FC: Buy a flight manual, get a grand jury subpoena?

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Buy a Flight Manual, Get a Grand Jury Subpoena
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 10:36:59 -0500

http://www.sftt.org/dwa/2002/12/18/3.html

December 18, 2002 14:54

Buy a Flight Manual, Get a Grand Jury Subpoena

By Ralph W. Omholt

For a variety of obvious reasons, the federal government today is
cracking down on aviation security nationwide. Whether or not the
attempt will succeed is anyone's guess.

I speak from experience.

A few months back, I successfully bid on an E-Bay item, advertised as a
CD-ROM B-737 ground-school course. I was sure that Boeing had made such
a CD-ROM, but there was no particular indication that such an object
would contain sensitive or even proprietary information. The ad
described the manual as "siimilar to that used by major airlines."

So I made the purchase and, in good time, the instructional CD-ROM
arrived at my house.

Then, as they say, the manure hit the air compressor.

Last week, I received a frantic e-mail message from the seller of the
CDROM, who wrote with some urgency that he needed it back (with a full
refund promised, of course). Curious, I picked up the phone and called
the fellow, who works as a flight instructor. He revealed that the FBI
had paid him a visit, warning that the content of the CD-ROM disc
material - information on how to operate a Boeing 737 airliner -
constituted "a national security threat." The agents demanded that my
new acquaintance recover and surrender to the FBI any and all such
material that he had distributed. Obviously, copyright laws were also
involved.

...




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------