Xref: utzoo rec.ham-radio:3777 sci.electronics:1988 misc.legal:3692
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!tektronix!reed!psu-cs!qiclab!leonard
From: leonard@qiclab.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Newsgroups: rec.ham-radio,sci.electronics,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Does the ECPA have teeth yet ?
Message-ID: <930@qiclab.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 88 03:12:33 GMT
References: <1999@frog.UUCP> <675@fai.UUCP> <2027@frog.UUCP>
Reply-To: leonard@qiclab.UUCP (Leonard Erickson)
Organization: Qic Laboratories, Portland, Oregon.
Lines: 38

In article <2027@frog.UUCP> die@X.UUCP (David I. Emery) writes:
<	I understand the ECPA as specifically allowing normal scanner type
<monitoring of law enforcement and governmental nbfm VHF and UHF radio
<channels.  This would seem to include most radio communications used by
<the anti-drug law enforcement types (DEA ect).  It would be very interesting
<if the law has been applied to this (very popular and common) type of
<listening even if the listener had a serious criminal purpose in mind.

It is *my* understanding from what I've seen in various sources, that ECPA
basicly prohibits listening to *any* transmission not specificly intended
for you or for the general public. Thus, the only stations you could legally
monitor are:
	AM broadcasters
	FM broadcasters
	TV broadcasters
	Shortwave broadcasters (BBC etc)
	Amateur radio stations
	CB stations

Note that ECPA *specificly* prohibits reception of scrambled signals, 
and tramissions which were made with the expectation that they would be 
private (whatever the hell *that* is supposed to mean!).

I could easily be wrong on *large* portions of the above. Could one of the
*real lawyers* out there check into this and give us a run-down? As a matter
of fact, I'd be willing to pay as much as $10 for a booklet that translated
ECPA into plain English, with a section by section commentary on what the 
practical meaning was. I suspect others would too!

It would even help if the info on practical effects was only of the form:
"this means *at least* X is forbidden, Y is probably illegal too, and Z
might be"

-- 
Leonard Erickson		...!tektronix!reed!percival!bucket!leonard
CIS: [70465,203]		...!tektronix!reed!qiclab!leonard
"I used to be a hacker. Now I'm a 'microcomputer specialist'.
You know... I'd rather be a hacker."