-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
On Apr 28, 2007, at 2:31 PM, Richard M. Smith wrote:
Matt,
What about (16)(F) then:
(16) "readily accessible to the general public" means, with
respect to a radio communication, that such communication is
not-- (F) an electronic communication
The law reads:
...the communication is a two-way voice communication by
radio; *or*
(F) an electronic communication;
The notation is confusing, but I read it as:
((not (A) and not (B) and not (C) and not (D) and not (E)) or not (F))
There are several potential interpretations here, and only one seems
reasonable:
1. ECPA states that any communication which is *not* any of the six
classes defined in (16) is "readily accessible to the public".
Under this interpretation, telephone calls, long held to be protected
communication, would be made subject to warrantless interception by
the general public post-ECPA, as they are not encrypted or scrambled.
2. ECPA states that any communication which is *not* *all* of the six
classes defined in (16) is "readily accessible to the public."
This interpretation would be in error, because it would functionally
ask the presiding judge to disregard the word 'or' before (16)(F).
What's more, (16), interpreted in this manner, would exclude *all
electronic communications* from interception, which would make the
use of radio scanners by the public to pick up police/fire/medical
traffic illegal, thus banning the media from following reports of
e.g., traffic accidents.
3. ECPA states that any of the communication types listed in (16)(A)-
(16)(E) are subject to interception *if* they are electronic in
nature (hence the 'or').
This would make more sense. If you interpret (16)(F) as blocking
surveillance of electronic communications, the preceding sections
don't make much sense. If the law were interpreted differently, my
oral and written communications would have to be encrypted,
transmitted using non-public modulation techniques (yodeling?
hieroglyphic substitution?), carried on a subcarrier (here pidgey,
pidgey, pidgey...), carried by a common carrier (mail might meet
this), or transmitted over a frequency allocated by the FCC for
broadcast purposes (tin cans on street corners excluded, sorry).
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (Darwin)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=CqFk
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
_______________________________________________
Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts.
https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec
Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
