Dr. Phil made me violate the ECPA law!!!
 

not that anyone really cares one way or the other *except for the people who
actually got the ECPA law passed and the people who own and operate the cell
phone companies),

I usually don't watch Dr. Phil today, but someone else at my house does. Today,
Dr. Phil said that you should watch his show if you're a tv addict or a cell
phone addict (always talking on the cell phone).

Well, I I kind of fit into the "tv addict" category, although I'm not really
addicted to tv. I just used to watch a lot of it. I can stop any time.
Actually, I already have pretty much since my own cable tv no longer comes in.

So I watched his show today. The first segments dealt with the guy who was a
cell phone addict always talking on the cell phone and his wife wanted Dr. Phil
to help her by getting him to stop always talking on the cell phone and to
start talking to her instead.

Well during one of the segments, the guy's cell phone rang,

You could hear the caller talking. At first, the caller seemed to not know
that what he was saying was being broadcast on national tv intended for the
general public. until Dr. Phil told the caller that he was talking to Dr. Phil
(either the guy's wife took the phone away from her husband and gave it to Dr.
Phil or Dr. Phil took it away himself. I don't remember which).

Anyways, after the call was over, Dr. Phil said that he knew that the cell
phone was going to ring (sometime during the show) (because the guy's wife said
that he's always on it everywhere) so that he had his (producers??) find out
the frequency of the cell phone in order to play it through the speakers (so
that it could be heard on the tv show being watched by the general public).

Now, what's wrong with this picture?

Remember, federal law forbids the actual monitoring, the actual listening in
to them no matter what frequency they're on. and the guy from South Dakota that
posted in this newsgroup said that under South Dakota law, it does not matter
that my intentions was to watch and listen to a different service that was a
leegal servicve (regular tv intended for the general public) or that I was on
frequencies intended for the general public(regular tv broadcast station). That
under South Dakota law, it's still illegal period (even though I didn't expect
it) and even though it came over regular tv frequencies.

(I'm sure most of the readers of this newsgroup know which thread I'm talking
about that was posted in this newsgroup. The guy who claimed that the cops
arrested him while he was listening to business frequencies because an image of
a cell phone call came acrosss the business frequency.

Of course, Dr. Phil wasn't the only one who ever done this. I seem to remember
news broadcasts broadcasting cell telephone calls also. although my memory is
more vague on that since that was a longer time ago.

so what's really wrong with this picture?

just some stuff to think about.

In other words, everyone who was watching that episode of Dr. Phil today was
violating the ECPA law by listening to the first part of that conversation. (if
they were watching during that scene).

I'm assuming that it was completely legal as soon as the guy realized he was
talking to Dr. Phil.

but then the ECPA might see it different as the law says the monitoring of cell
phones, period, is illegal.

Since Dr. Phil was one of the parties talking on the phone, then under ECPA
law, he did not break any laws at all,(and it is true, he did not break any
laws) but his viewers at home watching on tv all did by listening to it!!!

Dr. Phil was indeed helping.

As I said, probably no one really cares one way or the other. (except the
cellular telephone companies who want to assure everyone that their cell phone
calls are completely safe from eavesdropping.

and by the way, for the people who say to guarantee your phone call can't be
overheard, use a wired landline telephone. That doesn't work either as the
other party you call or that called you might be using either a cellular
telephone on their end or a cordless phone on their end even though you're
using a wired landline telephone.

p.s. my post is not meant to be againdst Dr. Phil.

I like Dr. Phil. I have seen his show a few times and he helps people. I like
Dr. Phil.

He is a good person, in my opinion.

As I posted before, I think most of the general public is completely unaware of
the ECPA laws.

So in my opinion, I think that Dr. Phil was simply unaware of the ECPA laws,
just like most of the rest of the public.

And as I said, he did not do anything wrong.

Under ECPA law, it's his viewers at home who are guilty.

but as I said,probably no one really cares one way or the other, as far as I
know. except perhaps cell phone companies.

after all, it was regular tv, and similar shows, like newscasts and reality
shows, do it all the time also.

