Word: cordless
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Tyler had been using a conventional telephone, his case would probably < have been solid. Unfortunately for him, the phone was a cordless model. Not only did that allow his neighbors to intercept his communications -- unwittingly at first -- on their own cordless unit, it apparently left him with virtually no legal protection. Citing precedents from other cases, two lower federal courts ruled that it was not necessary to obtain a warrant before surreptitiously listening to cordless phone conversations. Congress reached the same conclusion in 1986, specifically refusing to impose a warrant requirement on "the radio portion of a cordless telephone communication...
What the Supreme Court decides to do will be of more than passing interest to the 21 million American households that have cordless phones. The prevailing legal rationale holds that cordless users have no "reasonable expectation" of privacy because their phones -- unlike standard wire phones and sophisticated cellular devices -- transmit radio signals between a handset and a base unit that occasionally can be intercepted by other cordless phones or even by shortwave radio sets. As a result, Federal Communications Commission rules require that cordless phones carry a no-privacy warning...
...some experts, the broadcast basis of cordless phone transmissions largely settles the matter. Says lawyer Mark Cleve, who is defending the neighbors and the county in Tyler's case: "Persons with cordless phones have every reason to know that their communications can be easily overheard." Concurs Professor George Trubow of the John Marshall Law School in Chicago: "It's a buyer- beware situation. If you buy new technology, you ought to understand the risks...
Televised courses can be a bargain for financially strapped schools. A district may pay as much as $8,000 for a satellite dish, cordless phones and the electronic keypads or computer terminals needed for students to communicate with their long-distance teachers. That one-time outlay amounts to far less than a conventional teacher's annual salary. Like network anchors, video teachers submit to screen tests and often conduct their classes without a studio audience...
...Transport and General Workers' Union, instead endorsed unilateralism and called for the removal of all nuclear weapons and bases from Britain. Todd had earlier responded to Kinnock's keynote address with anger. His temper rising as he spoke, the union leader derided Kinnock's supporters as "all sharp suits, cordless telephones, glossy pink roses and winning smiles...