• More FCC pirate crackdowns [telecom]

    From Garrett Wollman@wollman@bimajority.org to comp.dcom.telecom on Mon May 1 15:41:34 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.dcom.telecom

    Earlier this year we discussed the FCC's new authority under the
    so-called PIRATE Act to go after landlords of pirate broadcasters. In
    his weekly NorthEast Radio Watch newsletter, my friend Scott Fybush
    reports today:

    The FCCrCOs effort to crack down on pirate operators by going
    after their landlords took a new turn last week when 16
    property owners in New York and New Jersey received notices
    from the Commission warning them that unlicensed signals were
    coming from their locations, subjecting them to the
    possibility of fines as high as $2 million if the broadcasts
    continued. The list included stations in Brooklyn on 91.9,
    95.9, 97.5, 98.9, 99.7, 100.7 and 107.9, in the Bronx on 88.9
    and 101.7, in St. Albans, Queens on 88.5, in Newark on 87.9,
    in Irvington on 88.5 and 90.9, in Maplewood on 90.7, in Orange
    on 102.1 and in Paterson on 99.3.

    No indication yet as to whether this aggressive approach is actually
    having an effect. The law requires the FCC's Enforcement Bureau to
    make an annual list of the pirate-broadcasting hotspots and report to
    Congress on its enforcement efforts there.

    -GAWollman
    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Garrett Wollman@wollman@bimajority.org to comp.dcom.telecom on Mon May 8 00:47:12 2023
    From Newsgroup: comp.dcom.telecom

    In article <u36b6s$gqj$1@panix2.panix.com>,
    Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:

    Pirate broadcasting isn't really a serious issue in this country. There are >a few places where it's a problem such as the Haitian community in Brooklyn >where legitimate broadcasters have been interfered with, but really the FCC >goes up against broadcast pirates because it's an easy win and they get a
    lot of publicity for a minimal effort.

    Nah. They get very little publicity. They do it because Congress
    cares about it -- and it's generally only a few members of Congress
    these days, mostly from South Florida where the pirate activity is the greatest.

    At the same time we have folks like the 7200 gang on the 40M amateur radio >band who seem to be totally immune to FCC enforcement because the FCC does >not seem to think it's worth their time.

    Congress absolutely does not care about amateur radio.

    We have Christian networks using noncommercial FM licenses and
    broadcasting commercials and program sponsorships.

    "Christian" networks are very wealthy and have large and politically
    engaged audiences, so there is no shortage of lobbying to keep the FCC
    (or the IRS) from becoming too interested in their operations.

    -GAWollman
    --
    Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can, wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
    my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

    --- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2