lawyers	in his office disagreed.   He  asked  for  a
  report from his staff."

   "Enis Coleman [of the FCC], said FCC	regulations  adopted
  in  1935  and	 updated last year to cover cable communica-
  tions	banned the unauthorized	interception and use of	 any
  licensed  transmission  and carried penalties	of up to two
  years	in prison and a	$10,000	fine."

   "'The problem with cordless telephones is so	new that  we
  haven't  had	time to	get into court with it,' Mr. Coleman
  said,	'but I expect that in the future we will'."

   "....a lawyer who represents	Mr. Cantu  said	 the  proper
  application  of  wiretap  laws  to the Plainsboro case was
  unclear.  He said he had found only two state	court  cases
  involving  cordless  telephones  -  in  Kansas  and  Rhode
  Island.  In those cases, he said, the	courts had  admitted
  evidence  obtained  through the recording of conversations
  over cordless	telephones."

   "However, he	said he	had found a Federal  District  Court
  ruling  that took the	opposite position and suppressed the
  evidence obtained in this way.  The court held,  he  said,
  that conversations over a cordless telephone were the	same
  as those over	a closed system	and came under 'wire commun-
  ications.'"

-- 
===============================================================================
Bob Parnass,  Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414