Now for the Laws!
Listening to cordless is a violation of federal law.
The following is a dissertation on the various laws and their effect.
The laws of the United States, passed by Congress, are codified as
the United States Code (USC). It is divided into titles covering various
subjects. Title 18 includes the criminal laws and penalties; Title 47
covers telecommunications. A law can be refered to by its original name
(i.e. "The Communication Act of 1934") or its entry in the USC. A specific
section would be refered to by title/USC/part/section, i.e. 47 USC 605.
To carry out the law, government agencies create regulations, which are
codified as the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). It is likewise divided
into titles, with the FCC's rules in 47 CFR.
18 USC 119 bars the disclosure of any electronic communications to
which you are not a party (with certain legal exceptions), and sets the
penalties. 47 USC 605 (the Communications Act of 1934) also bans the
disclosure or use of third-party communications. With minor changes, this
has been the law for 65 years.
In 1986 Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (the
ECPA), which added definitions to the law that banned listening to cellular
telephones. It also banned the monitoring of broadcast auxiliary, SCA and
scrambled signals.
In 1992 Congress passed the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution
Act (TDDRA), which instructed the FCC to ban the manufacture or import of
scanners capable of receiving cellular. In accordance with this law, the
FCC modified 47 CFR Parts 2 & 15, effective 26 April 1993. Note that this
does not affect the sale of such scanners, so long as they were made or
imported before the cutoff date.
On 25 Oct 94, the Digital Telephony act was signed. Buried in one of
the additional sections was a change to 18 USC 2510 & 2511 that added
cordless phones to the original ECPA ban on receiving cellular.
In April 99 the FCC revised 47 CFR 15.121 so that any cellular mod,
even to one's own or a pre-ban scanner, constitutes manufacture. They
also required manufacturers to make the tuning and control components
inaccessible, and limited the reception of cellular images.
