it would increase fines from a maximum of a hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to two million dollars.
That will do absolutely nothing to deter the pirate radio stations, which seldom are for-profit entities, but special interest and religious kooks. They can't afford $144,000 either, so it doesn't matter whether you raise this. As long as people think they won't get caught, it doesn't matter how harsh the penalty is. Too high fines even work against the intention, in that you might report your neighbor for running an illegal radio station if he was facing a $1,000 fine, but won't do so if he risks $144,000 or $2,000,000. Ruining a person's life is not something all of us are willing to do, even if they were the ones who broke the law.
(This is also why excessive prison terms for certain crimes make things worse, not better.)
So...you want them to flip it and offer the 2 million to anyone who turns in a pirate radio operator? You'll have pirate bounty hunters lined up!
No, I don't want to see that either, unless the fine for running a non-commercial unlicensed radio station can be lowered to the point where it won't ruin the rest of people's lives.
A small reward for reporting that turns out to be substantiated would be good if combined with a lower fine for non-commercial operations, and a fine for false reports.
Sounds like a quick way of losing a lot of money. Pirate radio equipment is often seized, rarely are there people sitting around with it. And now you've just spent $2m for something that will just pop up somewhere else in a few days time.
1. Find someone who doesn't mind ruining their life (career criminal, terminal illness, just plain dumb. 2. "Ok, you set up the station, then I'll turn you in. A million for you, a million for me!"
There's a business opportunity! Here's how it goes:
1. Buy some broadcasting equipment. Used, cheap, needn't even work well. 2. Find a partner who is already broke and over his ears in debt. 3. Let the partner be the pirate and let him broadcast once or so. 4. Rat him out. 5. Make the FCC come in, seize the equipment and pay you the ransom. 6. Partner files for bankruptcy. 7. You hand your partner his share of the money in cash.
Increasing the fine is an easier step to take than actually enforcing the rules by tracking down the source of the transmission and charging the offender. By increasing the fine, the FCC appears to have done something, and that's all that's really important. They can say, "Look, we saw a problem, and we took a decisive action." Sure, nobody will ever pay the fine because the FCC never catches anyone, but they can at least use the words "decisive action" in describing their response.
Wrong target (Score:5, Insightful)
it would increase fines from a maximum of a hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to two million dollars.
That will do absolutely nothing to deter the pirate radio stations, which seldom are for-profit entities, but special interest and religious kooks.
They can't afford $144,000 either, so it doesn't matter whether you raise this. As long as people think they won't get caught, it doesn't matter how harsh the penalty is.
Too high fines even work against the intention, in that you might report your neighbor for running an illegal radio station if he was facing a $1,000 fine, but won't do so if he risks $144,000 or $2,000,000. Ruining a person's life is not something all of us are willing to do, even if they were the ones who broke the law.
(This is also why excessive prison terms for certain crimes make things worse, not better.)
Re:Wrong target (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
So...you want them to flip it and offer the 2 million to anyone who turns in a pirate radio operator? You'll have pirate bounty hunters lined up!
No, I don't want to see that either, unless the fine for running a non-commercial unlicensed radio station can be lowered to the point where it won't ruin the rest of people's lives.
A small reward for reporting that turns out to be substantiated would be good if combined with a lower fine for non-commercial operations, and a fine for false reports.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like a quick way of losing a lot of money. Pirate radio equipment is often seized, rarely are there people sitting around with it. And now you've just spent $2m for something that will just pop up somewhere else in a few days time.
Re: (Score:2)
I can see that being used for a good scam.
1. Find someone who doesn't mind ruining their life (career criminal, terminal illness, just plain dumb.
2. "Ok, you set up the station, then I'll turn you in. A million for you, a million for me!"
Re: (Score:2)
There's a business opportunity! Here's how it goes:
1. Buy some broadcasting equipment. Used, cheap, needn't even work well.
2. Find a partner who is already broke and over his ears in debt.
3. Let the partner be the pirate and let him broadcast once or so.
4. Rat him out.
5. Make the FCC come in, seize the equipment and pay you the ransom.
6. Partner files for bankruptcy.
7. You hand your partner his share of the money in cash.
Repeat a couple times and you're set for life.
Re: (Score:1)
Increasing the fine is an easier step to take than actually enforcing the rules by tracking down the source of the transmission and charging the offender. By increasing the fine, the FCC appears to have done something, and that's all that's really important. They can say, "Look, we saw a problem, and we took a decisive action." Sure, nobody will ever pay the fine because the FCC never catches anyone, but they can at least use the words "decisive action" in describing their response.