Pager decoding and posting it on a web site

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Chrome69

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I am wondering before i do it, what kind of trouble can i get in to for posting on my web site peel region fire pages? I know we are not layers but anyone have any insight?
 

jim202

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Ever heard of the "Telecommunications Act"? Basically intercepting communications that are not intended for you and then divulging this information is a federal offense. Good luck cracking rocks.
 

newbie

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jim202 said:
Ever heard of the "Telecommunications Act"? Basically intercepting communications that are not intended for you and then divulging this information is a federal offense. Good luck cracking rocks.

Look at his location. The Telcom act is a US act not a Canadian Act. Try quoting a Canadian law that relates to this and then it will apply
 

mciupa

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Chrome69 said:
Guess i will just keep it to a private viewing audience ;)

the bad thing is that you've stated what you are "privately" doing to a very public audience.
If things change , I guess we'll figure out why. :(
 

Chrome69

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it will be kept to a private web page and only people i know and trust will have access to it. If need be i can allways just remove the page..... Unless you know the web page address you wont find it.
 

jellotor

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Well, it's in the same domain as running an online scanner feed, really. While agencies might not have a problem with individuals purchasing a scanner and listening in, (re) broadcasting it (and that's really what you're doing) on the Internet is a whole different matter. Add to this the fact that you're decoding a signal before posting it...and, well, that could be some hazy legal territory.

If they care, the municipality or the fire department could issue you a letter telling you to cease and desist even if your website is password protected and regardless of whether you're in the right or not once the lawyers get involved things get both sticky and expensive. In other words, I echo what mciupa has already stated: private site or not, anyone who is interested in finding out what you are up to in regards to posting the pager data on the web need only find the forums here to get the info.

At the same time, the technological aspect of what you're doing with the pagers is very interesting...but discrete is elite.
 

slipslope

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has anyone ever been sued for running a scanner feed? there are new ones popping up every day all around the world.
 

electricsheep

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newbie said:
Look at his location. The Telcom act is a US act not a Canadian Act. Try quoting a Canadian law that relates to this and then it will apply

Uh, no, the Telecommunications Act is a part of Canadian legislation. There may be a Telecom Act in the US also, but there is definitely one in Canada. And as a quick answer, intercepting of pagers is classed as interception of telecommunications, (ie: illegal), due to some arcane rules that the pagers are tied to the terrestrial phone network (so it's the same as intercepting phone calls, another no no).

Can you do it? Sure. Is it legal? Let us know how your court case goes, you might set some nice groundwork for future generations of pager interceptors... :)

I might even throw a buck your way for your defense.
 

jellotor

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slipslope said:
has anyone ever been sued for running a scanner feed? there are new ones popping up every day all around the world.

I've never heard of anyone...but I wouldn't want to be the first.

The issue is this: acceptable risk. It should be obvious to everyone that rebroadcasting a scanner over the Internet *may* fit into the grey areas of the law. If you are a crusading civil liberties type who has the time and money to tussle with agencies who don't want their communications online, good for you. But the more likely course of action is that these agencies (well, the ones who can afford it) will swing towards encryption leaving you with nothing to stream. Then again, some agencies *might* sue you...if it's cheaper than new radios.

As many wiser people than I have done before me, I continue to preach the gospel of discretion.

Our friend Chrome is a good example of what can happen...no knock to you man but you inadvertantly broke the law with your pager stuff. And, as any law student can tell you, ignorance of the law is not a defense.
 

Chrome69

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well to settle this i have removed the page from my site, thats why i asked here to find out.. As like my live feed if they ask me to stop i wouldn't argue about and would do it.. Too bad as it is really cool how the page looks.....

"Can happen"? Nothings happened, i asked before something does...
 

IdleMonitor

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I've seen one of these types of streams online before from the U.K. I think it was.

Can't for the life of me remember what that website was, but I know I did see something like this. Web page was updated all the time as pager frequency became active.

I think it had something to do with Tetra. I believe there were links before to this on TetraScanner.com but it looks like that website doesn't exist anymore.

Chrome69 said:
well to settle this i have removed the page from my site, thats why i asked here to find out.. As like my live feed if they ask me to stop i wouldn't argue about and would do it.. Too bad as it is really cool how the page looks.....

"Can happen"? Nothings happened, i asked before something does...
 
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jellotor

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Chrome69 said:
"Can happen"? Nothings happened, i asked before something does...

Right, but as I pointed out...something DID happen: you decoded the pager data and posted it on a webpage and regardless of how private the page was that was illegal. No charges, no lawsuit or anything like that...and that's good.

Chrome, I'm not calling into question your judgement here. As far as I can tell, question asked and answered. My point was and still is that discretion wins the day when you may be sliding into grey legal territory...
 

DaveH

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Not to cut this issue too fine, but wouldn't listening to fire pages or
decoding them with some of the newer scanners with that feature,
be a violation of the various laws?

I tend to draw some distinction (although the laws may not) between
people's private paging messaging, and dispatch pages for FDs whose
activities are payed for by the public and are not (usually) targetting one
individual; except chiefs etc. which may blur the issue.

Regardless, I don't think putting paging up on a public or even private
website is the brightest thing, and I trust that message has already been
put through.

Dave
 

steve2004

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Well unless they "bark" at you again!
you can use this one! :)

hxxp://www.baycom.de/download/poc32/

Lucky we live in Canada not the U.S !!
that file has been in an other board for the last year of two
and been downloaded a "lots".
 

newbie

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MatteBlack said:
Uh, no, the Telecommunications Act is a part of Canadian legislation. There may be a Telecom Act in the US also, but there is definitely one in Canada.

And the person who brought it up was in New Orleans so which one would he be talking about and familiar with?
 
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