This just happened to be the most recent in my memory as it happened today and
got me to thinking.

I think I'm finally down to regularly watching only 2 tv shows per week now,
both on the WB.

"Mediaguy500" wrote in message
...
not that anyone really cares one way or the other *except for the people who
actually got the ECPA law passed and the people who own and operate the cell
phone companies),

I usually don't watch Dr. Phil today, but someone else at my house does. Today,
Dr. Phil said that you should watch his show if you're a tv addict or a cell
phone addict (always talking on the cell phone).



Well during one of the segments, the guy's cell phone rang,

You could hear the caller talking. At first, the caller seemed to not know
that what he was saying was being broadcast on national tv intended for the
general public. until Dr. Phil told the caller that he was talking to Dr. Phil
(either the guy's wife took the phone away from her husband and gave it to Dr.
Phil or Dr. Phil took it away himself. I don't remember which).

Anyways, after the call was over, Dr. Phil said that he knew that the cell
phone was going to ring (sometime during the show) (because the guy's wife said
that he's always on it everywhere) so that he had his (producers??) find out
the frequency of the cell phone in order to play it through the speakers (so
that it could be heard on the tv show being watched by the general public).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thats totally bogus. You cannot predict what specific frequency a cell
phone will land on when it rings. No. 2 most cell phones,, especially in
larger cities are almost always digital so you cannot hear it anyway.
It was either coincidence, and Phil made it look like like he "knew"
it was going to happen, or No. 2 as I suspect it was a setup on "Dr.?")
Phils part. The only way you can truely intercept a cell call today is
to have the electronic serial number of the phone and some very
sophisticated equipment for intercepting and decoding the signal which
Phil aint got.


Jeff

Thats totally bogus. You cannot predict what specific frequency a cell
phone will land on when it rings

I forgot about that. I should change the subject title of this thread then as
it is no longer a correct subject title.

Actually, right after I posted the first two messages in this thread, I decided
I wanted to cancel them. but I didn't know how. so I looked it up.
Instructions by people said to right click and cancel. that didn't work for me.
There wasn't any cancel button on mine.

so I looked in my isp for instructions. Their online printed instructions said
in order for me to cancel newsgroup messages that I posted that I have to send
email to the screen name NewsMaster with the date, subject title, and message
I.D. and that it should be done as soon as possible within 24 hours.

However, when I did that, it wouldn't accept the cancels and kept giving me an
"error message" that said the problem was that that screennames emailbox was
full.

So I finally called my isp in order to find out how I could cancel the 2
newsgroup messages I posted that I wanted cancelled.

And talk about bogus, they were of absolutely no help at all.

At first, a lady with some foreign accent answered. She said she needed my
screen name, which I gave her. But she wasn't able to understand any of my
screen name correctly even when I repeatedly spelled it out for her letter by
letter like she asked me to.

(It was the first time I had called my current isp). After about five or seven
tries of trying to get her to understand which letter was which, she hung up on
me.

So I called back. This time some guy with a foreign accent answered (sonded
like the same kind of foreign accent as her to me). Although he understood the
words I said (unlike the first lady) he couldn't grasp any of the concepts.

He couldn't grasp that a "newsgroup" is NOT the same thing as a webpage. even
though I tried to explain it to him once I realized he didn't understand what a
"newsgroup" is.

He kept telling me that I have to contact the webmaster of the webpage
rec.radio.scanner to get my posts deleted. even though I kept trying to explain
to him that it was not a webpage and was a newsgroup without any webmaster.

he kept tellingg me to put www in front of rec.radio.scanner "to get to the
newsgroup".

then after a five minute pause where I guess he went to ask someone else about
it (who also obviously didn't know anything going by the next set of answers he
gave me).

He thought that by "cancelling my last two posts" that I meant that I wanted to
unsubscribe from the newsgroup rec.radio.scanner (which I don't want to).

I tried to explain to him that I meant deleting only the last two newsgroup
posts I made. By that, he thought that I meant that I wanted to cancel the
whole newsgroup rec.radio.scanner and told me that that couldn't be done
because it wouldn't be fair to everyone else who reads it and wants to read it.

