Posted on 12/18/2005 7:27:25 AM PST by Kjobs
He does not own the airwaves. Therefore, he has no right over cell phone usage.
"So police cars parked inside the theater will be unable to radio their dispatchers? That is a problem."
(shakes head ruefully) I tried to explain it as best I could, but you don't have to understand what I was saying.
Exactly the point of this thread, people AREN'T making allowances anymore and are voting with their feet.....that would be why movie theater attendance is down. If you like theaters full off rude cell phone users and screaming kids, more power to you, the point is many people DO NOT.
"My posts on this thread are directed more towards ways to allow cell phone users and movie patrons a symbiotic relationship"
Oh, I'm just having fun with your statement. It's common sense and politeness that is lacking, and not just with cellphone use.
There is no technical solution for making people more polite. That's what the pro-jammer folks don't seem to get.
Your question is hard to answer without first addressing the hidden assumptions. Suppose as the initial point of departure that I decide to print a newsletter, and slip it into everyone's mailbox, but stamp the envelope with a disclaimer stating that you may not read it unless you pay me $50 per month. What would the legal status of that be? The marking on the envelope would be interpreted as a contract of adhesion, and courts would not support my right to demand $50 from individuals caught reading the newsletter. In this case, the courts would be deciding the matter correctly.
Suppose, though, that I decide to get those dirty freeloaders by encyphering my newsletter with a new alphabetic cipher each month, and then selling the key for $50 per shot. This might be a sensible approach; it limits freeloaders and improves my revenue. It raises a question, though: what if some people enjoy such puzzles, and decide to try and break the cipher each month? Since I've chosen to use alphabetic ciphers, it happens that any reasonably interested person could in fact crack the cipher without much trouble. Can I then sue those persons for $50? The answer is again no, for the same reason as above. A contract of adhesion forbidding them to crack my cipher will not be upheld in court.
Suppose finally that these enterprising folks decide to sell my monthly key for $30, thus undercutting my price. This is a trickier question, but the ultimate answer is that they may not do this. If I construct the case correctly, I can demonstrate that this is a copyright violation on par with re-selling my newsletter, which you are not permitted to do even after I give you a free copy.
What this should make clear is that RF is in practice no different. If I beam RF energy into your house, you can make any use of that energy you deem fit. You can use it to induce electricity in an antenna to run a micro-powered device. If it's in the clear, you can play it through your radio or TV. If it's encrypted, you can play it as white noise. If you have the know-how, you can decrypt and watch it. What you may not do is, for example, sell cracking boxes for others to listen to my broadcast.
BTW, this applies to cell phone conversations as well. A law stating that you may not listen to RF signals beamed through your home is not valid. The onus is on the provider to ensure privacy by whatever means are at their disposal. Since unbreakable crypto exists today, there's no earthly reason that privacy can't be ensured.
In a nutshell, it is the unauthorized decrypting of satellite TV that is illegal, not the reception.
Discrimination!!! :-)
I never stated that I own any part of the RF spectrum, nor of the airspace over my home. In fact I already addressed that question in an earlier post.
The broadcaster who gets there first rightfully owns his segment of the spectrum, by virtue of having homesteaded it. Other broadcasters are free to homestead other segments of the spectrum, or the same frequencies in a different coverage area. Disputes are solved in court in the same manner that two homesteaders resolve a dispute over pastureland.
Similarly, the airspace over my home, or the minerals under my home, are not mine because I did not homestead them. The first private air-travel provider to use an air traffic lane owns it, by virtue of having homesteaded it. Other providers can use other lanes, or can arrange contractually to share the use of the first provider's lanes.
If those lanes pass over my house, there are certain rights that I have; for example, an airline has no right to buzz my house. If I was there first, and their air lanes result in sonic booms, then they need to fly higher and/or slower, or arrange for an easement from me--not because I have any rights in the airspace, but because they're polluting my space down on the ground.
Naturally, the US government doesn't take such a simple, moral perspective. The government's only method of addressing these allocation problems is to claim sovereinty over the entire spectrum, or the entire airspace, and then dole it out according to their political agenda.
"A law stating that you may not listen to RF signals beamed through your home is not valid"
Forgive me, but I have to make fun of you now: You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. You may NOT decrypt signals that come into your home (by law) and you may NOT listen to or record conversations, such as cellphone conversations, cordless phone conversations. Just because you can doesn't mean it's legal. What if someone beamed child pornography into your home? Would it suddenly become legal to possess it because it didn't originate on your premises?
You are wrong - technically, legally, and morally on most everything you've commented on in this thread. I'd suggest you stop and concentrate on some other thread where you have something meaningful to contribute.
I'm not sure this is correct concerning mineral rights. From my understanding, mineral rights belong to the property owner unless they have been sold off or "severed".
Good point. I often find myself sitting near on-duty cops and EMTs in the theater.
Do you think that police officers and paramedics remain in their cars when responding to an emergency inside a theater?
Shutting off jammers in emergency conditions is as simple as the flick of a switch. That's a fairly silly objection. Note, though, that police do have to enter buildings that, by their architecture, limit his radio contact.
Actually, I'm with you Mrs. Peel. I think smokers should be perfectly free to smoke during a movie.
This is correct in regard to air rights either. The property owner does own the air rights above the property - after the advent of the airplane, courts have made exceptions for high flying airplanes.
A property owner can sell off the air rights to the property. This is most often done in in areas with skyscrapers. Air rights have nothing to do with who got there first.
And I'm waiting for the RFEngineer to explain why a Faraday cage movie theater is perfectly legal.....without a single sign saying...."Hey Dufuss, your cell phone won't work in here"
I think attendance is down because most movies are crappy!
Many theaters have cops on patrol.
Properly speaking, it's the sale of decryption technology that should be illegal. The DMCA is a moral abomination.
That's certainly part of the equation....
I should have made it clear that I was expounding the morality of the issue, not the current state of US law. In the past, US law recognized the concept of property rights deriving from the act of homesteading, and even applied them to such things as the RF spectrum. That has long since changed.
A faraday cage would certainly be legal, but a theater would probably face civil and possibly criminal liabilities if they did not make it very clear to the patrons that cell phone usage was purposely obstructed.
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