QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 74  ARLB074
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  July 9, 1993
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB074
ARLB074 Message content proposal

Message content proposal

The ARRL had filed comments with the FCC on their proposal to define
the responsibility for the content of amateur messages relayed by
high-speed networks.

The FCC's proposal, in PR Docket 93-85, was in response to a number
of petitions for rule making, and would establish ''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 violative communications.''

The petitions were filed following an incident in early 1991, when
the operators of several amateur packet bulletin boards were cited
by the Commission for forwarding what was characterized as a
''commercial'' message.

The proposal would modify current FCC rules, which provide
accountability of each licensee for every transmission from the
licensee's station, regardless of the configuration of the system of
stations in a data network or whether the station is in repeater
operation.

The League suggested that some fine tuning of the definitions of the
terms ''originator'' and ''first forwarder'' was needed.

More information is in QST for May 1993, page 88.
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