When I seemed to finally get him to understand I meantt cancelling only my last
two newsgroup posts (although as I found out in a little bit, he still didn't
understand it)., he told me it couldn't be done and thought that I was talking
about a problem with the isp's software installed on my computer.

He told me the problem "will be fixed within 24 hours to 48 hours".

I then tried to explain to him that the instructions said the posts should be
cancelled as soon as possible within 24 hours of the posts. And he said that
couldn't be done. and once again said "the probnlem willbe fixed within 24
hours to 48 hours".

even though I wanted to cancel the posts before anyone else got them. Although
since you already got them, it's too late for that.

anyways, until tonight, I never ever realized what morons are running my isp.


If I could afford it, I would switch isp's right now.

Actually, they're probably not morons. From the foreign accents, I would say
that they probably just don't understand English very well, yet.

But all of the above is what happened. And I imagine that what will probably
happen now as a result of my request to cancel my last twwo newsgroup posts is
that within 24 to 48 hours, they will probably remove my ability to get to the
newsgroup rec.radio.scanner through their isp. mistakenly thinking that's what
I wanted them to do.

Dr.Phil is a moron! and he thinks he ****en know it all!

Thats totally bogus. You cannot predict what specific frequency a cell
phone will land on when it rings.

you are correct. I was going to say that maybe it was a cordless phone the lady
and her husband mistakenly called cellular. But then I realized it couldn't be,
since that wouldn't work everyhere (such as the studio instead of their home)
for someone calling that specific phone number if it was a cordless phone.

therefore definitely celllular. But I don't think Dr. Phil was being dishonest
either. Maybe he meant that as soon as the phone rang he gave a hand signal or
some kind of signal to his (producers???) to scan for the cell phone frequency
(the current frequency the phone was on) and play it through the studio's
speaker. That's what I suspect probably really happened.

You can hear cell phones on radio frequencies as soon as they start ringing
before they're ever picked up to be answered.

And a lot of people already said that as long as you're not mobile, the cell
phone transmission will stay on the same frequency throughout the whole call.
(such as in a stufdio).

However, I don't know how likely it is the producers or whoever could have
found the correct frequency of that particular phone.

It probably depends on the time of the day it was recorded (how many other cell
phones were ringing or not ringing on the radio at the same time) and where the
show iss filmed or taped (how busy or unbusy cell phone signals would be).

I guess it's possible that one of the producers or whoever had a frequency
counter (though probably unlikely) since Dr. Phil suspected tht the phone would
ring some time (according to him).

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying that it's still possible that it
was all legitimate and not bogus.

although it could also have been bogus like you said.

However, my opinion for now, is that it was probably legitimate.

I think they scanned for the frequency while the phone was ringing and either
it was the only cell phone ringing on the radio at the time or else they
scanned for the strongest cell phone signal, and then played the audio through
the studio speakers.

A scanner was probably alsready set up to play through the speakers at the
time, especially if Dr. Phil suspected ahead of time the guy would bring his
cell phone.

However, I have known some tv shows to be bogus like you said. so you might
still be correct. regarding that.

after all, I have been wrong lots of times.

And here's one I fell for. Once, a weekly tv show that was on here said that
they were going to have The Rolling Stones on the show the next week.

Now, I don't care about The Roling Stones. However, when I tuned in to the show
the next week, this is what was on:

Large rocks (stones) with still pictures of The Rolling Stones on them. one
picture per stone.

None of the actual group in person. And the actual group never agreed to appear
on the show in the first place.

so it wasn't a lie. They DID have The Rolling Stones on the show that week.
Just not in the way you expected them to be.

Just a number of large stones with a still picture of each member of the group
pasted onto each stone.

I should have realixed. It was right around April Fool's Day.

although the announcement was made on the show weeks before April Fool's Day
that the Roling Stones would soon be on the show and also made on the show
about the week before April Fool's Day that The Roling Stones would be on the
show the next week.

The show did not air on April Fool's Day that year. That's why I said it aired
around April Fool's Day that year.

However, I did fall for it.

