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Despite FCC's Promise To Take Aggressive Action To Stamp Out Radio Pirates, Illegal Stations Are Flourishing (newyorker.com)
Last year, when Donald Trump appointed Ajit Pai chairman of the F.C.C., Pai promised to "take aggressive action" to stamp out pirates. In early May, the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement, or PIRATE, Act was introduced in Congress; it would increase fines from a maximum of a hundred and forty-four thousand dollars to two million dollars. But the stations aren't going away, The New Yorker reports. From the article: Transmission equipment has only become cheaper and more sophisticated. "The problem, as I see it, is that the technology has gone beyond what the law has been able to do," said David Goren, a local resident who works as a producer on licensed radio shows. Between 87.9 and 92.1 FM, Goren counted eleven illegal stations, whose hosts mainly spoke Creole or accented English. Pirates, he said, "offer a kind of programming that their audiences depend on. Spiritual sustenance, news, immigration information, music created at home or in the new home, here."
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.)
Most are low power and doing nothing much except be hobbyist projects.
Is that really worth a $2,000,000 Fine?
Just create a special low power license and limit it to noncommercial use.
So you just HAVE TO broadcast, eh? You're compelled to sully the airwaves with whatever. Can't live without being on the air?
Lots of people waited a long time, and went through the drill, and got licensed, and operate legally. Why can't you? What makes you so special?
They have their house in order, but apparently you can't. That's no rationalization for ruining the airwaves for others.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Altruism doesn't give you a pass. Such rationalisms are the crux of narcissistic behavior. Living in a civilized world means looking after everyone, and deeply at your own motives.
Rationalizing incivility leads to a lot of the evil that the world sees today. You're not a hero, only a cowboy with an exciter.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Can't be having people saying just anything over unused radio frequencies.
There are no unused radio frequencies.
What you think are "unused frequencies" are actually used by a station far enough away that YOU can't hear them, but would be interfered with if there was a station using them where you are.
The fight against the free market continues.
The use of the public airwaves is not a "free market", it is a licensed market. Almost as soon as radio was invented, reasonable people realized it needed to be controlled so it would stay usable. Imagine YOUR delight when your favorite FM station playing your favorite radical hippy music was covered up by a paging system because there were no laws regulating who was licensed to do what. "You can get anything you want, at Alice's BRRRFFZZZZZZQQQQQQQQ..." Now imagine if your favorite FM station that you invested money in installing an external antenna so you could get the news and music you wanted from a distance was suddenly covered up by a pirate station two blocks away that played nothing but Devo songs interspersed with profane rants about the FCC.