Article 42451 of alt.radio.scanner:
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From: druth@kdcol.com (Doug Ruth)
Newsgroups: alt.radio.scanner
Subject: Re: Is Congress right?
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 03:16:57 GMT
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In my opinion, the issues are very complex, and they involve much
collusion and cabal even independently of the scanner industry.

Perhaps, first and foremost, one needs to ask: who owns the rights to
the air?  Who owns, by legal mandate, the atmosphere about us, and, in
particular, the air within a human organism's immediate proximity?
The air is the sole medium for this form of communication.  If you own
your own home, your real-property rights include all of the earth
UNDERNEATH the ground that is within your boundary lines, and ALL THE
AIR SPACE UP ABOVE!  If you'll look into real estate law, you'll find
this to be the case.

As someone with only mild environmental concerns, I am yet outraged
that my physiological body is even this instant being bombarded with
virtually every frequency of man-made electromagnetic radiation -- and
some not man-made as well.  It doesn't matter which room I go to in my
house, it doesn't matter if I hide in the closet, or hide underneath
the coffee table, or even lock myself in the attic.  Wherever I am, I
will be able to run a television, radio, scanner, cellular phone, and
more.  We are all veritable electromagnetic "pin cushions" who walk
through perpetual and invisible walls and planes and spheres of a
plethora of radiating frequencies.

And who was the derned fool that even said that cellular technology
was SUPPOSED to be private?  Who?  Why should it have been?  Did it
HAVE to be?  Who weilded such great power over the cosmos to insist
that the advent of cellular technology be synonymous with cellular
privacy?  Who?  Cellular technology could have simply been implemented
for safety purposes -- and citizens WOULD HAVE been damned happy to
let it be at that.  So who made these brazen claims that the advent of
cellular technology necessarily implied cellular privacy?  Who was it
that legislated that the citizenry no longer had inalienable rights
with respect to the air within their own arm's reach?

IT WAS THE CELLULAR INDUSTRY WHO LIED, THAT'S WHO!!  

The cellular industry, in order to make gobs of money, paid congress
("paid" is such an ugly word; shall we say "persuaded with green
pictures of George Washington") to slap together some ineffectual
contrivance of legislation with less-than-robust wording (after all,
surveillance is the government's "tender" spot -- not to be tampered
with too harshly) so that the cellular industry could tell their
customers:

"Looky!  We have singlehandedly and without due process claimed all
rights and privileges to each person's air space!  So now, you see,
you starstruck ignoramouses you, your conversations are private
because it is against the law (if you don't read the legislation too
rigorously) for a "bad guy" to listen; and furthermore, Mr. and Mrs.
Cellular Customer, as we know from the past, 1) ineffectual wording in
the law is irrelevent when prosecuting, and 2) when something "seems"
against the law, then no one will break it!  You're covered you
hapless saps of credulity!  (and then aside): "Oh, and would you
please just sign this contract and give me your check."


The scanning industry was like an expository machine.  The government
and the cellular industry were in collusion -- at the expense of
citizens who were without technological expertise!  This gave the
scanning industry an inherent, albeit not unrewarding, "duty" to push
an ineffectual and ambiguous law to its limits, while being paid for
its services rendered -- to the unwitting public!!  The scanning
industry has actually been a great service for the public. The results
have now served the original purpose, which are, and with the
respected corporate undertones:

The cellular industry has been exposed for lying to its customers; the
government has been exposed for its collusive involvement; and the
scanning industry has NOT been exposed so much as it has served its
purpose as an expository machine.  Its duty is virtually "finished";
the cabal, collusion, and ulterior motives are exposed and out in the
open, yet the scanning industry is postured as the scapegoat to
protect the government.  Hah!

From the beginning, if the cellular industry would have said to its
customers, "Look, this is new technology, but no one owns the
airwaves, so please sign this paper stating you understand that your
conversations are not private," then nobody would have been hurt, and
the business STILL would have flourished.

And for another topic at another time:
Was it the government who early-on suppressed the cheap and affordable
digital technology?  After all, encryption starts sounding like PGP,
which the government does not appreciate at all.

Anyway, my rant is over.

Doug