In article ,
says...
I forgot about that. I should change the subject title of this thread then as
it is no longer a correct subject title.

Actually, right after I posted the first two messages in this thread, I decided
I wanted to cancel them. but I didn't know how. so I looked it up.
Instructions by people said to right click and cancel. that didn't work for me.
There wasn't any cancel button on mine.

so I looked in my isp for instructions. Their online printed instructions said
in order for me to cancel newsgroup messages that I posted that I have to send
email to the screen name NewsMaster with the date, subject title, and message
I.D. and that it should be done as soon as possible within 24 hours.

However, when I did that, it wouldn't accept the cancels and kept giving me an
"error message" that said the problem was that that screennames emailbox was
full.

So I finally called my isp in order to find out how I could cancel the 2
newsgroup messages I posted that I wanted cancelled.

And talk about bogus, they were of absolutely no help at all.

At first, a lady with some foreign accent answered. She said she needed my
screen name, which I gave her. But she wasn't able to understand any of my
screen name correctly even when I repeatedly spelled it out for her letter by
letter like she asked me to.

(It was the first time I had called my current isp). After about five or seven
tries of trying to get her to understand which letter was which, she hung up on
me.

So I called back. This time some guy with a foreign accent answered (sonded
like the same kind of foreign accent as her to me). Although he understood the
words I said (unlike the first lady) he couldn't grasp any of the concepts.

He couldn't grasp that a "newsgroup" is NOT the same thing as a webpage. even
though I tried to explain it to him once I realized he didn't understand what a
"newsgroup" is.

He kept telling me that I have to contact the webmaster of the webpage
rec.radio.scanner to get my posts deleted. even though I kept trying to explain
to him that it was not a webpage and was a newsgroup without any webmaster.

he kept tellingg me to put www in front of rec.radio.scanner "to get to the
newsgroup".

then after a five minute pause where I guess he went to ask someone else about
it (who also obviously didn't know anything going by the next set of answers he
gave me).


blah blah blah You cannot cancel a newsgroups post. Or should I say, if
you can then it would be a waste of time since most people would have
read or have it downloaded into there newsreader by the time the 24hrs
was up.

In article ,
says...
blah blah blah You cannot cancel a newsgroups post. Or should I say, if
you can then it would be a waste of time since most people would have
read or have it downloaded into there newsreader by the time the 24hrs
was up.

BTW if the message that you posted makes it to other newsgroup servers
before you deleted it then it will still show up. There is no way that
you can completely delete a post.
--
-----------
Dwayne
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BC895/

The up and coming BC246T (Looks VERY Promising)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Uniden_BC246T

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScanFindlay/

Dwayne wrote in
.net:

BTW if the message that you posted makes it to other newsgroup
servers before you deleted it then it will still show up. There
is no way that you can completely delete a post.


That's not true, the cancel request would be processed just like any
other message. Whether other servers around the world would honor
such a request is another thing.

As for being stored on local computers, that would depend on
individual configurations. Some folks may store full messages, other
only headers for the groups that interest them....

--
You are a fluke of the Universe
You have no right to be here
And whether you can hear it or not,
the Universe is laughing behind your back

In article ,
lid says...
Whether other servers around the world would honor
such a request is another thing.

And you know that the thousands of servers around the world are not
going to honor it. Sooo like I said, it cant be done :)
--
-----------
Dwayne
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BC895/

The up and coming BC246T (Looks VERY Promising)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Uniden_BC246T

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScanFindlay/

I just thought, woulldn't it have been funny if the guest on the show had a
digital celll phone instead of an analog cell phone, and when the producers or
whoever tried to play it through the speakers, all they would get is digital
noise, whatever digital cell phone noise sounds like, and couldn't figure out
why they couldn't recieeve the phone conversation to play through the sstudio
speakers and tv sets at home?

I just thought that it might have been funny IF that would have happened.

I'm not sure what digital cell phone noise sounds like, if anything at all, but
I could imagine it possibly sounding similar to the Emergency Alert Sysyem or
the old Emergency Broadcast System.

