Planespotter Guilty - Found Guilty of Using Scanner Receiver - South Africa

[MtnBiker2005]

Court finds planespotter guilty
2011-08-06 07:54

Johannesburg - The Boksburg Magistrate's Court on Friday found planespotter Julian Swift guilty of illegally possessing a radio receiver and using it to listen to air traffic communications, the editor of the SA Flyer magazine said.

"He was found guilty on the two charges...and ordered to pay R5 000 or spend 10 months in jail," Guy Leitch said.

Swift, 52, was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport in February last year after officials saw him taking photos of landing planes.

He was found with a radio receiver that cannot transmit but is still illegal without a radio license under the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act.

The Independent Communications Authority of SA requires an operator of a receiver to qualify as a radio amateur.

Leitch said air traffic communications were easily accessible via internet live-streaming or at the High Flyers Bar at the end of OR Tambo's airstrip.

Swift, therefore, was accessing information which was freely available and should never have been charged.

Planespotting is the observation and logging of an aircraft's registration numbers as a hobby. In many countries, planespotters co-operate with police in reporting anything suspicious as a measure to target terrorism.

story at:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Court-finds-planespotter-guilty-20110805

Swift found guilty - August 5 2011 at 03:38pm
http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/swift-found-guilty-1.1112980

Local forum topics from that country.

charged: possessing and using an Albrecht AE308 Airband Receiver

Update on Julian Swift Court Case (JNB)
http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66398

Julian Swift: Counts 1 to 6
The state has dropped 11 of the 17 charges against Julian.
he still has to defend 7,8,10,12 16 and 17.
http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66398&p=912592#p912590

The curious case of Julian Swift
http://www.aviationcentral.co.za/opinions/184-the-curious-case-of-julian-swift

Julian Swift is a planespotter and not a criminal
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Julian-Swift-is-a-planespotter-and-not-a-criminal/101336593268807

Plane spotter in court on communication charges - Published: 2011/04/07
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=139452

 

[2wayfreq]

You cant even listen to Aircraft? You've got to be kidding me! I'm glad I live in the USA!

 

[w8mkh]

Unreal

 

[Dude111]

Totally bizarre!

 

[KC4RAF]

AND it's questionable as to taking

pictures of airplanes!? Yes, I'm glad we live in the U.S. of A.

 

[LowBat]

Wow, does breathing the air or absorbing sunlight also require a license?

 

[Skypilot007]

Is Hitler still alive down there or something. What a bunch of clowns.

 

[radioman2001]

Don't yell too loud, they might hear you and do the same here in the good old USA. All under the Patriot Act.

 

[RadioDitch]

The law is kind of extreme, but it is still the law either way. If I remember what a professor/fellow ham told me, in South Africa this law goes back to the mid-80s nearing the end of the Apartheid government. Many of opposing factions fighting to be the party to take power from the oppressive government used scanners to detect the radio transmissions of others, as well as the police and peace keepers within or near the applicable township. At that point scanners were illegal altogether. In the late 90's it was amended to allow ownership and use by government licensed radio amateurs

Long story short...it's antiquated in South Africa, and in the handful of states that still have similar laws here...cough...New York...cough.

And the Patriot Act can kiss my fat (CENSORED BY THE NSA)..