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Re: [dvd-discuss] Electronic Rights



At 5:10 PM -0400 4/24/02, Dean Sanchez wrote:
>I recently has an opportunity to watch a video of Lawrence Tribes' 
>1991 speech entitled "The Constitution in Cyberspace".  As an aside, 
>for those who haven't seen the video or read the transcripts, it is 
>an very interesting speech that is still very relevant today.  A 
>link to one site is:
>http://www.cpsr.org/ftp/cpsr/conferences/cfp91/papers/tribe
>
>Anyway, on to my reason for the email.  In the speech he stated:
>'And in *Red Lion v. FCC*, decided twenty-two years ago but still 
>not repudiated today, the Court ratified government control of TV 
>and radio broadcast content with the dubious logic that the scarcity 
>of the electromagnetic spectrum justified not merely government 
>policies to auction off, randomly allocate, or otherwise ration the 
>spectrum according to neutral rules, but also much more intrusive 
>and content-based government regulation in the form of the so-called 
>"fairness doctrine." '.
>This statement got me thinking about the gradual erosion of rights 
>that we have experienced relating to the use of various electronic 
>devices, computers, and  TV and radio reception and recording 
>rights. I would like to put together a timeline of the laws and 
>court cases which have contributed to it but I have a problem.  I 
>don't know how to find the information that I need.  Some such as 
>the DMCA and No Electronic Theft are easy.  Others are much more 
>difficult. For example, I have heard and read numerous times that 
>because some politician's cell phone call was intercepted and got 
>him in trouble, Congress decided to prevent that from happening 
>again.  They therefore passed a law making it illegal to have a cell 
>scanner and listen to calls.  If true, how do I find the relevant 
>law or precedent?  I have tried search the Congressional Records 
>site, but haven't been able to frame a search in such a manner as to 
>return what I am looking for.

There are laws making it illegal to have a cell scanner and listen to 
calls. One place to start is the Supreme Court decision in Bartniki 
v. Volper, which involves these laws.  See 
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-1687.ZO.html Section III 
of the decision discusses the history. I think the law has been 
further tightened to require scanners to be designed so they cannot 
be modified to receive cellular frequencies. Also look at 
http://ftp.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Public_Notices/1997/da970334 
.txt and http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/1999/04/07/2/

I believe that a primary reason for these Federal laws is to prevent 
public demand that cell phones include encryption capabilities. State 
laws preventing scanner use in cars are justified to prevent 
criminals evading capture by monitoring polices calls.

>A couple of other items that I can th!
>ink of:  decryption of satellite TV signals

see 18 USC 2511(4)(c). There may be others.

>(through ownership of hacked cards?), radar/laser detectors (in 
>certain states) and emergency/police radio scanners.   I would like 
>to include the few positive ones as well - such as the Sony Betamax 
>case.

Another interesting example of Congress protecting its backside is 18 
USC 2710 which prohibits disclosure of video tape rental records. My 
hazy recollection is that it was passed after the Clarence Thomas 
confirmation hearings, where allegations  were made that Thomas 
rented porn videos. (There are only civil penalties which is odd 
since Title 18 is the criminal code.)

>The problem is the glut of information available through search 
>engines. I have found a virtually unlimited amount of data decrying 
>some of the items listed above, but haven't been able to sort 
>through the chaff to find hard information.  Any suggestions anyone 
>could make would be most appreciated.  Once I get a draft, I will 
>post it.

Arnold Reinhold