[TenTec] BPL suit

[Clark Savage Turner <csturner@kcbx.net>]

On Friday, April 30, 2004, at 07:56 AM, WD4K wrote:
> on a big dog. Merely an irritation. Segway to the 1000-100,000-200,000 
> (pick
> a number) hams and communications equipment users simply signing a paper
> agreeing to be plantiffs in a class action suit against the 
> manufacturers,
> distributors ( your local electric service, hint hint!), and suppliers 
> of
> BPL systems for legal violations, loss of use of equipment and 
> investment,
> etc...you get the picture.... and now you have a voice.

This is not a simple matter.  You have to find an attorney willing to 
work for free (a lot of hard work and out of pocket $$$ to put together 
such a case!)  OR you would need to convince the attorney that the case 
is a winner and the contingent fee would be sufficiently large.  Proof 
of damages is really not so simple.  What are the damages to a disputed 
partial loss of a "privileged" use of spectrum?  Is this based on a 
constitutional right?  No.  It is a privilege (what is its value?)

> would be some second guessing happening rather quickly. I know if I 
> were an
> investor in BPL and the rumor was out that a group was planning a 500
> million-one Billion (pick a number) dollar class action suit that 
> involved

Whoa, where do you get this number?  Really, I think that if you want to 
help with a solution, you need to be more specific.  Specificity and 
facts are required by any attorney (as it should be) before anyone 
thinks of using Court resources to try to make a change in policy.  
Anything else would be viewed as frivolous.

Another thought: amateur radio is a privilege, not a right.  We have our 
hobby by a grant by governments.  Here, that depends on popular 
support.  If Congress does not support us and we make "pests" of 
ourselves, what is to stop them from making amateur radio the 
"secondary" users in the HF spectrum?  Well, not much.  International 
laws are not binding here :-).

I am not sure about the correct direction to preserve our HF privileges, 
but I do think it depends on popular support and understanding of 
government officials, NOT on some exercise of lawsuits at this point.  I 
think that, legally speaking, that is a poor choice.

Clark
WA3JPG

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