Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: ECPA
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 20:45:40 -0400
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2001 20:18:48 -0400 (EDT) From: "Mike O'Dell" <mo () ccr org> To: dave () farber net heard you on Public Interest today. sent in an email too late for it to get on, so i'll ask now.... i fully agree that we should beat the crap outta this silly notion of "security by no-peeky", but that also includes the cellular frequency exclusions in the infamous ECPA the Electronic Communications Placation Act. that was done in the most venal, cynical manner, to allow the cellular operators to claim they had "done something" about cellular security, when everyone with half a brain knew it was utter bullshit. so don't leave the ECPA out of the barage. it actually set the precedent for this kind of organized assault on reality. as usualy, you were great. cheers, note 2 from Mike also also, it is indeed the FCC who is on the front line policing the ECPA cellular exclusions with the type acceptance hammer. while it's unclear who prosecutes if you modify a radio, the FCC, bowing to further pressure, has now mandated that manufacturers dramatically increase the tamper resistance of radios so they cannot be modified. if they can be, the FCC will not approve and they can't be sold in the US. so everyone that makes a wide-band receiver *must* make two versions - a US one and an everywhere else one, and they all suffer the anti-tamper restrictions which makes some radios essentially unrepairable. the FCC has been forced by Congress to lacky for the cellular operators in duping their customers into a false sense of security. -mo For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/
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- IP: ECPA David Farber (Aug 14)