Tom Farley --- privateline@delphi.com 1. General Info on private line: ISSN No. 1077-3487 A. private line is a hardcopy magazine about the telephone system. It's published six times a year by Tom Farley. It's been reviewed well in Factsheet5 and Nuts and Volts. Copyright (c) 1994 It runs 28 pages. It's done in black and white. B. Subscriptions: $24 a year for subscriber's in the U.S. $31 to Canada or Mexico. $44 overseas. Mailed first class or equivalent. (1) Make checks or money orders payable in US funds to private line. (2) Back issues are five dollars apiece.Specify Issue Number 4 if you want this issue. (3) A sample is four dollars. (4) The mailing list is not available to anyone but me. C. Mailing address: 5150 Fair Oaks Blvd. #101-348, Carmichael, CA 95608 D. e-mail address: privateline@delphi.com E. Phone numbers: (916) 978-0810 FAX F. Submissions: Go for it! Anything semi-technical is strongly encouraged. I don't run any personality pieces. I pay with subscriptions. G. You may post this file to any site or BBS as long as the whole file is kept intact. H. This 'patent issue' is well illustrated. It may be hard to follow as a text file but I intend to keep posting the text of each issue no matter how they come out. PRIVATE LINE NUMBER 4: JANUARY/FEBRUARY I. About The Front Cover II. Editorial Page III. Updates and Corrections IV. Hacking Patents -- A How To Guide A. Introduction B. Sidebar -- Quick Start Guide C. Patent Numbering and Classification D. Sidebar -- A Tale of Two Classes E. The Patent Document F. Patent Bibliography Example G. Tools and Resources H. Background and Summary Example I. List of Patent and Trademark Deposit Libraries J. Class 379 -- Telephonic Communications V. Who's Bugging You?: An Interview With Chris Hall VI. Federal Toll Fraud Law: Section 1029 ----------------------------- I. About The Front Cover 1. "3,142,522 COIN TELEPHONE HOUSING: Norris R. Hall and Richard K. Thompson, Jr., Indianapolis, Ind., assignors to Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Dec. 18, 1962, Ser. No. 245,567 10 Claims. (Cl. 312--199)" The front cover depicts the housing of the 1A1, the first single slot payphone used in the Bell System. Note the large circular hole for the rotary dial. The patent for the housing itself was granted in May, 1964. The 1A1 was introduced in 1965 after seven years of development by Bell Labs and Western Electric. I found this patent by making a list of developer's names from articles in the Bell Laboratories Record. I then looked for those names in many year's worth of the Index of Patents. See my article on patent searching for information on the different kinds of indexes. 2. Want to know more about early payphones? Check out Stokes, R.R., "A Single-Slot Coin Telephone" Bell Laboratories Record (January, 1966) 20 and W. Pfred "A New Coin Telephone" Bell Laboratories Record (December, 1959) 464. Please note that the Record is not the same publication as the Bell System Technical Journal. The B.S.T.J. is widely available. It is dense, intimidating and hard to read. It is also indispensable. The Record, on the other hand, is user friendly. It is well illustrated and easy to read. It was published until 1984. Look for it. You'll find valuable background information on how the Bell System set up phone service for about 75% of America's population. ----------------------------------------------- II. An Introduction 3. Welcome to the fourth issue of private line. This is the first national edition! private line is an open, questioning forum about all things telephonic. It's written with the beginner in mind, but I hope that everyone can find something interesting here. Readers are encouraged to submit articles and to forward corrections. I pay with subscriptions. private line focuses on the technology of the information age, rather than on the personalities. How did all this get started? The magazine 2600 rekindled an interest in telephones that had laid dormant with me for over fifteen years. I read about blue boxing as a teenager but I didn't know anyone who did it. Many San Francisco Bay Area people were involved in hacking but there was no way to get in touch them. Everyone quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle used a fake name. I experimented a little with coin first phones but that was by myself. I tried reading telephony books but they were very difficult to understand. I didn't apply myself and I eventually gave up. That was a mistake. I graduated from high school, went to work and got involved in other hobbies and pursuits. And then last year I saw a copy of 2600 for the first time. 4. What a revelation. I sent for back issues and got a look at what I had been missing. People were still experimenting with the telephone system and still having fun doing so. What's more, the technology of communications was rushing ahead at an incredible speed, producing more fascinating equipment that I could begin to understand. But I still didn't know the basics. I hit several libraries and was discouraged to find that most of the books were as difficult as before. I resolved, however, to apply myself this time. I started taking notes since I learn better when I write things out. The first two issues of private line were a result of that loose collection of notes. 5. I could tell you more about the past but I want to write about the future. I look forward to sharing what I learn about telephones and telecommunications. I look forward to seeing anything you have to contribute. Maybe we can learn together. Thank you! Tom Farley (Sherman) KD6NSP ---------------------------- III. Updates and Corrections 6. I discussed California Penal Code Section 502.7 in the first issue. 502.7 covers toll fraud. I had a question about subsection (3). It says that avoiding lawful charges "[b]y use of a code, prearranged scheme, or other similar stratagem or device whereby the person, in effect, sends or receives information" is illegal. I wasn't sure what this was about. I asked if anyone could give me an example of what the legislature meant. 7. Tom (8STRANO_T@spcvxa.spc.edu) clears this up nicely. He writes, "Perhaps they mean trying to avoid collect call charges. For example, let's say I'm in Jersey City, and I want my mom, who lives in Bayonne, to pick me up to take me home. I don't want to put $.20 in the phone to make a call, and I don't want her to get the collect call charge. So, we prearrange this idea: I'll call her collect, and when the operator asks who the call is from, I give a fake name that we have prearranged to mean that she should pick me up to drive me home. Then my mom simply refuses the call, saying 'I don't know who that person is,' she hangs up, then goes to Jersey City to get me. Neither my mom or I have been charged for the call, but the information was passed successfully. In real life, though, I'm not THAT cheap... I CAN spare 20 cents... I guess some people see small change in terms of cheap transistors and resistors. But anyway, that what the law seems to mean." 8. I think Tom provided a good example. It takes on even more importance with new services such as 1-800-COLLECT. You can leave code names that stand for different things. Biff Barker, for example, to stand for "Call me back." Interestingly, the technology is so good these days that phrases like "Call me back" or "My number is . . ." may result in an operator intercept if you try to record them. True, this process is a hassle and it takes a long time to do. But it is possible. I suppose they would charge you with that code section if you had, say, a thousand '800' calls from your residence that were never completed. And your long distance company does keep track of those calls . . . 9. In issue 3 I talked about a program that came from Thipdar's Custom Software. I said it hunted for modem tones. Not so. It's actually a normal scanning program. It notes modem tones but does not look for them exclusively. --------------------------------- IV. Hacking Patents: A How-To Guide (Patent Searching & Telephones) by Tom Farley A. Introduction B. -- Sidebar -- Quick Start Guide C. Patent Classification D. -- Sidebar -- A Tale of Two Classes E. The Patent Document Itself F. The Search Process G. Tools and Resources H. Example of a Background and Summary of the Invention H. Example of a Patent Bibliography I. List of Patent and Deposit Libraries J. Class 379 -- Telephonic Communications A. Introduction 10. Patent searching is a great way to find out about telephones. It's low cost and fascinating. Got a question about AT&T's True Voice? Tired of the hype? Read the patent instead. Interested in pay phones? You'll find more information in patents than from any other free, public source. Need telecom clip art that's copyright free? Patents provide. Too good to be true? Well, you must not expect too much. You will not find, for example, operating procedures like those in a manual. But you will find some detailed information that a manual may be based on. Using patents with other information will get you closer to the goal. You may find that patent searching becomes a compelling, hypnotic hobby. 11. A patent is a written document with illustrations. Hardcopy versions of the entire patent are only available at the Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, D.C. Patent and Trademark Depository Libraries or PTDL's have microfilm copies of those originals. See page 18 for a list. In addition, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gopher has the texts of 1994 patents online. See the Quick Start Guide if you want to start looking at patents right now. For the rest of us, let's start the search process by looking at patent classification. . . (go to paragraph A. Sidebar -- Quick Start Guide The Conventional Approach 12. Go to a Patent and Trademark Deposit Libary listed on page 18. Pull out the microfilm roll for any of the following patents. Thread roll on viewer. Read the patent. a) 3,142,522 Payphone housing b) 3,86,3036 Ground circuit c) 4,310,726 Early 911 network d) 4,924,496 COCOT info e) 5,311,582 Current COCOT The Internet 13. Do you have net access? Preferably an .edu account? Full text of all 1994 patents were on line as of 12/01/94. The Patent and Trademark office has a gopher. It pulls files from a database at town.hall.org. True keyword searches of more than 90,000 documents are possible. You can enter phrases such as toll fraud, COCOT or paystation and get a list of relevant patents. You can then select which patent you wish to view. Check out paragraph B. Patent Numbering and Classification 14. Each patent gets a permanent number once it's approved. These go in chronological order. You can get an idea, then, of an invention's age without looking up its patent. The payphone housing on the front cover, for example, has patent number 3,142,522. That dates back to mid-1964. The patent number for the 1994 COCOT we discuss later is 5,311,582. Tables exist that match dates to numbers. Two thousand patents on average get approved weekly. More than 5,000,000 patents have been assigned already. Organizing these patents is a major task. 15. All patents are first put into one of several hundred broad classes. Some examples are Class 119 for Animal Husbandry, Class 102 for Ammunition and Explosives and Class 380 for Cryptography. Most telephony related stuff is put into Class 379: Telephonic Communications. All classes, including 379, are broken down into subclasses. 