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FCC Cracking Down on Property Owners From Which Pirate Broadcasters Operate

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by K5XS, Dec 18, 2020.

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  1. K7JEM

    K7JEM Ham Member QRZ Page

    Yeah, that's not going to happen. And FM is actually much easier to do than AM with the technology available today. The only transmitter easier to build than an FM transmitter is a CW transmitter.
     
    KR3DX and (deleted member) like this.
  2. N1FM

    N1FM Ham Member QRZ Page


    I'm sure we'll hear a lot more about this "systemic racism" issue from the next Dem majority commission at the FCC...


    FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a Democrat is sympathetic to underground operators. She wrote that underserved communities of color often turn to pirate radio because of the high costs associated with being licensed. “If those unlicensed operators were ever afforded the opportunity to transition to a licensed station, would they take it?” Clyburn wrote. “Unfortunately, in most large media markets, that opportunity may never exist, both because of the lack of an available license and high financial hurdles.”

    "The FCC's Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment has left no doubt it believes there is, indeed, systemic racism in the country."

    "Pai was asked during his post public meeting press conference Tuesday (June 9, 2020) about the link between media ownership and the wider conversation in the country about racial justice, whether the FCC was doing enough to promote media diversity and what more it could do... Pai agreed the FCC could do more, but said it had run into a road block in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. "

    https://www.nexttv.com/news/fcc-diversity-committee-yes-there-is-systemic-racism

    "Diving into dusty old cases, this article exposes how the FCC, for five decades, openly, deliberately, and shamefully discriminated against minority broadcasters, making it virtually impossible for them to obtain access to publicly owned broadcast spectrum."

    "Minority exclusion from the airwaves has had, and continues to have, profound consequences. Even in the internet age, broadcasting is by far the most influential institution in society, doing more than any other to determine the issues debated in elections and the ultimate outcome of those elections. The relative powerlessness of people of color in the nation's political and economic agenda-setting can fairly be traced to their systematic exclusion from ownership of the instruments of mass communications.

    This fact has not been lost on the courts, the Congress, or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). They have long been of one voice that minority ownership must be addressed as a central element of structural broadcast ownership regulation. Further, as this article illustrates, the courts, Congress, and the FCC have recognized four legal justifications for intervention to enable minority broadcast entrepreneurs to compete: (1) promoting diversity of voices, viewpoints, and information; (2) promoting economic competition; (3) remedying the present effects of past discrimination; and (4) preventing discrimination in the future.

    Agencies do not like to confess error, and thus it is unsurprising that only once has the FCC acknowledged its own history of systemic discrimination.

    The first sentence of the Communications Act expressly provides for the FCC's administration of the spectrum “without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. Yet, this powerful non-discrimination provision is not self-executing. And to the nation's shame, this provision has never been executed.

    Here are the six specific devices the FCC used to maintain segregation of the airwaves:

    • The FCC and its predecessor, the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) outright refused to grant radio station licenses to African Americans and Jewish Americans because of their race and religion, until World War II;

    • The FCC used its licensing power to facilitate the schemes of segregated state university systems to exclude minorities from equal access to broadcast education;

    • The FCC licensed and relicensed open segregationists, thereby preventing minorities from gaining a foothold in commercial broadcast employment for generations;

    • The FCC used absurdly stringent financial qualifications requirements to keep minorities out of the comparative licensing process; and applied broadcast experience, past broadcast record, and ownership of a daytime-only station as preferential licensing criteria sufficient to overcome minority status as comparative factors;

    • The FCC repeatedly ignored a court decision that required it to take minority ownership impact into account when considering technical radio allotment and allocation issues; and

    • The FCC adopted a broadcast equal employment opportunity rule, but then failed to this day to meaningfully enforce it or even measure whether it has had any impact."

    Abstract excerpted from: David Honig, How the FCC Suppressed Minority Broadcast Ownership, and How the FCC Can Undo the Damage it Caused, 12 Southern Journal of Policy and Justice 44 (Fall, 2018)
     
    KA2TMU and W0PV like this.
  3. PA0MHS

    PA0MHS Ham Member QRZ Page

    I don't quite see any of the problems you're depicting here. What defines someone as a pirate? Someone who transmits on frequencies that require a licence, while not having a license.

    The second problem is solved easily: if a rental property owner is going to be "overly hyper-vigilant", as you describe, just show him your license.
     
    WQ4G likes this.
  4. N0TZU

    N0TZU Platinum Subscriber Platinum Subscriber QRZ Page

    I’d really like to see the FCC get after Amazon for selling, or facilitating the selling, of illegal communications equipment. Unlike the fly by night pirates, Amazon will almost certainly adhere to an order from the FCC.
     
    KC1DR, WQ4G and (deleted member) like this.
  5. KI7WL

    KI7WL Ham Member QRZ Page

    "Commission investigations have found that landlords and property managers too often are aware of this illegal activity taking place on their premises." I am sorry but I think that is BS. Landlords are NOT the FCC and the FCC is placing them in charge of doing their job. And even if notified, how is the landlord suppose to impose enforcement action? If you are thinking they can just go in and stop it you do not know Tenant/Landlord law at all. An eviction can take months, they going to steal their building or house?

