On Saturday, October 4, 2014 4:32:48 AM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 10/4/2014 12:01 AM, wrote:

On Friday, October 3, 2014 11:07:03 PM UTC-4, wrote:

On Fri, 03 Oct 2014 19:21:44 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:







...integrity:







Marriott fined $600,000 for jamming guests' Wi-Fi



inShare13







Friday - 10/3/2014, 7:20pm ET







SCOTT MAYEROWITZ



AP Business Writer







NEW YORK (AP) -- Marriott International will pay a $600,000 fine for



jamming conference attendees' own Wi-Fi networks at its Gaylord Opryland



Resort and Convention Center, forcing them to pay hefty prices to use



the hotel's own connection.







It is interesting that every Marriott we have stayed in had free WiFi



for the guests. Must be a Gaylord thing.







This is where the consumers can vote with their wallet.



If a few companies pulled their conventions, Marriott would fold.



I do agree that it is illegal to jam radio traffic tho,.



(the same reason your techy neighbor would get in trouble for jamming



drone signals). The whole area of cell phone jammers is working it;s



way through the courts as we speak.



It will eventually get down to property rights vs the right to use the



government's radio waves.



A friend in California, back in the old days, was among a group who built antennas that could receive a movie service that was broadcast, for pay, to customers. They were, in effect, stealing the movie service using that old rule that if it was broadcast over the air, you could receive it. The company providing the service sued, one of the guys that had built his own antenna that had deep pockets went to court, and he lost. All the folks with the renegade antennas had to take them down.







What did the court find as being illegal? Was it simply receiving a

non-encrypted or "scrambled" signal? According to FCC regs, that is

*not* illegal.



If the broadcast was scrambled and people built their own de-scamblers

to receive the movie, then that is illegal.

I don't remember him indicating that it was scrambled, but it may have been.. He did say that the antenna was a home-made contraption built from a coffee can or something, and that they were fairly easy to spot on people's roofs. The Kalifornia court shot them down.