FC: More on FCC wants to yank Kevin Mitnick's radio license

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2001 13:46:49 -0500
To: declan () well com
From: Bennett Kobb <bkobb () civilrightsforum org>
Subject: FCC wants to yank Kevin Mitnick's radio license

"FCC wants to yank Kevin Mitnick's radio license"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02963.html

Mark Rhoads wrote:

"Is the FCC policy consistent or selective?  That is to say, does the FCC 
routinely review all license renewals for all ham radio operators to find 
out if they have been convicted of a crime and then deny licence renewals 
based on that fact?"

I don't believe the FCC routinely reviews all amateur renewals to find out 
if there are convictions. But the Communications Act gives the FCC the 
authority to prescribe the character of its licensees.

"Or do they just selectively look for high profile violators of other laws 
to make an example of certain people?"

It is more the high profile cases. When a person comes to the Commission's 
attention for serious rule violations or certain "non-FCC misconduct", then 
the agency considers any licenses that person holds to be fair game for 
revocation.

Character cases over the last few years have included a broadcast licensee 
who was convicted of sexual activity with children, and wireless phone 
companies that illegally signaled each other during a license auction.

In amateur radio cases, Herb Schoenbohm KV4FZ was convicted of telephone 
calling-card misuse. He tried mightily to hold on to his license, including 
a Supreme Court appeal. See http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/1999/08/05/3/ 
and http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2000/10/31/2/  .

More recently, Florida's "Party Pirate" Doug Brewer KC4HAZ had his amateur 
and General Mobile Radio Service licenses revoked for broadcasting without 
a license and other violations involving the equipment authorization rules. 
See http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2001/06/28/4/ . This is the only time 
I can remember anyone having his GMRS license revoked.

"Is the FCC trying to generate a new principle of law that anyone who has 
been found guilty of anything shall therefore pay a price in any arena of 
law or policy, whether or not that area is directly related to the area of 
the violation?"

Among the types of non-FCC misconduct that implicate the FCC's character 
policy are "any conviction for misconduct constituting a felony" and 
"nonbroadcast misconduct so egregious as to shock the conscience."

Bennett Kobb
Author, Wireless Spectrum Finder
http://www.spectrumfinder.net
Technology Analyst, Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy
http://www.civilrightsforum.org




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