16. Take a look at class 379 at the end of this file. See how everything is arranged? Every conceivable piece of telephone equipment gets a subclass number along with its class number. Payphone patents start at subclass 143. So, the COCOT we'll talk about later has the reference number 379143. That patent deals with other subclasses as well. But 143 is the one that that patent impacts most. 17. The chief problem with subclasses is that the headings are non- intuitive. That's because the descriptions use 'patenteese' and not telecom lingo. The Patent and Trademark Office defines these subclasses but you have to go to a PTDL to look up the vague descriptions. Who would describe, for example, a toll fraud prevention device with language like this: "189. Fraud or improper use mitigating or indication (e.g., 'blue box', 'black box'). Huh? This category is actually quite broad. It includes equipment that deals with fraudulent tones of all kinds. It may be a payphone that's designed to deal with red boxing, or it may involve central office equipment that's designed to detect blasts of 2600 Hz. Don't rule out a subclass because the wording of a heading doesn't match your search exactly. 18. Other classes contain other telephone related products. Not everything is in 379. Telephone booths are in Class 52. Coin collectors for pay stations go in Class 194. You can look up these related things with The Index to the U.S. Patent Classification System. I list it under resources at the end of this article. It is essential for anyone dealing with patents. Let's now look at the patent document itself. . . (go to paragraph 20) C. Sidebar -- A Tale of Two Classes 19. Classifying telephone equipment used to be simpler. Telephony inventions were in another class altogether: Class 179: Telephony. It had nice, friendly headings like 'Systems', 'Telephones', 'Switches', and 'Testing Devices.' It contained 190 subclasses. The breakup of the Bell System opened telecom to an avalanche of new products, inventors and companies. This diversity of inventions caused the old class to collapse after only a year. In 1986, Class 379 was introduced to replace old 179. The amount of subclasses doubled. Simple headings were replaced by cryptic ones. Parenthetical statements were devised to explain the headings. Most don't work. You may get a better understanding of the new class by photocopying the last revision of 179. At the very least, you will need a copy of it to do a telephony search before December, 1985. D. The Patent Document 20. Many, many parts make up a patent. I'll cover the main ones. The first part is the title. Something complex like, "An Integrated COCOT and Regulated Paystation Telephone System." Or, "Automatic Telephone Answering System Using a Single-Tone Signal For Various Operations." Only rarely will you see a simple title like "Modem With Call Waiting." The first title is about a payphone that can be a COCOT or a telco payphone. Two in one. What's more, the phone can be dialed up and set into either mode with just a few commands. It takes some reading to make sense out of these titles. Your best bet may be to always look up a patent that has the right class and subclass number, despite what the title says. 21. The second interesting part of the patent is its bibliography. It gives you clue after clue about the invention as well as the entire field that it belongs in. You'll quickly learn the companies, people, documents and patents that are important. Use any large libary with business directories to get names, addresses and phone numbers. 22. The third important part of the patent is the abstract. It is a legalistic summary of the invention. The abstract is the most widely accessible part of the patent. That's because each new patent has its abstract printed in the Official Gazette, a weekly publication of the Patent and Trademark Office. Hundreds of libraries carry it as well as some companies. You can look up the abstract in the Gazette, even if you don't have access to a Patent and Trademark Deposit Libary. An entry in the Gazette also gives you the patent's number, its title and an illustration. Correctly interpreting abstracts saves you time. Certain abstracts grab your attention. In those cases, you know immediately that a patent is worth the time and effort to get to a Patent and Trademark Deposit Libary to look it up. Many abstracts, though, leave you wondering. Relating an abstract to its patent is a matter of practice through more reading. 23. The background of the invention is the most engaging part of the patent for general readers. It gives you a technological summary of the subject involved. For example, a patent about telephone handsets will contain a background that summarizes handset history and operation. I've reprinted the background of the COCOT patent on page 10 to give you a good idea of what they contain. This short summary is a great introduction to pay phone operation 24. The summary of the invention tells you how the invention works in fairly non-technical terms. It also provides good details about how the invention relates to other things in its field. The COCOT we discuss, for example, has a specific procedure to deal with credit cards. The summary gives details of calling card principles in order to relate the invention's claims to everyday practice. I reprint the COCOT summary on page 10 as well. 25. The body of the text provides the nitty gritty details. It is the longest part of the document. The text is always linked to illustrations. It is next to impossible to figure out a patent without seeing the whole thing. Here's one quotation that shows you the problem. Each number represents a diagram or a part of diagram: "Assuming the voice message system is collect/return, control relay 93 is provided in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/740,576 incorporated by reference above. The coin refund inhibit relay 73, coupled in series between the collect/return relay 93 and the coin relay 100, includes a pair of control windings 75, 76. One end of each of windings 75, 76 is coupled in common to receive a coil energizing voltage. The other ends of control windings 75, 76 are respectively coupled to receive "relay off" and "relay on" signals from the microprocessor 45, to delineate the position of switch 74 in series with the coin relay 100. As shown in FIG. 5, switch 74 is closed so as to complete the circuit between the collect/return control relay 93 and coin relay 100 allowing for a firing of the coin relay 100. If the microprocessor 45, however, issues a relay off signal, then the switch 74 opens (as noted by the phantom line) to turn off the coin relay 100. . ." You can tell that the body provides enough information to do some serious reverse engineering. I hope this article persuades you to visit a Patent and Trademark Deposit Libary so that you can look at what is available. Or at least to look up a few abstracts at your local libary. Let's now turn to the search process itself. F. The Search Process 26. Go to the nearest patent and trademark deposit libary if you are impatient and you know what patent you want to look at. These are the only places that have the complete, illustrated patent on microfilm. Not sure what to look for? Then you have to choose a subclass to investigate. Let's say you've picked subclass 189, the one about detecting toll fraud. What then? Well, again, the easiest answer is to tell you to get to a Patent and Trademark Deposit Libary. It has the most tools and you'll waste the least time. But I can make a case for not going to the PTDL first, even if you have one near you. 27. PTDL's can be intense, intimidating and somewhat crowded. Why not start with a lower key setting first? I'd recommend a beginner go to a state college or university that carries the Official Gazette. You'll usually find it in the Government Documents section. Such a libary will have some supporting materials as well. You can get familiar with patent publications and the microfilm reader there, rather than at a PTDL. Let's go through an example of using a libary that has just the Gazette. 28. Okay, you're now in the Patent section at your libary. Find the Manual of Classification. It's in two loose leaf binders. This is your key to the whole classification system. It's a compilation of all the different patent classes. You'll find Class 379 in there along with everything else. No pictures but very compelling. All of technology is categorized in one work. A libary may keep only the current Manual in the Government Document section; older ones may be kept out in the open stacks. 29. Let's say you're sticking with subclass 189 in telephonic communications. You need to make a list of the recent patents in that field. How? Look for the Index of Patents Issued From The United States Patent and Trademark Office. A long title for some small books. You'll find them near the Manual. The Index of Patents is put out every year in two parts. Stronger libraries have more back issues. 30. The first part of the Index of Patents lists patent holders by name. Organizations such as Bell Laboratories, Protel and Motorola are listed by name as well. Next to the patent holder's name is the class and subclass number of their invention. But no description of the invention is given. A more useful tool is the second part. It lists patents by Class and subclass. What it calls subjects. A list of all patents issued in the last ten years may take only a few minutes to look up if you have a quiet subclass. Classes like 149, "Post pay coin collection", however, may not have had a single patent issued as far back as you can search. Don't be discouraged. Developers may be producing equipment in your field but they may not have decided to go through the patent process. Remember, too, that Class 379 changed in 1985. 31. Well, now you have a list of patent numbers in your subclass. The next step is to look up their abstracts in the Official Gazette. You'll want to see if it's worth it to look up the entire patent at a PTDL. Smaller libraries take the Gazette on microfiche or microfilm. Microfiche is easier to use since you don't have to thread a machine. The disadvantage is that the image produced on the reader is smaller than that with microfilm. A small paper envelope holds each issue of the Gazette on fiche. A single issue may consist of 10 or 15 individual pieces of film. The issues themselves are arranged by date and patent numbers in a file cabinet with shallow, wide trays. Class 379 is usually 2/3d's of the way back in the packet. It's a laborious process to look up several abstracts but it's okay to look up a few. And you'll get motivated to get to the PTDL where the hardcopy volumes are. 32. Microfilm is a different story. Looking up several abstracts is very time consuming. Threading the film onto the microfilm reader takes time, patience and practice. