[Scan-DC] Legality of Rebroadcasting Fairfax CountyPolice/FireTrunked System on the Internet

[Alan Henney]

Past court decisions suggest that the 1934 Communications Act's
restrictions on divulging communication were intended for employees of
common carriers (wire and wireless telephone companies) -- not the
general scanner community.

But conservatives in our hobby continue to interpret this statute as
including the general scanner listener as well.  However, I am not
aware of any case where public safety communication was divulged (that
was readily accessible to the general public) and resulted in legal
proceedings against the person who divulged the communication.

Cellular and other common carrier communication doesn't qualify for
"readily accessible to the general public" and would probably enjoy
such protections in our current legal climate.

The ECPA (which was quoted in the Radio Shack manual) is primarily
targeted at those who would monitor wireless common carriers, not
public safety.

As I mentioned, I am unaware of any case where public safety
communication was divulged (rebroadcast, published, re-divulged, etc.)
and the scanner listener was prosecuted.  This leads me to suspect
that any communication that is readily accessible to the general
public has no legal protections from being redistributed (other than
obvious issues such as copyright laws for broadcast).

Furthermore, telling people what they can and cannot repeat becomes a
First Amendment issue.