From: wb9omc@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick)
Subject: Re: Status of manufacturing ban for radios/scanners covering cellular?
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Date:  8 Oct 92 17:49:37 GMT

furuta@cs.umd.edu (Richard Furuta) writes:


>I don't know what the current Congress did about this bill but if the

	As of a couple days ago, it had been passed through the 
House of(non) Representatives (dump everyone who voted for this crap)
and was on the agenda over on the Senate Side.

	FYI,BTW, it is HR1674, A bill to reauthoize the FCC and to
amend the Communications Act of 1934.

>articles appearing recently in the Washington Post are any indicator, I

	Screw the Post!

>public good to take away some of their toys.  The FCC official quoted in the
>article sounded supportive of the legislation.

	That isn't surprising.  The FCC has gone somewhat pro-business
lately.  Just ask us hams who lost part of our 220 MHz band......

>If the legislation is of interest to you I think it is a mistake to be
>complacent.  I also think it is a mistake for us to focus on the technical
>oddities of the law (e.g., it'll make older televisions illegal as well as
>cellular telephones if read very strictly).  The *intent* of the legislation
>is clear.  It'll be up to the FCC to *implement* the law.  I have no doubt
>that they'll be able to do so in a quite technically precise fashion should
>Congress direct them to do so.

	AMEN! Do NOT be complacent, that is what the cellular lobby is 
counting on.  This anti-freedom crap was buried in an otherwise innocent
piece of run-of-the-mill legislation, most likely to bury it from
public view.

	Get on your Senators ASAP and tell them to vote NO NO a thousand
times NO on HR1674 unless and until section 9 is removed.

	If the cellular lobby special interest can ban you from owning
a radio that can let you listen to cellular frequencies, what is to
stop ANY special interest group from doing the SAME thing?  And what will
end up being left? Not much.

	Tell your senators THAT. Tell them also that it should not be
OUR responsibility to provide privacy for cellular users by giving
up OUR rights - rather, cellular manufacturers and users should be
required to provide and PAY for encryption for their own use.

	
Tell your senators that prohibition didn't stop people from obtaining
and using alcohol all those years ago.  It won't stop radios, either.
All it will do is create a whole new class of criminals out of what used
to be decent citizens.  There will be a whole new black market in
scanners for cell freqs.

	Tell your senator that you don't want a "national radio police".

	Tell your senator that if he votes for this, his ass is out,
as far as you are concerned.

	I wrote all of these things in letters to both Senator Lugar
and Senator Coats of Indiana.  I have always had good luck getting
replies from Lugar, we shall see how Coats responds.

	FYI, Coats was one of the senators up for reelection who voted
to override Bush's veto on the Cable Bill.  While this doesn't have
a direct effect on HR1674, it does make a statement about Coats.

	I am investigating how Indiana's Reps voted on HR1674.  If and
when I get the answer, I will post it back here.  While this may not
be of much interest to folks outside of Indiana, those within Indiana
will have a better idea how to vote.....

	Those elsewhere - GET ACTIVE! Oppose HR1674!  Give your
congresscritters more shit than they ever DREAMED possible!  Make your feelings
known!

	If you act like a lemming and jump off the cliff with the rest of
the crowd, you'll get what you deserve.

>					--Rick
>					  N3JGF

	Rick - how long will it be before the kind of congresscritters
who would take away your right to *receive* will also take away your right
to TRANSMIT???????  Consider that.......

Duane