[2389] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Rivest's Wheat & Chaff - A crypto alternative
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Arnold G. Reinhold)
Mon Mar 30 12:14:59 1998
In-Reply-To: <199803272236.OAA21103@joseph.cs.berkeley.edu>
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 11:32:41 -0500
To: David Wagner <daw@cs.berkeley.edu>
From: "Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold@world.std.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
>Clearly Congress considers eavesdropping on cellphones a major crime:
>they've imposed a series of increasingly-draconian restrictions on
>scanners, to the point where it's a federal felony to even own a
>cellphone-capable scanner (let alone actually use it to listen in on
>cellular calls), punishable by 10 years in jail.
>
Do you have a reference for this? The FCC web site has a fact sheet
http://www.fcc.gov/investigation.html that suggests manufacture and import
of cell phone capable scanners is illegal (starting in 1994), as is
disclosing or using any information overheard, but nothing about ownership.
The FCC disclaims being a comprehensive source on the subject, but I think
they would mention a statute banning mere ownership.
I know there has been additional legislation proposed that would further
restrict scanners.
It does seem that Congress is trying to restrict scanners to prevent a
public demand for encryption, no doubt at the behest of the law enforcement
community. I remember that during the cold war that it was frequently
pointed out how the totalitarian communists limited what their citizens
could listen to on the air waves while we in the US were free to listen to
anything we could hear.
Arnold Reinhold
Got crypto? http://ciphersaber.gurus.com