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I've had librarians admit that they have problems threading the machines. I do most of my film reading on the microfilm readers that double as copiers. These machines tend to be in good repair since they make money. It is really silly to thread up a conventional reader, only to have to thread another machine to make a copy when you see what you want. Looking up abstracts this way gives you an insight into the patent process and gives you practice for the PTDL. Patents are on 16mm film but it threads the same as the larger film of the Gazette. Let's now look at what the Patent and Trademark Deposit Libary has to offer. 33. A few PTDL's have every patent ever issued on microfilm. Most don't. Much of what we are interested in, though, goes back no more than 30 years. Every PTDL should have at least that many patents on file. Start viewing the patents on your list in case you want to get going. You'll see shelf after shelf with thousands of small boxes of microfilm. Most PTDL's allow you to grab the roll yourself and start threading. You'll also see the Gazette in hardcopy. You'll appreciate immediately how much faster it is to search those instead of looking at film versions of the Gazette. Speaking of speed, every PTDL has a CD ROM machine that's great for doing recent patent research. It's called CASSIS. 34. CASSIS stands for Classification and Search Support Information System. Arrgh. It's a collection of CD's that allow you to look at patent titles back to 1969 and abstracts back to 1988. In addition, it allows you to do key word searches of the entire classification system. You can put in words like telephone pole, toll fraud or payphone housing, for example, and it will tell you what class those inventions are in. It's a cross reference, in other words, to the massive Manual of Classification that I mentioned previously. This keyword searching, however, can be done with the hardcopy Index to The U.S. Patent Classification System. CASSIS is nice but you can do without it if you are looking up a specific class and subclass. 35. One tool I haven't used is the Automated Patent System or APS. That's the main Patent and Trademark database. You can access it from at least thirteen PTDL's across the country. I list those with a small diamond on the opposite page. This database has the full text of all patents back to 1971! This is, I think, the same database that DIALOG accesses for their patent information. The nearest APS equipped libary to me is in Los Angeles, never-the-less, I will check it out the next time I go and report on how it works. I'm looking forward to using it. For right now, I'm pulling a list of patents in the conventional way. 36. You can run into quirks at the PTDL. Take a lot of change for the copy machines. Don't assume that there will be a change machine. Speaking of copy machines, you may be surprised at what you find. The Sacramento PTDL has some from the late 1960's. These things spit out copies with wet ink on blue print like paper. I'm not kidding. I have to hang the copies on the tops of chairs to dry them off. The quality of these copies is terrible. There is no way that you could use them for OCR work. The illustrations on these pages took quite a bit of work with my scanner to clean up. Some of them started as out as photocopies of abstracts from the Gazette and not from the patent itself. It was easier to get a good illustration that way instead of chasing pixels for hours. There is hope, though, even for this problem. The Patent Office will send you a clean copy of any patent for three dollars. See the section below for details. Good luck with your searching and tell me about any interesting patents you find. G. TOOLS AND RESOURCES The Internet 37. The quickest way to look at patent information is to use the Internet. It is also a confusing way. The 1994 APS or Automated Patent System database has over 90,000 patents online. The easiest way to use it is through the United States Patent and Trademark Office gopher. This gopher seems poorly supported. I managed to connect to it through my Delphi account for the first time as this goes to print. I simply did a search of directories in gopher space using VERONICA. I chose the VERONICA at SCS Nevada. I keyed in the word patent. Several screens of information came back. I picked one choice labeled U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. It lead into the same menu that I had seen before with an .edu account. All of my previous attempts through Delphi did not connect. Keep at it. I wanted to make sure that a gopher was available because it is the simplest service for most people to use. The more technically proficient can use the following information. I've also included what town.hall.org says about connecting with FTP directly. Here's what you'll see if you connect to the PTO gopher: "U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Information (via town.hall.org) 1. About the Patent Full-Text/APS Distribution 2. Keyword Search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Data 3. WAIS source description for Patent index 4. Help on performing WAIS searches 1. About the Patent Full-Text/APS Distribution: This subdirectory contains Full Text Patent Data for 1994. The data subdirectory is organized by ranges of patent numbers. We *highly* recommend that you use WAIS to access this information. Transfer the file patent.src back to your home system and put it with your other WAIS source files. 3. WAIS source description for Patent index: (:source :version 3 :ip-address "192.101.98.5" :ip-name "town.hall.org" :tcp-port 210 :database-name "patent" :cost 0.00 :cost-unit :free :update-time (:time interval :weekly:day 5 :hour 1 :min30 ) :maintainer "waismaster@town.hall.org" :description Patent Full-Text/APS File for 1994. Field name abbreviations in the original feed have been expanded into human-readable form. The database is maintained by the Internet Multicasting Service and is provided . ." Telnet? Not supported. Here's what happens if you try 192.101.98.5 ...: "Connected to town.hall.org. You have reached the computers of the Internet Multicasting Service. We do not support access by telnet, but invite you to send a mail message to mail@town.hall.org to access our data archives or to info@radio.com to learn about our radio services. You may also use the FTP service to town.hall.org. Use your FTP client to connect to town.hall.org and log in as username "anonymous" and use your email address as the password." 38. You can also use the internet to access the Patent and Trademark Office bulletin board. Telnet into fed.world.gov. or try 192.239.92.201. Fedworld is difficult to navigate. Modem -- 39. The PTO BBS can be dialed directly. It's at (703) 305-8950. It goes up to 9600. No account is necessary to access this information. It's a useful bulletin board and you can download the contents of the current Gazette. I'd recommend that you take a half hour or so and cruise around in it. Hardcopy Stuff -- 40. Patent Copies You can get a copy of any patent for $3.00 from the Patent and Trademark Office. That's a great bargain. It doesn't matter how long the patent is either, all patents are three bucks. There is one drawback -- getting your copies take four to six weeks. Still, this is the best choice for many people. You could do your searching in the Gazette and then order promising copies by mail. It's also a cheaper process than making copies at a PTDL when you have a long document to get. The Patent Office told me that all copies come on plain paper. So, they should work fine for scanning or OCR work. Send a check or money order to: Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Box 9, Washington, DC 20231 41. More information? Call (703) 305-4350. All they need is your money and a list of patent numbers. Nothing else. There's no form required. I'm ordering a few patents to see what they look like. Can you imagine the possibilities? A CD ROM designer could put, say, 30 cell phone patents on a single disc. Text and pictures together. (By the way, all the information is public domain and copyright free.) Or, you could put all COCOT info on one CD. Let me know if you do this -- I'll let you advertise for free in private line if you price them at an affordable level. Your editor will, of course, need a copy of each one for review. . . Magazines 42. The most relevant magazine about patents for us is Inventor's Digest. It's for the independent inventor and it has lots of interesting information. It's ISSN number is 0883-9859. They're distributed by Fine Print Distributors. Or call them at (719) 635-1916. Only four dollars a copy. Books 43. Most books on patents become outdated quickly. None deal with telephones exclusively. Never-the-less, here are a few that I think are worth a look: 1. Ardis, Susan. An Introduction to U.S. Patent Searching: The Process. Libraries Unlimited Englewood, Colo. 1991. 2. Basic Facts About Patents. Dept. of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office. Washington, D.C. Rev. Oct. 1993. 