Xref: utzoo rec.ham-radio:3606 sci.electronics:1850 misc.legal:3233
Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!ima!necntc!frog!die
From: die@frog.UUCP (Dave Emery)
Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio,sci.electronics,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Does the ECPA have teeth yet ?
Summary: Has anyone been prosecuted ?
Keywords: ECPA jail sentence felony ham swl
Message-ID: <2000@frog.UUCP>
Date: 14 Jan 88 13:58:00 GMT
References: <1999@frog.UUCP>
Reply-To: die@X.UUCP (David I. Emery)
Organization: Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA
Lines: 54


	(Sorry for repeat - previous post of this was trunctated)

	 It has now been one year since it became illegal (a felony in many
circumstances) under the provisions of the Electronic Communications Privacy
Act of 1986 to listen to (intercept) certain radio communications.   Does
anyone out there know if there have been any actual criminal investigations,
arrests, prosecutions, convictions, fines, jail sentences, or administrative
actions such as FCC license revocations for violations of the radio privacy
provisions of this new law ?  In particular have there been any actual court 
interpretations of the its confusing and peculiar distinctions between
different types of radio signals  (and drastically different penalties for
intercepting them) ?

	It was widely reported at the time the ECPA was passed that the
justice department did not intend to prosecute anyone for violations of
this law unless they were doing so for a clearly criminal purpose (EG such
obviously criminal activities as intercepting microwave telephone calls from
stores to credit authorization centers to steal credit card numbers would
be prosecuted, but merely tuning around that spectrum to see what was there
would not be).  Does anybody know if this policy has changed ? Is it likely
to change with a new administration in Washington ?

	If there have been any prosecutions at all, have any of them been
of private individuals (hams/swls/rf hackers) for merely listening to radio
or satellite communications in the privacy of their homes ?  Were these
all cases where there was some sort of criminal purpose or at least the
intent to steal a service (such as pirating scrambled satellite TV) ? Or have
there also been cases where hams/swls/rf hackers were prosecuted for
interception of radio or satellite signals when such individuals were
evidently motivated more or less entirely by a desire to listen to
interesting 'action' or by curiosity about what is out there or by the
technical challenge of receiving and demodulating and making sense
of complex signals and seemingly had no criminal purpose whatever?

	I suspect that a surprisingly large percentage of readers of 
rec.ham-radio have technically violated the law in this later spirit (as the
widespread interest in cutting D513 to enable cellular coverage in the 
PRO-2004 indicates); even though hams are notoriously law abiding I suspect
many feel the law is unenforcable or are simply ignorant of its fierce
provisions since it has been so very little publicized.

	If anybody out there knows of specific ECPA court cases it would very
valuable if they could post that information to the net - as many questions
remain about what this seemingly unenforcable law actually means in a
practical sense to those of us who peer at the other regions of the rf
spectrum as a part of our hobby.  
	
David I. Emery
Charles River Data Systems
983 Concord St.
Framingham, MA 01701
Tel: (617) 626-1102
uucp: ...!decvax!frog!die