    This reeks of DEA confiscation laws of the past but this time they are going one step farther and holding a 3rd party liable who has not broken the law. I have a feeling this will get laughed out of court the first time they try to use it. Leave it to a GOP administration to go too far. The only bright side is Ajit Pai is out on his ass in January.

    Sure we do not want illegal broadcasters but most of the times this is just some teens playing with a low power FM transmitter. I know, I did stuff like that myself as a teen. Now you want to take people homes for this BS? Pirate laws? I personally have not seen a reason for this. Kids these days don't play with radio, they stream as someone else mentioned. They make YouTube videos... This is just overpaid idiots looking to make laws that are not needed so they can act like they are doing something meaningful.. Good riddance the whole lot of them.

    This may lead to a lot of leases in the future stating no radio operations of any kind and that will bite our ass! The FCC has not been our friends in a very long time. Between wanting to charge us for licenses and selling off our bands...
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
    AA4MB, KA2TMU, NN4RH and 2 others like this.
  6. K7JEM

    K7JEM Ham Member QRZ Page

    First off, this proposal for the PIRATE law goes back several years, was championed by previous FCC commissioners, and will be in the future. It is really not a political issue. The House passed the bill by voice vote, was little opposition. The Senate passed the bill with little opposition.

    Second, a Landlord can get rid of a tenant for illegal operations. All the landlord would need to do is show that good faith is being used to remedy the situation. It may take time to evict someone, but they can show that the steps have been taken.

    Third, the problem is that these stations can cause interference to licensed broadcasters. That is a fact. And they don't use all of the filtering and monitoring used by real broadcasters, so their signals are likely to be quite dirty.
     
    KC1DR and WQ4G like this.
  7. KI7WL

    KI7WL Ham Member QRZ Page

    Well I am still looking to see all these damn pirates everyone seems so worried about... And in the end I think it will be our butts that get bit when you make landlords anti-radio. FCC can't do their jobs anymore and think private citizens can do better than they can. What the hell are they paid for?
     
    AA4MB and WZ7U like this.
  8. N1FM

    N1FM Ham Member QRZ Page

    I never noticed that Amazon removed or restricted any suspect handhelds. I wonder if Baofeng ever responded to FCC concerns by fixing the FCC concerns.

    Anybody know?

    https://www.amazon.com/baofeng/s?k=baofeng
    http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-cites-baofeng-importer-for-illegally-marketing-unauthorized-rf-devices
     
  9. K7JEM

    K7JEM Ham Member QRZ Page

  10. KI7WL

    KI7WL Ham Member QRZ Page

    But this isn't about the FCC cracking down on Pirates, this is the FCC cracking down on landlords who know nothing about this or radio in general. It was not that long ago we had to fight against restrictions with antennas and now we have instead handed landlords a reason not to allow hams at all. You think they know the difference?

    And this is what that whole law is about, holding landlords responsible for doing the FCC's job.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
    AA4MB, N5PZJ, WZ7U and 1 other person like this.
  11. KI7WL

    KI7WL Ham Member QRZ Page

    And I am sure Ait Pai has the public good in mind when the first thing he did was cheat with the comments and destroyed net neutrality. But as a former Comcast lobbyist he is so trusted with the public good, NOT. Then he wants to start charging us license fees again and wants to sell off our 3.5 GHz band to broadband interests, just like Comcast... No, he has not been working for us at all!
     
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  12. K7JEM

    K7JEM Ham Member QRZ Page

    It becomes the landlord's job when something illegal is happening on their property, and there are ways to handle these things. If a tenant starts burning waste at a rented property, the local (or federal) authorities may demand the landlord to take care of the situation, and make it stop. There are also fines for that sort of behavior.
     
    WQ4G likes this.
  13. KI7WL

    KI7WL Ham Member QRZ Page

    You are talking apples and oranges, radios don't smoke if your operating them correctly.. You can't see radio... From my experience a landlord knows absolutely nothing about radio other than listening to it in their car. Its the FCC's job to police the airways. Its the FCC's job to shut down illegal broadcasters. But they are sure Johnny on the spot for collecting fees.
     
    NN0M and KA2TMU like this.
  14. KI7WL

    KI7WL Ham Member QRZ Page

    This all sounds like an opinion of one person and it certainly didn't change Part 95 or Part 97... and it certainly didn't change the law for illegal broadcasters. But the whole crux of this law is holding landlords responsible for something they know absolutely nothing about. About the FCC handing their job to non professionals... This was a huge part of being the FCC's job.

    They had field offices across the country and people trained to do this work. We have endless money for some things like useless wars but we can't fund enough field agents so they can do their job if this is so important to them. Myself I have yet to hear a pirate station.

    And we have not even defined what exactly is a Pirate station in this law... Another pesky detail...
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2020
    NN0M and WZ7U like this.
  15. K7JEM

    K7JEM Ham Member QRZ Page

    The issue only becomes valid once the landlord has been notified that there is illegal activity going on, assuming the landlord isn't actively participating in that activity.
     
    WQ4G, KA0HCP and KI7WL like this.

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