3. Patent Profiles: Telecommunications. Dept. of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office. Washington, D.C. 1984 ------------------------------------ H. Example of A Bibliography of an Invention Part 2. Patent Bibliographic Information (PATN) on Patent No. 5,311,582: Integrated COCOT and Regulated Paystation Telephone System. WKU Patent Number: 05311582 SRC Series Code: 8 APN Application Number: 0054178 APT Application Type: 1 ART Art Unit: 264 APD Application Filing Date: 19930119 TTL Title of Invention: Integrated COCOT and regulated paystation telephone system NCL Number of Claims: 28 ECL Exemplary Claim Number: 1 EXA Assistant Examiner: Loomis; Paul EXP Primary Examiner: Chin; Stephen NDR Number of Drawings Sheets: 14 INVT Inventor Information NAM Inventor Name: Davenport; Marcus K. CTY Inventor City: Cumming STA Inventor State: GA -------------- -------------------- ISD Issue Date: 19940510 CTY Inventor City: Snellville STA Inventor State: GA -------------- -------------------- NAM Assignee Name: International Teleservice Corporation STA Assignee State: FL COD Assignee Type Code: 02 CTY Inventor City: Woodstock COD Parent Code: 71 APN Application Number: 740841 APD Application Filing Date: 19910806 PSC Parent Status Code: 03 CTY Inventor City: Snellville CLAS Classification OCL Original U.S. Classification: 379143 XCL Cross Reference Classification: 379155 EDF International Classification Edition Field: 5 ICL International Classification: H04M 342 ICL International Classification: H04M 1102 ICL International Classification: H04M 1512 FSC Field of Search Class: 379 FSS Field of Search Subclass:150;143;144;145;146;154; UREF U.S. Patent Reference PNO Patent Number: 3863036 ISD Issue Date: 19750100 NAM Patentee Name: McCrudder XCL Cross Reference to U.S. Classification: 379146 UREF U.S. Patent Reference PNO Patent Number: 4535555 ISD Issue Date: 19900600 CLAS Classification XCL Cross Reference to U.S. Classification: 379144 UREF U.S. Patent Reference ICL International Classification: H04M 342 ISD Issue Date: 19880800 NAM Patentee Name: Kinushita et al. OCL Original U.S. Classification: 379143 UREF U.S. Patent Reference PNO Patent Number: 4924497 ISD Issue Date: 19900500 NAM Patentee Name: Smith et al. OCL Original U.S. Classification: 379150 ----------------------------------- UREF U.S. Patent Reference PNO Patent Number: 5113433 ISD Issue Date: 19920500 NAM Patentee Name: Hird et al. XCL Cross Reference to U.S. Classification: 379155 UREF U.S. Patent Reference PNO Patent Number: 5150403 ISD Issue Date: 19920900 NAM Patentee Name: Jordan XCL Cross Reference to U.S. Classification: 379155 UREF U.S. Patent Reference Series 8000 Installation Guide by Protel, Inc., Document No. 000 313, Jul. 8, 1991. FRM Legal Firm: Evenson, McKeown, Edwards & Lena ------------------------------------- I. Background and Summary of the Invention on Patent 5,311,582 Bacground of the Invention Presently, paystation telephone systems are manufactured and produced to operate in a regulated line or coin line environment or in a customer owned, coin operated telephone (COCOT) environment. Paystations operable in the coin line mode are generally controlled via a central office through the use of the telephone line ring/tip pair and a ground line. The Bell Operating companies are examples of a regulated system which control numerous paystations through out the United States. In contrast, the COCOT systems are produced for individual owners who maintain, service and operate the COCOT paystations as a business for profit. COCOT paystations include a microprocessor providing the intelligence to operate the paystation. Programs are stored in the microprocessor's memory for carrying out the features of the paystation. However, once conventional COCOT telephones are installed in the field, the owner can not change any functional operations of the paystation but rather can only affect certain paystation characteristics such as calling rates, etc. Because each system is controlled differently, vendors supplying paystations to regulated companies and individual customers currently produce either two separate paystation units or a single unit which requires the removal and insertion of circuit cards in order to change the operation from a coin line telephone to a COCOT telephone. The use of two different paystations has the disadvantages of not allowing the paystations to be interchanged and increases a manufacturers overall cost due to the necessity of carrying two distinct product lines. These problems arise because each system is controlled differently -- coin line systems by a central office and COCOT systems by the paystation itself. It has heretofore been unable for vendors to integrate such systems due to their individual control and operating characteristics. For example, the paystation telephone must operate differently to carry out such features as voice messaging, charging for incoming calls, coin tone fraud prevention, safety checks, coin disposal (how the paystation collects and refunds), dialing sequence (whether the paystation passes the digits dialed directly to the telephone line or buffers the digits and then sends them to the telephone line), voice prompts (where the paystation voices a message to the paystation user), and the like, when controlled via the central office in the regulated system or when controlled via the microprocessor contained with the paystation in a COCOT system. There is therefore needed a paystation telephone system that integrates both a COCOT and a coin line system, without requiring hardware modifications, and provides a wide range of paystation features operable in either mode. Summary of the Invention In accordance with the present invention, the above-mentioned needs are met by an integrated COCOT and regulated paystation telephone system which permits the functionality or features of the paystation to be remotely programmed, in order to increase the versatility of the paystation in either mode of operation. The features can thus be selectively enabled or disabled when the paystation is connected to either a regulated line or a business line. Pursuant to the invention, the integrated paystation telephone system includes a central microprocessor coupled with an external RAM memory that stores the firm ware for operating the paystation telephone. Novel circuitry is provided under the control of the microprocessor to operate such functions as the power control and coin relay (the relay which excepts or refunds a deposited coin) in either mode of operation. A more detailed description of the power control and coin relay circuitry is provided in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/740,576, filed on even date herewith and entitled "Circuit for Firing Paystation Coin Relay Using Power Derived From Telephone Tip/Ring Voltage, the specification of which is herein incorporated by reference. Further, call progress or answer supervision circuitry is provided to enhance the availability of other paystation telephone features according to the present invention. The call progress circuitry is described in greater detail in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/745,594, filed on even date herewith and entitled "Answer Supervision Circuit For Paystation Telephone With Non Mute Microphone", the specification of which is herein incorporated by reference. It is a advantage of the integrated COCOT and regulated paystation telephone system of the present invention to be remotely configured to operate in either a COCOT or coin line mode without requiring any hardware changes. This is accomplished via the microprocessor reading a status bit set in the firmware downloaded into the external RAM memory to determine its mode of operation. The paystation telephone system of the present invention further allows for voice messaging systems to be implemented for both coin line and COCOT operation. For coin line operation, a microprocessor open circuits the coin relay such that the central office signal refunding a caller's coin is inhibited. This allows the voice message system to operate. The deposited coin is then collected after the caller leaves his voice message and the phone line is released. Another novel feature of the integrated paystation telephone system is its operability to detect coin tone fraud via filters provided in the call progress circuitry. The microprocessor controls the filters such that they detect when coin tones are being generated from the handset microphone and, in response thereto, mutes the handset microphone so as to disrupt the coin tone generation. Still another advantage of the present invention is the provision of a safety program which detects if the paystation housing case is properly grounded so as to avoid shocks to a caller resulting from an accidental charging of the paystation housing case via an AC line. The microprocessor operates to read a case ground sensor signal indicating whether the case is grounded and to report the results thereof. Yet another advantage of the present invention is its operability to determine the actual connect time between the calling and called parties in order to determine whether overtime charges should be applied for local calls. The call progress circuitry indicates when the called party actually answers the phone which signals the microprocessor to begin a local overtime timer set to a pre determined time stored in the external memory. Once the timer expires, the microprocessor generates a voice signal requesting further money to continue the call. Use of the actual connect time is an advantage over the prior devices which normally begin timing after a pre-set delay period once the call is made, e.g. 15-20 seconds. The present invention provides for a more accurate timing of the conversation based on the actual connect time. Another advantage of the present invention is its operability to prohibit long distance or `one-plus` telephone calls when the cash box, which receives the deposited coins, is stolen or otherwise missing. The microprocessor is controlled via a program to read a cash box sensor to determine its presence. If the sensor indicates the cash box is missing, the microprocessor prohibits any coin tones from being output over the phone line thus eliminating long distance phone call capability in a regulated system. Furthermore, for local calls, the microprocessor can keep open a circuit path from the telephone line tip to ground such that the central office will not detect that the initial calling rate, i.e. the amount of money to be charged for the call, for a local call has been met. Hence, the central office will not allow a local call. Still yet another advantage of the present invention is the provision for the paystation telephone system to accept any type of credit or bank card to be used for placing calling or credit card calls, otherwise referred to as `zero-plus` calls. Whereas currently regulated lines, such as the Bell operating companies, only allow use of their own or related calling cards, the present invention provides a program for the microprocessor to store a credit card number input by the caller for comparison with stored credit card numbers which have been approved for use by the particular paystation. These numbers can be continuously changed via the down-loading feature into the external RAM memory. Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. . . ------------------------- I. PATENT AND TRADEMARK LIBRARIES NOTE: Asterisks denote APS or Automated Patent Search capability Alabama: Auburn University (205) 844-1747*; Birmingham Public Library (205) 226-3620 Alaska: Anchorage: Z. J. Loussac Public Library (907) 562-7323 Arizona: Tempe: Noble Library, Arizona State University (602) 965-7010* Arkansas: Little Rock: Arkansas State Library (501) 682-2053 California: Los Angeles Public Library (213) 228-7220; Sacramento California State Library (916) 654-0069; San Diego Public Library (619) 236-5813; San Francisco Public Library (Not Yet Operational?); Sunnyvale Patent Clearinghouse (408) 730-7290 Colorado: Denver Public Library (303) 640-8847 Connecticut: New Haven: Science Park Library (203) 786-5447 Delaware Newark: University of Delaware Library (302) 831-2965 Dist. of Columbia Washington: Howard University Libraries (202) 806-7252 Florida: Fort Lauderdale: Broward County Main Library (305) 357-7444 Miami-Dade Public Library (305) 375-2665; Orlando University of Central Florida (407) 823-2562; Tampa Campus Library, Univ. of South Florida (813) 974-2726 Georgia Atlanta: Price Gilbert Memorial Library, Georgia Institute of Technology (404) 894-4508 Hawaii: Honolulu: Hawaii State Public Library System (808) 586-3477 Idaho Moscow: University of Idaho Library (208) 885-6235 Illinois: Chicago Public Library (312) 747-4450; Springfield Illinois State Library (217) 782-5659 Indiana:Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library (317) 269-1741; West Lafayette: Siegesmund Engineering Library, Purdue University (317) 494-2873 Iowa: Des Moines: State Library of Iowa (515) 281-4118 Kansas: Wichita: Ablah Library, Wichita State University (316) 689-3155 Kentucky Louisville Free Public Library (502) 574-1611 Louisiana: Baton Rouge Troy H. Middleton Library, Louisiana State University (504) 388-2570 Maine: Orono: Raymond H. Fogler Library, University of Maine Not Yet Operational Maryland College Park: Engineering and Physical Sciences Library, University of Maryland (301) 405-9157 Massachusetts: Amherst: Physical Sciences Library, University of Massachusetts (413) 545-1370; Boston Public Library (617) 536-5400 Ext. 265 Michigan: Ann Arbor Engineering Library, University of Michigan (313) 764-5298; Big Rapids: Abigail S. Timme Library, Ferris State University (616) 592-3602; Detroit Public Library (313) 833-1450 Minnesota: Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center (612) 372-6570 Mississippi: Jackson: Mississippi Library Commission (601) 359-1036 Missouri: Kansas City: Linda Hall Library (816) 363-4600 St. Louis Public Library (314) 241-2288 Ext. 390 Montana: Butte: Montana College of Mineral Science and Technology Library (406) 496-4281 Nebraska: Lincoln: Engineering Library, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (402) 472-3411 Nevada: Reno University of Nevada, Reno Library (702) 784-6579 New Hampshire: Durham: University of New Hampshire Library (603) 862- 1777 New Jersey: Newark: Public Library (201) 733-7782 Piscataway: Library of Science and Medicine, Rutgers University (908) 445-2895 New Mexico: Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Gen. Libary (505) 277- 4412 New York: Albany New York State Library (518) 474-5355; Buffalo and Erie County Public Library (716) 858-7101; New York Public Library: (The Research Libraries) (212) 930-0917 North Carolina: Raleigh, D.H. Hill Library, North Carolina State University (919) 515-3280 * North Dakota: Grand Forks: Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota (701) 777-4888 Ohio Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Public Library of (513) 369-6936 Cleveland Public Library (216) 623-2870 *Columbus: Ohio State University Libraries (614) 292-6175; Toledo/Lucas County Public Library (419) 259-5212 Oklahoma: Stillwater, Oklahoma State University Center for International Trade Development (405) 744-7086 Oregon: Salem: Oregon State Library (503) 378-4239 Pennsylvania Philadelphia, The Free Library of (215) 686-5331; Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library of (412) 622-3138; University Park: Pattee Library, Pennsylvania State University (814) 865-4861 Rhode Island: Providence Public Library (401) 455-8027 South Carolina: Charleston, Medical University of South Carolina Library (803) 792-2372 Clemson University Libraries (803) 656-3024 South Dakota: Rapid City, Devereaux Library, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Not Yet Op. Tennessee: Memphis & Shelby County Public Library and Information Center (901) 725-8877 Nashville: Stevenson Science Library, Vanderbilt University (615) 322-2775 Texas: Austin, McKinney Engineering Library, University of Texas at Austin (512) 495-4500 College Station: Sterling C. Evans Library, Texas A & M University (409) 845-3826 Dallas Public Library (214) 670-1468 * Houston: The Fondren Library, Rice University (713) 527-8101 Ext. 2587 Utah Salt Lake City: Marriott Library, University of Utah (801) 581-8394 * Virginia: Richmond: James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-1104 Washington: Seattle, Engineering Library, University of Washington (206) 543-0740 West Virginia Morgantown: Evansdale Library, West Virginia University (304) 293-2510 Wisconsin Madison: Kurt F. Wendt Library, University of Wisconsin Madison (608) 262-6845; Milwaukee Public Library (414) 286-3247 * Wyoming: Casper, Natrona County Public Library Not Yet Operational -------------------------------- J. class 379: telephonic communications the whole enchilada -- your patent friend 1 DIAGNOSTIC TESTING, MALFUNCTION INDICATION, OR ELECTRICAL CONDITION MEASUREMENT 2 .Including fault responsive disconnection of tested component 3 .Of hybrid, or echosuppressor or canceller 4 .Of repeater 5 .By loopback 6 .By analysis of injected tone signal 7 .For detection of eavesdropping device 8 .With blocking of normal usage 9 .Of centralized switching system 10 ..By automatic testing sequence (e.g.,programmable scanning) 11 ...Routiner 12 ..With dedicated testing line or trunk 13 ..of call timing or charging equipment 14 ..Of plural exchange network 15 ..Of automatic switching equipment 16 ..Of switching path 17 ..Of switching selector 18 ..By use of call address signal 19 ...Rapid manual connecting structure for test equipment 20 ..of switchboard element condition (e.g., lamp) 21 .Using portable test set (e.g., handset type) 22 .Of trunk or long line 23 ..Of line signalling 24 ..Electrical parameter measurement(e.g., attenuation) 25 ..Conductor identification or location 26 ..Fault identification or location (e.g., continuity, leakage) 27 .Of subscriber loop terminal 28 ..of data transmission instrument 29 ..Terminal arrangement to enable remote testing (e.g., testing interface) 30 ...Loop impedance (e.g., resistance, capacitance) 31 ..Of line signalling generator (e.g., dial, tone code generator) 32 .Indication of non standardcondition of telephone equipment 33 ..Alarm or emergency (e.g., cut line) 34 SERVICE MONITORING OR OBSERVATION 35 . Listening-in or eavesdropping type 36 FREE CALLING FROM PAYSTATION 37 EMERGENCY OR ALARM COMMUNICATIONS (E.G., WATCHMAN'S CIRCUIT) 38 .Personal monitoring (e.g., for the ill or infirm) 39 .Response to sensed non system condition 40 ..Automatic dialing 41 ..Transmission of recorded audio message 42 ..Plural conditions 43 ..Fire 44 ..Intrusion 45 .Central office responsive to emergency call or alarm (e.g., "911", operator position display) 46 .Called line or station condition responsive (e.g., recall if busy) 47 .Plural alarms over single line 48 .Announcement or alarm received at terminal stations (e.g.,"butt-in" alarm) 49 .Central station with plural substation 50 .By pulse or digital signal 51 .With automatic dialing or transmission of recorded audio message 52 INCLUDING AID FOR HANDICAPPED USER (E.G., VISUAL, TACTILE, HEARING AID COUPLING) 53 WITH CONVERSATIONAL VIDEO COMMUNICATION (I.E., VIDEOPHONE) 54 .Switching control 55 HAVING NEAR FIELD LINK (E.G., CAPACITAVE, INDUCTIVE) 56 HAVING ELECTROMAGNETIC LINK FOR SPEECH OR PAGING SIGNAL (E.G., LIGHT WAVE LINK) 57 .Control of selectively responsive paging arrangement over telephone line 58 .Radio telephone system or instrument 59 ..Zoned or cellular system 60 ...Having zoned/cellular system switching (e.g., hand-off) 61 ..Including cordless extension set (i.e., having single subscriber line access) 62 ...With privacy or lockout (e.g., identity verification) 63 ..Including supervisory or control signaling 64 HAVING SINGLE CHANNEL TELEPHONE CARRIER 65 .Including call signalling (e.g., ringing, off-hook, dialing) 66 .Over power line 67 WITH AUDIO MESSAGE OR STORAGE RETRIEVAL 68 .Dynamic audio signal recording or reproduction 69 ..Call originating 70 ..Call intercept or answering 71 ...Consecutive use of recorded phrases or words to form message 72 ...Sequential or repeated announcement during single call initiated cycle 73 ...Plural record carrier channels 74 ...Remote control over telephone line 75 ....Remote dictation 76 ....Announcement selection or replacement 77 ....Control by generated tone 78 ...Acoustic coupling 79 ...With specified call initiated control circuitry 80 ....Voice signal presence responsive 81 ....Call termination responsive (hang-up) 82 ....Having specified call initiation (e.g., ringing) responsive circuitry 83 ....Structural detail of storage medium drive 84 ...At switching facility (e.g., central office, switchboard) 85 ..Recording of telephone signal during normal operation 86 ...Inductive pickup 87 ..Reproduced signal distributed over telephone line 88 .Stored in digital form 89 ..Subscriber control of central office message storage or retrieval 90 TELEPHONE LINE OR SYSTEM COMBINED WITH DIVERSE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM OR SIGNALLING (E.G., COMPOSITE) 91 .Credit authorization 92 .Polling (audience survey) 93 .With transmission of a digital message signal over a telephone line 94 ..Including switching station 95 ..Access restricting 96 ..Including terminal for display of digital information 97 ..By voice frequency signal (e.g., tone code) 98 ...By modulated audio tone 99 ...Having acoustic link 100 .To produce visual-graphic copy reproduction (e.g., facsimile) 101 .Audio program distribution 102 .Remote control 103 ..of entrance or exit lock 104 ..With indication 105 ..From terminal 106 .Remote indication over 107 .Meter reading 108 .Telegraphy 109 ..Over telephone line 110 COMPOSITE SUBSTATION OR TERMINAL (E.G., HAVING CALCULATOR, RADIO) 111 WITH MEASUREMENT (E.G., CALL OR TRAFFIC REGISTER) 112 .Computer or processor control 113 ..Call traffic recording 114 .Call charge metering or monitoring 115 ..Interexchange operations 116 ..Hardcopy record generating 117 ..Of station on polystation or party line 118 ...Identification of station 119 ..Hardcopy record generating (e.g., ticket printing) 120 ...With line I.D. or class of service determination 121 ..At central office 122 ...With display 123 ...Paystation (e.g., escrow control) 124 ...Pulse counting or accumulating (e.g., "message metering") 125 ....Local or zone 126 ....Automatic message accounting 127 ....Having line identification (e.g., automatic #I.D.:"ANI" 128 ....Time of day controlled 129 ...Manually set (e.g., key and lock) 130 ..At subscriber station 131 ...Time controlled 132 ....Paystation (e.g., escrow control) 133 .Call traffic recording or monitoring 134 ..At central station 135 ...With hardcopy record generation (e.g., ticket generation) 136 ...With display 137 ...Trunk usage (e.g., peg count) 138 ....All trunks busy metering 139 ...Counting the number of completed connections 140 ..At subscriber 141 ...Mechanical register 142 WITH CALLING NUMBER DISPLAY OR RECORDING AT CALLED SUBSTATION 143 WITH CHECK OPERATED CONTROL (E.G., PAYSTATION) 144 .Other than coin 145 .Fraud or interference prevention 146 .Coin signalling or control 147 ..Coin box audit or totalizer 148 ..Denomination 149 ..Post-pay coin collection 150 ...Coin disposition (return or collection) 151 ...Upon connection to called station 152 ...Magnet, electromagnet, or relay controlled from central office 153 ...Paystation (e.g., control by refund key) 154 .At central office 155 .At terminal station (e.g., coin paystation) 156 