I just thought. Wouldn't it have been funny if the guest on the show would have
been using one of those digital cell phones (instead of analog) and when Dr.
Phil's show tried to play it tto the audience throughh the speakers (and at
home) all that would come through the speakers are the digital noise, whatever
digital cell phone noise sounds like.?

and if none of the producers of the show could figure out why?

good god!

You mean there mnight be a way to put that uh individual in jail for a few
months if not years and make loose money big time? Why hasn't someone who
has heard this thing start proceedingins in federal court. I wish I had
heard it. Any FBI types reading this post. How about doing the country a
favor and invite doctor phil to stand before a magistrate and start getting
the lumps he justly and severly deserves.

Bill Carty
"Mediaguy500" wrote in message
...
not that anyone really cares one way or the other *except for the people
who
actually got the ECPA law passed and the people who own and operate the
cell
phone companies),

I usually don't watch Dr. Phil today, but someone else at my house does.
Today,
Dr. Phil said that you should watch his show if you're a tv addict or a
cell
phone addict (always talking on the cell phone).

Well, I I kind of fit into the "tv addict" category, although I'm not
really
addicted to tv. I just used to watch a lot of it. I can stop any time.
Actually, I already have pretty much since my own cable tv no longer comes
in.

So I watched his show today. The first segments dealt with the guy who was
a
cell phone addict always talking on the cell phone and his wife wanted Dr.
Phil
to help her by getting him to stop always talking on the cell phone and to
start talking to her instead.

Well during one of the segments, the guy's cell phone rang,

You could hear the caller talking. At first, the caller seemed to not
know
that what he was saying was being broadcast on national tv intended for
the
general public. until Dr. Phil told the caller that he was talking to Dr.
Phil
(either the guy's wife took the phone away from her husband and gave it to
Dr.
Phil or Dr. Phil took it away himself. I don't remember which).

Anyways, after the call was over, Dr. Phil said that he knew that the cell
phone was going to ring (sometime during the show) (because the guy's wife
said
that he's always on it everywhere) so that he had his (producers??) find
out
the frequency of the cell phone in order to play it through the speakers
(so
that it could be heard on the tv show being watched by the general
public).

Now, what's wrong with this picture?

Remember, federal law forbids the actual monitoring, the actual listening
in
to them no matter what frequency they're on. and the guy from South Dakota
that
posted in this newsgroup said that under South Dakota law, it does not
matter
that my intentions was to watch and listen to a different service that was
a
leegal servicve (regular tv intended for the general public) or that I was
on
frequencies intended for the general public(regular tv broadcast station).
That
under South Dakota law, it's still illegal period (even though I didn't
expect
it) and even though it came over regular tv frequencies.

(I'm sure most of the readers of this newsgroup know which thread I'm
talking
about that was posted in this newsgroup. The guy who claimed that the cops
arrested him while he was listening to business frequencies because an
image of
a cell phone call came acrosss the business frequency.

Of course, Dr. Phil wasn't the only one who ever done this. I seem to
remember
news broadcasts broadcasting cell telephone calls also. although my memory
is
more vague on that since that was a longer time ago.

so what's really wrong with this picture?

just some stuff to think about.

In other words, everyone who was watching that episode of Dr. Phil today
was
violating the ECPA law by listening to the first part of that
conversation. (if
they were watching during that scene).

I'm assuming that it was completely legal as soon as the guy realized he
was
talking to Dr. Phil.

but then the ECPA might see it different as the law says the monitoring of
cell
phones, period, is illegal.

Since Dr. Phil was one of the parties talking on the phone, then under
ECPA
law, he did not break any laws at all,(and it is true, he did not break
any
laws) but his viewers at home watching on tv all did by listening to it!!!

Dr. Phil was indeed helping.

As I said, probably no one really cares one way or the other. (except the
cellular telephone companies who want to assure everyone that their cell
phone
calls are completely safe from eavesdropping.

and by the way, for the people who say to guarantee your phone call can't
be
overheard, use a wired landline telephone. That doesn't work either as
the
other party you call or that called you might be using either a cellular
telephone on their end or a cordless phone on their end even though you're
using a wired landline telephone.