SB QST @ ARRL $ARLB030
ARLB030 New NPRM
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 30  ARLB030
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  March 22, 1993
To all radio amateurs

FCC has proposed establishing a compliance policy for amateur
stations participating in automatic message forwarding systems to
hold the licensee of the station originating a message and the
licensee of the first forwarding station primarily accountable for
the content of the communications.

Because message screening is difficult with these high speed,
digital technology, automated systems and screening at each station
in these systems diminishes the advantage of high speed data
transfer, FCC proposed licensees of stations that only retransmit
messages within a high speed message forwarding system would not be
held accountable for communications they forward or their stations
retransmit unwittingly.

This is a breaking story, so text of the actual Notice of Proposed
Rule Making, NPRM FCC 93-153, is not yet available.  As of press
time the comments deadline is not yet known.  Stay tuned to W1AW for
updates.
/EX