MULTI-LINE OR KEY SUBSTATION SYSTEM WITH SELECTIVE SWITCHING AND CENTRAL SWITCHING OFFICE CONNECTION 157 .With special service 158 ..Conferencing 159 .With intercom system 160 ..With connection of intercom station to subscriber line 161 .With exclusion or priority feature (e.g., lockout or privacy) 162 .Detail of hold circuitry 163 ..Electronic 164 .Line status indication or call alerting 165 .Switching or supervision feature (e.g., common control, digital) 166 .Detail of line circuit or line card 167 PRIVATE (E.G., HOUSE OR INTERCOM) OR SINGLE LINE SYSTEM 168 .Lockout 169 ..Central power source 170 .With paging 171 .Having plural stations with selective calling (e.g., master) 172 ..With call addressing 173 .With call addressing 174 .Including body or apparel supported terminal (e.g., headgear) 175 ..For underwater use (e.g., in diver's suit) 176 .With central power source 177 POLYSTATION LINE SYSTEM (I.E. PARTY LINE) 178 .Revertive call 179 .Call alerting (ringing) 180 ..Full selective or tuned (e.g., harmonic) 181 ..Semi selective (e.g., line side, polarized) 182 .Automatic or unattended 183 ..Station identification 184 ..Lockout 185 .Portable or mobile 186 .Central power source 187 .Connected to central office 188 CALL OR TERMINAL ACCESS ALARM OR CONTROL 189 .Fraud or improper use mitigating or indication ("blue box","black box") 190 .Time out 191 ..At switching center 192 ...Of call duration (e.g., conversation timer) 193 ...Of specific equipment 194 .Lockout or double use signalling 195 ..In automatic system 196 .At switching center 197 ..Central office 198 ..PBX 199 At substation 200 ..Restrictive dialing circuit 201 SPECIAL SERVICES 202 .Conferencing 203 ..Operator control 204 ..Subscriber control 205 ...Conference initiation by single calling station 206 ..At substation 207 .At plural exchanges 208 .Priority override (e.g., butt-in) 209 .Repetitive call attempts (e.g., camp on busy, retry) 210 .Call diversion (e.g., call capture) 211 ..Call forwarding 212 ..Call transfer 213 ..Intercept (e.g., dead or changed number) 214 ..Secretarial or answering service 215 .Call waiting 216 .Abbreviated dialing or direct call (e.g., hot line) 217 .Audible paging 218 .Performed by operator (e.g., butt-in, busy verification) 219 PLURAL EXCHANGE NETWORK OR INTERCONNECTION 220 .With interexchange network routing 221 ..Alternate routing 222 .Toll center 223 ..With operator assistance 224 .Tandem switching center 225 .Multi-PBX interconnection 226 .Having a manual exchange 227 ..With an automatic exchange 228 ..Having signalling to operator 229 .Interexchange signaling 230 ..Signalling path distinct from trunk (e.g., CCIS) 231 ..Central office-to-PBX signalling 232 ...PBX trunk groups 233 ...Direct inward dialing 234 ..PBX to central office signalling (e.g., direct outward dialing) 235 ..Voice frequency signalling over trunk 236 ..DC signalling over trunk 237 ...Pulse or digital signalling 238 ....Having signalling repeater 239 ....Using register sender 240 ..Interexchange trunk circuit 241 ...Glare or simultaneous seizure mitigation 242 CENTRALIZED SWITCHING SYSTEM 243 .Class of service determination or transmission 244 ..In common control system 245 .Identification 246 ..Of line or trunk 247 ...With display 248 ...Using matrix 249 ...For nuisance call mitigation 250 .Four wire switching 251 .With generating of call associated substation signal 252 ..For alerting signal at called station (e.g., ringing) 253 ...Electronic 254 ...Associated with connector 255 ...With interrupter 256 ..Having automatic or through ringing 257 ..For calling station (e.g., status or progress tones) 258 .Switching controlled in response to called station addressing signal 259 ..Including deflected electron beam switching device or mechanical or optical switching control (e.g., fluidic) 260 ..With operator position or completion of call (e.g., dial "0") 261 ...Operator controlled register sender 262 ...Call extension by operator 263 ....With call indicator or announcer 264 ....A to B operator 265 ...Call distribution to operator 266 ....Call queuing 267 ...Operator's console 268 ..Having shared or common switching control 269 ...Distributed control 270 ...In-stage or interstage scanning (e.g., link scanning) 271 ...Having multistage switching 272 ....Path selection or routing 273 .....Alternate routing 274 ......With busy or idle test 275 .....Including marking circuit 276 ......End to end marking (e.g., self seeking) 277 .....With busy or idle test 278 ....Interstage junctor or "trunk" 279 ...Control reliability (e.g., reliability) 280 ...Including registering or storing device for call address signal 281 ....Conversion between dial pulse and voice frequency signal 282 ....Voice frequency receiver 283 .....Dual tone multifrequency (DTMF) receiver 284 ....With processor 285 ....With magnetic memory 286 ....Signal processing (e.g., dial pulse analysis) 287 ....Electronic 288 ....Register-sender 289 ...Translator 290 ...With time division of Control or supervisory signals 291 ...With detail of crosspoint switching structure (e.g., crossbar) 292 ....Electronic crosspoint (e.g.,solid state) 293 ..Having line finder 294 ...Including electronic element 295 ...Plural 296 ..With repeater 297 ..Having specified busy-idle test 298 ..Direct control 299 ...Step-by-step system 300 ....Having plural wiper sets 301 ....Having potential control 302 ....Having rotary switch 303 ....Coordinate system (e.g., X-Y) 304 ...All relay type 305 ...Having motor driven switch 306 ..With crosspoint switch detail 307 ..With power supply 308 .Switching apparatus for connecting calling line to operator's position 309 ..Call distribution or queuing 310 .Divided central (e.g., communication between switchboards) 311 ..Having signalling path feature 312 .Having multiple answering jacks for multiple line 313 .Multiple section switchboard 314 ..Auxiliary (e.g., overflow) 315 .With line-signal control 316 ..Spring-jack cut off 317 ..Relay cut off 318 ..Central power source 319 .Single switchboard (e.g., cord circuit) 320 ..Switchboard circuit 321 ..Connection to operator's terminal 322 .Power supply 323 ..Power to switching equipment 324 ..Central power source (e.g., common battery, line current feed) 325 .Structure of equipment 326 ..Wire or cable distribution 327 ...Main or intermediate distribution frame 328 ..Equipment mounting or support 329 ...Allowing movement of equipment (e.g., movable, modular) 330 ..Housing 331 .Having protective circuit 332 .Plug and socket 333 CONCENTRATOR OR TRUNK SELECTOR 334 .Concentrator distributor pair (e.g., line concentrator) 335 .Using crossbar or crosspoint switching 338 REPEATER (E.G., VOICE FREQUENCY) 339 .With signal conversion (e.g., dial to DTMF, analog to PCM) 340 .Having line length compensation or equalization 341 .Pulse or tone repeater 342 ..Electronic (e.g., logic circuitry) 343 .Controlled by a pilot or reference signal 344 .Controlled processes bi-directional signal 345 ..Including two to four wire conversion or hybrid circuit 346 .With frequency discriminator or negative impedance element 347 .With gain or attenuation control 348 . Transmission of power to distant repeater 349 .Having voice frequency transformer 350 SUPERVISORY OR CONTROL LINE SIGNALLING 351 .Signalling integrity protection (e.g., voice signal immunity) 352 .Substation originated 353 ..Conversion of signal form 354 ..With called number display 355 ..Repertory or abbreviated call signal generation 356 ...With dynamic memory 357 ...Insertable control elementor circuitry (e.g., card) 358 ...By motor driven dial rotating device 359 ...Pulse signal generating (card) 360 ..Voice frequency band signalling (e.g., reed devices) 361 ...Electronic (e.g., tone generator) 362 ..Pulse signal generator (e.g., rotary dial) 363 ...Control of motor driven rotating device 364 ...With nonrotary actuator (e.g., key or slide type) 365 ...Specified switching contact (e.g., contact spring) 366 ...With detail of dial return mechanism (e.g., driving spring, speed governor) 367 ...Finger wheel or mechanical adjunct (e.g., finger stop) 368 ..Plural-switch number input device (keypad) 369 ..Detail of mounting of switch pad or dial 370 ...In handset 371 ..Magneto signalling 372 .Signal reception at substation 373 ..Incoming call alerting (e.g., ringing) 374 ...With music or audible music generation 375 ...With electronic call sounder (tone ringer) 376 ...With visual indication of incoming call 377 .Using line or loop condition detection (e.g., line circuit) 378 ..With current controlling electromagnetic core device (Hall-effect) 379 ..With optical link between line and switching system 380 ..By bridge circuit 381 ..Busy test or make busy 382 ..For ring trip or polarity reversal detection 383 ..Of plural lines 384 ...By scanning 385 ..Relayless 386 .Signal receiver (e.g, tone decoder) 387 SUBSTATION OR TERMINAL CIRCUITRY 388 .For loudspeaking terminal 389 ..For circuitry for voice control of transmission direction 390 ..With amplification or attenuation level control 391 .Sidetone control or hybrid circuit (einduction coil) 392 ..Suppression (e.g., antisidestone) 393 .Hold circuit 394 .Impedance matching or line equalizing 395 .Amplifying 396 .Visual signalling (lamp) 397 .Wire distribution 398 LINE EQUALIZATION OR IMPEDANCE MATCHING 399 SUBSCRIBER LINE OR TRANSMISSION LINE INTERFACE 400 .For line length compensation 401 ..Voltage boosting circuitry 402 .Hybrid circuit 403 ..With adjustable balance circuit 404 ...Automatic adjustment 405 ..Electronic noninductive 406 .Echo suppression, antisinging, or reverse path blocking 407 ..Disable or inhibit 408 ..Control by pilot frequency signal 409 ..Having variolosser or attenuator 410 ..Echo cancellation (e.g., phase opposition) 411 ...Having transversal filter 412 .Protective circuit 413 .Power supply (e.g. battery feed) 414 TRANSMISSION LINE CONDITIONING 415 .Reactance neutralizing 416 .Interference suppression 417 ..Anti-crosstalk 418 CALL SIGNAL GENERATING (RINGING OR TONE GENERATOR) 419 TERMINAL 420 .Having loudspeaking conversation capability (e.g., hands-free type or speakerphone) 421 .Having muting 422 .Switch or switch actuator structure 423 ..Line selection 424 ..Receiver or handset position responsive (e.g., hookswitch) 425 ...With mechanism for latching hookswitch or plunger against motion 426 ...Movable holder for receiver or handset 427 ...Having plunger and lever linkage 428 .Housing or housing component 429 ..Having distinct circuitry support structure (circuit board) 430 ..Body supported (e.g. headgear) 431 ..Separate housings for earphone and microphone (e.g., candlestick type) 432 ..Loudspeaking set 433 ..Handset structure 434 ..Specified terminal configuration (e.g., novelty type) 435 ..Wall set/convertible 436 ..Desk set 437 ..Protective structure 438 ..Of cord or connector 439 ...Antiseptic 440 ..Casing or enclosure 441 TERMINAL ACCESSORY OR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT 442 .With circuit connection to terminal 443 .Including coupler (e.g., inductive) 444 ..Acoustic 445 .Locking device 446 .Telephone receiver support 447 .Attachable to terminal housing 448 ..Hookswitch operator 449 ..Handset holder (e.g., shoulder rest) 450 ..Clips onto terminal structure 451 .Protective structure 452 ..Antiseptic, disinfecting or disposable 453 .Hood or enclosure (booth) 454 .Support or stand 455 ..Handset holder 456 .Dialing tool 457 MISCELLANEOUS --------------------- VI Who's Bugging You?: privateline talks with Chris Hall About Chris Hall Chris Hall is the Chief Operating Officer for Executive Protection Associates, Inc., a worldwide company providing high-level investigations, security consulting, and privacy protection strategy to Industry, Individuals, and Celebrities. Mr. Hall has over 15 years of experience in Law, Business, Investigations, Professional Bodyguarding, and Intelligence analysis. Mr. Hall has conducted covert surveillance, counter-surveillance, intelligence gathering and analysis, and has lead a team of up to 10 Bodyguards for a Fortune 500 employer, celebrities, and dignitaries. Mr. Hall maintains a business interest in an electronic engineering firm that designs and markets electronic surveillance and counter- surveillance equipment for public and private customers. He is currently assigned to Professional Executive Investigations, where he heads EPAI's California licensed Private Investigation Agency, and the EPAI Training Division. He is the North American Regional Governor for the IAPPS ( International Association of Personal Protection Specialists ( Bodyguards ). Mr. Hall will be a regular contributor to private line and can be reached via e-mail at: cntrspy@ix.netcom.com Future Topics: - Counter-Surveillance for fun and enjoyment. - Personal Security - Open-Source Intelligence Gathering. - Social Engineering 101. - Privacy Protection in the 90's. - Off-Shore, and why you need to be there. - How to get a Second Legal passport. - So you want to be a Monk, Knight, Doctor ? Then read on. . . - How to get a "refugee" passport and international status. private line talks with Chris Hall . . . NOTE: Chris Hall helped give a great talk at Def Con about electronic security. He'll be a regular contributor to private line on a number of subjects. This e-mail interview is about telephone security. My questions are in italics. TF: It seems there are three ways to monitor a telephone conversation: a "hardwired" wiretap, an electronic bug or transmitter and REMOBS or Remote Observation. Any others? CH: A body wire but that only gets one side of the conversation. And a beige box or a lineman's handset, which is a kind of remote observation. TF: What constitutes a wiretap? CH: Any unauthorized ( by the tap-ee) monitoring of your telephone communications or room conversation. TF: Do you come across many? CH: In my years in the industry I have seen the number of discovered taps increase by at least 60% in just the past five years. Mostly in industry -- high-tech, bio-tech, etc. TF: A wiretap, to me, conjures up visions of policemen huddled in a rented room, bent over a tape recorder. Perhaps across the street from the observed site. Is this accurate or do they just leave the tape recorder in place and change the tapes when needed? CH: Police or Federal wiretaps usually are REMOBS ( Remote Observation Posts ) and can be several miles away. Most are usually unmanned and recorded on digital tape or digitized and stored on disk for later analysis. Most authorized taps are done at the central office, and routed to the REMOB point where it can be either manned ( if a sensitive operation is on-going) or unmanned. It's kind of like modern surveillance for the PI. You used to be stuck in the back of a windowless van for hours on end waiting for activity to video tape. Now, with technology, I can use a rented car, park it across from the subject location, use a pin-hole camera shot through mylar in the turn signal, control it via radio with a DTMF pad (pan, tilt, zoom), and have it transmit through a video repeater and watch or record it miles away in my office or hotel room ( if out of town ) while eating a pizza and watching "Party of Five" on the other TV. The technology today is phenomenal. TF: Can you detect a wiretap if it is off site? CH: Central office taps are nearly impossible to detect. Especially if it is an authorized tap. About the only way you will find out is when they produce the transcript at the trial. TF: Can you detect it if it is on site? CH: Almost all taps on-site can be detected by a competent electronic countermeasures technician. Most ECM techs are sloppy. TF: Let's talk specifics. Doesn't any device working off of line power affect the electrical status of the line? Can't this change be detected? CH: Yes, if it is using line power. There are several crystal controlled transmitter kits that work off of a battery and are very high impedance. I have seen these used in training sessions and the telco people miss them in a sweep of the line. If a knowledgeable amateur places them correctly, it is very difficult to locate them with line sweep gear. TF: Ever run across any police wiretaps in your investigations? What happened? CH: Most wire taps we run across are either amateur or what we call "wildcat" taps. A wildcat tap is an unauthorized tap usually performed by law enforcement to gain intelligence information. They then use the intel to build a case or to develop snitches. We have run across a few wildcat taps in our work and the resultant contact was not pleasant. TF: Describe a typical bug. CH: Typical bug is a crystal controlled FM transmitter with an electret mic attached directly to it or remoted via thin wire to the target listening position. With surface mount technology they can be quite small and powerful. TF: Do most use line power or batteries? CH: Cheap garbage uses line power, most higher end use batteries, high- high end use external exciter like microwave energy and the like. TF: You talked about the cheaper bugs at Def Con. These seem to be the ones offered in catalogs, the so called "free oscillating types" that use the VHF band. Correct? CH: Those are the ones. They are garbage. Most operate on Wide FM just outside the standard FM radio band, are low powered and very frequency unstable. We use them in training, however, at the basic level. TF: Do you see any of them in use or is this strictly low budget? CH: Seventh graders bugging their sister's room, disgruntled employees bugging the bosses office, that's about the extent of it. Don't see any in industrial espionage, but that doesn't mean we don't look for them TF: Describe the difference between those bugs and the crystal controlled ones. CH: Crystal controlled use far more transistors and, of course, a crystal for stability and power. Most are battery powered and hide in "nestled" frequencies near active services. All I know of are FM. TF: What freqs do these bugs use? CH:I have seen Low VHF, High VHF (old fed stuff is near wireless mic frequencies, new stuff is frequency hopping or spread spectrum). Some UHF, but not too many. Highest is usually near Military aero at around 300 MHz. TF: What do they cost? CH: From $50 to $200 in kit form. TF: What's involved in a sweep? Walking around with a frequency counter? CH: That's part of it, but it is much more extensive than that. Physical search is the most important. That means opening every electrical outlet, switch, light bulb base, etc., followed by an RF search over time with a sub-audible marker tone, spectrum analysis looking for anything that doesn't "belong", then a non-linear junction detector sweep, plus some other methods (especially for fiber optics) that we don't discuss. TF: What is a "non linear junction sweep"? CH: Basically a device that detects semi-conductors including surface mount components (transistors), etc. It is useful when sweeping a wall and you can't tear off all of the drywall, but you want to be sure nothing is behind it. TF: Ever find any decoy bugs? That is, do people ever plant one that is easy to find and leave behind another? CH: Very common, in fact, that is a good way to test a prospective electronic counter-measures service provider. Do it yourself. TF: Ever find a transmitter but not find who did it? CH: Most of the time, unless we have good background or advance intelligence. There are signatures in the business , however, that point fingers. It is a craft. TF: What's the range on a good transmitter? CH: In training I have seen up to four blocks on a battery powered telco transmitter correctly placed, and with good receiving equipment. Kind of like using a cordless phone. TF: What's the neatest technical installation you've seen? CH: Hard wire burst transmitter. They used a trace repair pen after placing the microphone to draw the leads for the mic to the transmitter, then painted over it. The transmitter used a chip to store information and then it transmitted it in "blips" which made it hard to detect. TF: Any funny war story you can share? CH: Not really funny but a client's employee kept getting a signal from near a light switch at a clients residence on top of a hill. The hill above was a congested radio repeater site, and the employee called us only after he had destroyed all the wallboard surrounding the light switch looking for the "bug". We found it was only a radio reflection off of the metal cornering they use on drywall interiors from a 50,000 watt radio station. We got all their business after that incident. TF: Find many bosses syping on employees? How far do they go? CH: We don't really run across this much since it is usually the boss that hires us. Have heard of it though. Lots of companies monitor and record fax traffic now. How far they can go depends on what kind of form you signed at the time of your employment. I have heard of them going as far as they could, till they got caught. TF: How are faxes and data transmissions intercepted? CH: Usually logged, recorded and stored on a PC, then later analyzed with software. TF: Many offices use all digital PBX's. How does this affect monitoring when you have a digital signal? More expensive equipment needed? CH: It's more expensive to monitor at the switch, but not at the individual telephone. PBX people, though, are a weak link. They're low paid and ripe for social engineering. It is a weak area we analyze for our clients. TF: Ever hear of someone tapping an optic fiber line? Does the test equipment for it allow a person to do such a thing? CH: It's available now, and I have heard from very reliable sources that there is a method that doesn't even involve a physical tap of the line but it's mega expensive and although not classified, it's reserved for the government types. TF: What do you think of Zimmerman's effort to build a secure phone based on PGP? CH: I'd love to buy a license and distribute it ! I'm waiting and watching. Like everyone else. TF: Are scramblers silly? CH: Cheap inversion scramblers are silly, STU phones and DES 3 are still useful. I use a transcrypt digital unit on my cell phone. All of the radios we use for our executive protection details are scrambled at a high level. TF: What is a transcrypt digital unit? CH:Transcrypt International makes a surface mount board that mounts inside a Motorola flip phone and mates to a Motorola supplied connector. To activate it, you simply press two digits on the keypad of the flip phone, and your voice is digitally encrypted and then decrypted at the other end by a Transcrypt hardwire phone, or another cell phone with compatible code and unit. There is something like four trillion code combinations to encrypt with. Those are programmed in by the dealer. It is a slick unit and we use them extensively. It is digitally controlled analog encryption and the voice channel sounds like static mixed with modem tones. TF: Is it possible to tap a line without making a physical connection? That is, can you do it by induction? Like a pickup microphone on a guitar? CH: Sure, all rules of electronics apply. You would probably have to amplify it and send it down another pair or via RF for any kind of distance. ................. Chris Hall, C.O.O. Executive Protection Associates, Inc. * Opinions Expressed are those of the author and NOT those of EPAI* EPAIWWW- http://www.mps.ohio-state.edu/cgibin/hpp?spook_stuff. html IAPPS WWW-http://www.mps.ohio-state.edu/cgi bin/hpp?Iapps_home.html -------------------------------- VI FEDERAL TOLL FRAUD LAW I discussed California Penal Code $502.7 in the first issue. It prohibits both credit card fraud and electronic devices used to commit toll fraud. 