[FedCom] IMPORTANT BAD NEWS - Homeland Security bill includes HR3482

[Harry Marnell]

According to the Library of Congress site (at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HR03482:@@@D&summ2=1&   <~ that "&"
is part of the URL)
or use  http://shorterlink.com/?ABNW8D

"Latest Major Action: 7/16/2002 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received
in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary"

I've never heard of a "hobby safe harbor" provision in the ECPA "for
interception of radio communications not "readily accessible to the general
public."   Illegal has been illegal, hobbyist or not.

That site includes a summary of the bill's provisions IN ITS CURRENT FORM.   The
current text of the bill is available at
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c107:1:./temp/~c107Sa7tRC::  (include
those last two colons), or via  http://shorterlink.com/?IBEKB7

This thing has taken on a life of its own on the internet, quite apart from the
reality in Washington, and IMHO it's not quite as draconian as some have
suggested.  Nothing whatsoever in there changing WHAT we can listen to, but they
definitely are stiffening the potential penalties for stuff that's already
illegal (like cellphone listening)

Harry


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon" <jon@rccis.com>
To: <fedcom@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2002 10:50
Subject: Re: [FedCom] IMPORTANT BAD NEWS - Homeland Security bill includes
HR3482


> Can you provide the source for the confirmation?
>
> It's not that I doubt something like you describe would be added, It's just
that I learned along time ago to verify these types of things before "flaming"
my politicians :)  Additionally it is my understanding that as of yesterday,
Nov. 14th, 2002, that most of the house and senate had not even read the revised
HSA.  So I would really like to read the version in question.
>
> Guess I better turn on the news or C-Span to see if it passed or what is
happening.
>
> Jon...
>
> ===========================
> At 09:57 PM 11/14/02, you wrote:
>
> >        I have confirmed that the version of the Homeland Security Act
> >passed in the House does in fact contain the language eliminating the
> >hobby safe harbor for interception of radio communications not "readily
> >accessible to the general public" under the ECPA.   Such an
> >interception, once a minor offense for the first offender if not for
> >commercial advantage or private financial gain or in furtherance of a
> >crime will now be a major felony with 5 years in jail as penalties.
> >
> >        No mercy for a first offense, or for signals extremely
> >readily intercepted on common scanners.
> >
> >        This now means that tuning in the audio from the flying traffic
> >reporter's feed to the local radio stations to see about a tie up ahead
> >on the freeway is a felony that could land you in jail for five years.
> >And woa under him who even thinks about tuning the 46 and 49 mhz band to
> >see what is there... or ever listening with his ears to the beeps and
> >buzzes of powerful pager transmitters that still transmit the odd voice
> >page intermixed with the POCSAG and FLEX.
> >
>
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