
FCC’s Warrantless Household Searches Alarm Experts - vaksel
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/fcc-raid/
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cbryan
Pirate radio stations have been operating for a while and people are rarely
charged with a crime. This guy from Corpus Christi handled it like hell. When
he talked to the FCC agent he admitted that he was running the CB station. The
agent never had to enter the house to prove it, this guy was free and clear
until he said 'yup, that's mine alright'.

As far as I can tell the article is saying that this could turn sour. The FCC
is reserving this right and it could have disastrous consequences. If the EFF
is really worried about it I'm sure they'd be glad to defend someone and
hopefully set a positive precedent. (If not the EFF, possibly the ACLU.)

In short: avoid talking to cops. When you do, don't say much.

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siculars
never, ever, ever, ever talk to the cops.

this video may have been linked here earlier but please watch it in its
entirety. very important to know your right (us citizens).

<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4097602514885833865>

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dantheman
Agreed, I've seen that video and I sent it around like crazy. It's important
to know what you're up against especially when your innocent.

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sethg
One of the exeptions to the "gotta get a warrant" rule in US constitutional
law is the "plain view" exception--if the cops see a marijuana plant through
your front window, they don't need a warrant to go busting in and seizing it.
So if the FCC's monitoring equipment indicates that radio transmissions
powerful enough to require a license are coming out of your house, would the
transmitter count as being in "plain view"?

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abefortas
Certainly not. You use eyes to view.

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sethg
You may be right... Some of the pages I found from Googling claimed that the
"plain view" exemption also applies to hearing, smell, etc., but I'm having
trouble finding an actual citation. The closest thing I can find is _Kyllo v.
US_ , where the Supremes said that you need a warrant to use thermal imaging
to look for the heat of marijuana-growing lamps, even if you never step onto
the suspect's property to use the imager.

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aristus
Wait. Is there some actual case at hand where the FCC abused this power
against a private citizen, or does EFF just want to pick a fight here?

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schwa23
Does it matter? What if instead of searches, the FCC was granted the right to
kill people? Wouldn't you want someone, anyone to get a judicial review of
this right immediately? It doesn't matter to me that no private citizens have
been affected by this yet. Why should we wait? If it is unconstitutional,
which it seems to be, then they shouldn't be able to do it, period.

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aristus
Well, there's a pick your battles thing here. Every municipality has some law
like "the commissioner may inspect the premises at any time for violations of
code", etc. Those provisions are unconstitutional but _as a practical matter_
are not the genesis of a police state.

There are a lot of bugs in the law, so we should probably prioritize the most
severe runtime errors.

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pronoiac
Parsing this headline could have been easier. Who are the alarm experts? How
about: "FCC searching households without warrants, with debatable legality?"