18 U.S.C. 1029 is the rough federal equivalent. It does not, however, contain any specific language prohibiting electronic tone generators like rainbow boxes, red boxes or blue boxes. It is, instead, almost exclusively concerned with stolen codes and account numbers. The only electronic device it seems to prohibit are cloned cellular phones. You may have wondered what gets the Secret Service involved with toll fraud -- this law answers that question. Here is the full text of Title 18 United States Code section 1029 as I went to print in November, 1994. The digital telephony bill has since amended it. Those amendments will be in issue number 6 that comes out in May, 1995. My comments are in contained within asterisks. $1029. Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices (a) Whoever -- (1) knowingly and with intent to defraud produces, uses, or traffics in one or more counterfeit access devices; (2) knowingly and with intent to defraud traffics in or uses one or more unauthorized access devices during any one-year period, and by such conducts obtains anything of value aggregating $1,000 or more during that period; (3) knowingly and with intent to defraud possesses fifteen or more devices which are counterfeit or unauthorized access devices; or (4) knowingly, and with intent to defraud, produces, traffics in, has control or custody of, or possesses device making equipment; shall, if the offense affects interstate or foreign commerce, be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section. *An access device is vaguely defined in section (e) later on. For now, think of an access device as any stolen code, stolen credit card or stolen telephone calling card. Any 'device' (a legal word of art) used to access someone else's account. You must run up a $1,000 bill before the Feds can come in. In reality, the government may not act at that level because of their caseload. You never know. They also have to connect you to the calls and the calls must cross state lines.* (b)(1) Whoever attempts to commit an offense under subsection (a) of this section shall be punished as provided in subsection (c) of this section. (2) Whoever is a party to a conspiracy of two or more persons to commit an offense under subsection (a) of this section, if any of the parties engage in any conduct in furtherance of such offense, shall be fined an amount not greater than the amount provided as the maximum fine for such offense under subsection (c) of this section or imprisoned not longer than one--half of the period provided as the maximum imprisonment for such offense under subsection (c) of this section, or both. (c) The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) or (b)(1) of this section is -- (1) a fine of not more than the greater of $10,000 or twice the value obtained by the offense or imprisonment for not more than ten years, or both, in the case of an offense under subsection (a)(2) or (a)(3) of this section which does not occur after a conviction for another offense under either subsection, or an attempt to commit an offense punishable under this paragraph; (2) a fine of not more than the greater of $50,000 or twice the value obtained by the offense or imprisonment for not more than fifteen years, or both, in the case of a subsection (a)(1) or (a)(4) of this section which does not occur after a conviction for another offense under either such subsection, or an attempt to commit an offense punishable under this paragraph; and (3) a fine of not more than the greater of $100,000 or twice the value obtained by the offense or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both, in the case of an offense under subsection (a) which occurs after a conviction for another offense under this subsection, or an attempt to commit an offense punishable under this paragraph. (d) The United States Secret Service shall, in addition to any other agency having such authority, have the authority to investigate an offense under this section. Such authority of the United States Secret Service shall be exercised in accordance with an agreement which shall be entered into by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney General. *The Secret Service was first set up to fight counterfeiting during Lincoln's time. They've had different duties through the years but they are still used as the shock troops in many fraud related cases.* (e) As used in this section - - (1) the term "access device" means any card, plate, code, account number, or other means of account access that can be used, alone or in conjunction with another access device to obtain money, goods, services, or any other thing of value, or that can be used to initiate a transfer of funds (other than a transfer originated solely by paper instrument); (2) the term "counterfeit access device" means any access device that is counterfeit, fictitious, altered, or forged, or an identifiable component of an access device or a counterfeit access device: (3) the term "unauthorized access device" means any access device that is lost, stolen, expired, revoked, canceled, or obtained with intent to defraud; (4) the term "produce" includes design, alter, authenticate, duplicate or assemble; (5) the term "traffic" means transfer, or otherwise dispose of, to another, or impression designed or primarily used for making an access device or a counterfeit access device. (6) the term "device-making equipment" means any equipment, mechanism, or impression designed or primarily used for making an access device or a counterfeit access device. *Does the definition of an access device include electronic tone generators? Bruce Sterling, author of The Hacker Crackdown thought so. He wrote that "[s]tandard phreaking devices, such as blue boxes, used to steal phone service from old fashioned mechanical switches are unquestionably "counterfeit access devices." Redboxes might be questionable as well. Sterling, though, wrote his comments in 1991, two years before the Brady case was decided. In US v Brady, 820 F.Supp. 346 (D. Utah 1993), aff'd 13F3d 334 a man was accused of using and selling altered cellular phones in violation of section 1029. Brady set up his phones to tumble calls. Tumbling confuses a switch. It allows a call to be made without a bill to an account. The government contended that his phones accessed the accounts of the telco itself and hence constituted an access device. The court disagreed The court held that since his tumbled calls did not access a subscriber account they were not an access device within the meaning of section 1029. They did state that he would have violated section 1029 if he had cloned his phones. Cloned phones do access at least two accounts. The telco did keep an accounting of lost calls caused by tumbling. But that is not the same as an account itself. Lost blue box and red box calls are also kept track of when and if discovered. The court, in fact, specifically mentioned blue boxes in their decision. In so doing they gave us all a lot more hope that the Secret Service will not kick in our doors looking for tone generators: "The Government maintains that the charges for 'unmatched' calls handled as thus described represent a "direct accounting loss" to Cellular One within the meaning of section 1029 as construed in McNutt. In effect, the Government argues that access to the cellular carrier's system translates into access to the carrrier's own accounts through which the cost of system usage is allocated within and between carriers. Yet the same reasoning would seem to apply to use of the older, less sophisticated "blue boxes" used to gain access to the long distance telephone system. A so called 'blue box' uses no account number or access code at all; it emits a 2600Hz tone which permitted the user to 'free ride,' to gain access to the system and place long distance calls which were not charged to any customer account [footnote deleted] See, e.g., United States v. Foster, 580 F.2d 388 (10th Cir.1978); United States v. Patterson, 528 F.2d 1037 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 942, 97 S.Ct. 361, 50 L.Ed.2d 313 (1976). Long distance calls placed with blue boxes are listed in telephone company records in a fashion similar to 'unmatched' cellular calls described by the Government's witnesses. This court has not found a reported case in which a 'blue box' used 'for the purposes of circumventing the charges on interstate long-distance calls' has been deemed to be an account 'access device' within the meaning of section 1029(e)(1) on the theory that the 'blue box' gained access to the telephone company's own accounts. See, e.g., United States v. Disla, 805 F.2d 1340." Isn't the law fun? Think you're safe? At least from the Feds? Maybe. The court, after all, wasn't addressing the question of whether tone generators were covered by section 1029, they were deciding on whether a tumbling cellular phone was. These side opinions are called dicta. But let me tell you folks, this is dammed powerful dicta.* (f) This section does not prohibit any lawfully authorized investigative, protective or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency of the United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a State, or of an intelligence agency of the United States, or any activity authorized under chapter 224 of this title. For purposes of this subsection, the term "State" includes a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States. -end- MORE INFO? privateline@delphi.com .. .