[TrunkCom] House Bill - impact on scanning?

[JERRY NONE]

What abou Guns, Knives, obsene lyrics, etc., etc...
--- Tomas Hood - NW7US <nw7us@hfradio.org> wrote:
> Forward:
> 
> == start ==
> >Subject: [WUN] Major change to the ECPA that
> impacts everyone...
> >Date: Wed, 17 Jul 2002 11:46:01 -0400
> >From: Dave Emery <die@die.com>
> >To: fedcom@mailman.qth.net, wun@mailman.qth.net
> 
> Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but something of
> enormous
> importance to radio hobbyists has just happened in
> Washington, and
> so far I haven't seen any mention or discussion of
> it on any
> scanner or ham lists I follow.
> 
> I hope this message will alert others to what has
> just happened and
> get people thinking about the consequences...
> 
> The House just passed the Cyber Security Enhancement
> Act (HR3482)
> last night (7/15/02) by an overwhelming margin of
> 385-3.
> 
> Buried in an otherwise draconian bill that raises
> penalties for
> computer hacking that causes death or serious injury
> to life in
> prison and allows government monitoring of
> communications and email
> without warrants in even more circumstances is the
> following
> seeming obscure language:
> 
> > SEC. 108. PROTECTING PRIVACY.
> >
> > (a) Section 2511- Section 2511(4) of title 18,
> United 
> > States Code, is amended--
> >
> > (1) by striking paragraph (b); and
> >
> > (2) by redesignating paragraph (c) as paragraph
> (b).
> 
> For those of you who don't realize what this means
> ....
> 
> USC Section 2511 subsection 4 of title 18 (the ECPA)
> currently
> reads as foilows....  the CSEA will strike part  (b)
> of this
> language.
> 
> Penalties..
> 
> >  (a)
> >       
> >   Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this
> subsection 
> >   or in subsection (5), whoever violates
> subsection (1) 
> >   of this section shall be fined under this title
> or 
> >   imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
> >
> >       
> 
> [The following section will be eliminated by the new
> law...]
> 
> >  (b)   
> >
> >  If the offense is a first offense under paragraph
> (a) 
> >  of this subsection and is not for a tortious or
> illegal 
> >  purpose or for purposes of direct or indirect
> commercial 
> >  advantage or private commercial gain, and the
> wire or 
> >  electronic communication with respect to which
> the 
> >  offense under paragraph (a) is a radio
> communication that 
> >  is not scrambled, encrypted, or transmitted using
> 
> >  modulation techniques the essential parameters of
> >  which have been withheld from the public with the
> 
> >  intention of preserving the privacy of such
> communication, 
> >  then -
> >
> >  (i)
> >
> >   if the communication is not the radio portion of
> a 
> >   cellular telephone communication, a cordless
> telephone 
> >   communication that is transmitted between the
> cordless 
> >   telephone handset and the base unit, a public
> land
> >   mobile radio service communication or a paging
> service 
> >   communication, and the conduct is not that
> described 
> >   in subsection (5), the offender shall be fined
> under 
> >   this title or imprisoned not more than one year,
> or
> >   both; and
> >
> >  (ii)
> > 
> >   if the communication is the radio portion of a 
> >   cellular telephone communication, a cordless
> telephone 
> >   communication that is transmitted between the
> cordless 
> >   telephone handset and the base unit, a public
> land
> >   mobile radio service communication or a paging
> service 
> >   communication, the offender shall be fined under
> this 
> >   title.
> 
> What this does is change the penalty for the first
> offense of
> intercepting an unscrambled and unencrypted radio
> communication
> that is not supposed to be listened to (eg AMPS
> cellular calls,
> commercial pagers, cordless phones, common carrier
> communications)
> for hobby purposes (eg not a tortuous or illegal
> purpose or for
> direct or indirect commercial advantage or private
> commercial gain)
> from a misdemeanor (one year or less prison time) to
> a federal
> FELONY (5 years prison time).
> 
> And further this changes the status of the specific
> offense of
> listening to a cell call, cordless call, a pager, or
> a public land
> mobile radio service communication (eg a telephone
> interconnect)
> from a minor offense for which one can be fined a
> maximum of $500
> to a federal FELONY for which one can be imprisoned
> for up to 5
> years.
> 
> In effect this removes a safe harbor created during
> the
> negotiations over the ECPA back in 1985-86 which
> ensured that first
> offenses for hobby radio listening were only treated
> as minor
> crimes - after this law is passed simply
> intentionally tuning a
> common scanner to the (non-blocked) cordless phone
> frequencies
> could be prosecuted as a felony for which one could
> serve 5 years
> in jail.
> 
> And in case any of my readers have forgotten, a
> federal felony
> conviction (even without any jail time) deprives one
> of the right
> to vote, to own firearms, to be employed in a number
> of high level
> jobs and professions, to hold certain professional
> licenses and
> permits, and important for certain readers of these
> lists 
> absolutely eliminates for life the possibility of
> holding any kind
> of security clearance whatever (a recent change in
> the rules) -
> something required for many if not most interesting
> government and
> government related jobs.
> 
> So merely being stopped by a cop with the cordless
> phone
> frequencies in your scanner could conceivably result
> in life long
> loss of important rights and privileges.
> 
> For some of you out there this may seem small
> potatoes and
> irrelevant since it merely changes the penalties for
> an already
> 
=== message truncated ===


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