13: Wireless And Broadcast Harvard CSCI E-2a December 15, 2008

1. 13: Wireless And Broadcast Harvard CSCI E-2a December 15, 2008

4. regulation source Broadcast radio And TV Books and newspapers internet ? ? ? destination

6. regulation source Books and newspapers Broadcast radio and TV internet Less regulation More regulation ? ? ? destination

8. April 15, 1912

9. Alignment of • Military interests • Commercial interests • Huge public catalyzing event • Result is … Congress acts

10. When the world weeps together over a common loss .. why should not the nations clear the sea of its conflicting idioms and wisely regulate this new servant of humanity [radio]? Speech on US Senate floor, May 28, 1912 William Alden Smith

11. Radio Act of 1912 • no one could broadcast without a license from the Secretary of Commerce • permissible frequencies were assigned by the Secretary of Commerce • Military • got excellent frequencies, especially the navy • Commercial shipping and other commercial use • Amateurs • got banned altogether from “useful” frequencies • relegated to what were called the "short wavelengths“ (above 1000KHz) which at that time considered technologically unusable

12. Commercial (wireless telegraphy) Military Amateur (unusable) Herbert Hoover

14. This section [requiring licensing] does not give the head of that department [Commerce] discretionary power over the issue of licenses .. The license system proposed is substantially the same as that in use for the documenting upward of 25,000 merchant vessels. -- Report of House committee that recommended passage of the Radio Act of 1912

15. Herbert Hoover Commercial (wireless telegraphy) Military

16. Broadcasting uses a “a great national asset,” i.e. the spectrum, So it is “of primary public interest to say who is to do the broadcasting, under what circumstances, and with what type of material.” Herbert Hoover, Speech to the First National Radio Conference, February 27, 1922 Herbert Hoover 1874-1964

17. United States v. Zenith Radio Corp. et al.12 F.2d 614; 1926 The Secretary of Commerce is required to issue the license subject to the regulations in the [Radio Act of 1912]. The Congress has withheld from him the power to prescribe additional regulations. and quoting the Supreme Court: “When we consider the nature and the theory of our institutions of government, the principles upon which they are supposed to rest, and review the history of their development, we are constrained to conclude that they do not mean to leave room for the play and action of purely personal and arbitrary power.”

18. Radio Act of 1927 • There would be no private ownership in the spectrum • So from 1927 on, the spectrum was public property • spectrum licensed by Federal Radio Commission: FRC • standard for licensing was public interest standard • Successor was the Communications Act of 1934. Combined regulation for wired and wireless. FRC became the FCC (Federal Communications Commission)

19. Radio Act of 1927 SEC. 29. Nothing in this Act shall be understood or construed to give the licensing authority the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted by any radio station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the licensing authority which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communications. No person within the jurisdiction of the United States shall utter any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communications.

20. Amendment I • Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

21. John Romulus Brinkley (1885-1941)The Goat Gland SurgeonRadio Station KFKB (Kansas First, Kansas Best)

22. KFKB Broadcasting Ass’n, Inc.,v. Federal Radio Commission60 App. D.C. 79; 47 F.2d 670;1931 • It is apparent, we think, that the [broadcasting] business is impressed with a public interest and that, because the number of available broadcasting frequencies is limited, the commission is necessarily called upon to consider the character and quality of the service to be rendered.

23. National Broadcasting Co. v. U. S.,319 U.S. 190 (1943) … the radio spectrum simply is not large enough to accommodate everybody. There is a fixed natural limitation upon the number of stations that can operate without interfering with one another. Unlike other modes of expression, radio inherently is not available to all. That is its unique characteristic, and that is why, unlike other modes of expression, it is subject to governmental regulation. … - Justice Felix Frankfurter

24. Books and newspapers Broadcast radio and TV internet regulation source bits Less regulation More regulation ? ? ? destination

25. Essentially FALSE? National Broadcasting Co. v. U. S.,319 U.S. 190 (1943) … the radio spectrum simply is not large enough to accommodate everybody. There is a fixed natural limitation upon the number of stations that can operate without interfering with one another. - Justice Felix Frankfurter

26. Spread Spectrum Tradeoff:Lower Power <==> Larger Bandwidth to Get Same Channel Capacity (bits/sec) http://sss-mag.com/primer.html#ds

27. Hedy Lamarr

28. Hedy Lamarr • ~1914: Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna • First woman to appear nude in a feature film, Ecstasy (1933), when she was age 19 After release of film, married wealthy industrialist Fritz Mandl, who tried to buy up and burn all the prints

30. Hedy Lamarr Hostess for Mandl’s parties in Vienna, where they entertained his business friends “Any girl can be glamorous. All she has to do is stand still and look stupid.”

31. Louis Mayer and America • Kiesler became increasingly hostile both to the Nazis and to her husband Mandl • In 1937 she hired a maid who looked like her, then drugged the maid and escaped to Paris in the maid’s uniform • She met movie mogul Louis Mayer, who gave her a movie contract and the name Hedy Lamarr • Divorced Mandl on grounds of desertion • Emigrated to America and settled in Hollywood

32. George Antheil • Born 1900 in New Jersey, of Prussian parents • Studied music in Philadelphia, became concert pianist in Berlin and Paris • Avant-garde composer of “mechanistic” pieces such as Airplane Sonata and Death of Machines • Ballet Mécanique was scored for 16 player pianos, xylophone, and percussion; one production had electric bells, airplane propellers, and siren

33. Antheil in the US Man Ray photo • By 1933, Antheil’s music was out of fashion and he was broke and moved to California • Invented the “See Note” system of musical notation, read down the page with each column representing one note, like a player piano roll - also a commercial failure

34. Antheil and Endocrinology • 1936, Esquire: Glandbook for the Questing Male and The Glandbook for Practical Use

36. The Glandbook in Practical Use (Esquire, June 1936)

37. Lamarr and Antheil • In 1940 Lamarr arranges to meet Antheil in Hollywood • She knows about Antheil’s applied endocrinology and wants to know how to enlarge her nnnnnnn • The next night they talk again and Lamarr says she is thinking of quitting MGM and offering her services to the National Inventor’s Council • “They could just have me around, and ask me questions”

38. What Hedy Lamarr Knew Lamarr learned a lot while standing around and looking stupid at parties Fritz Mandl was a munitions maker and his regular dinner guests included:

39. The Invention • Lamarr understands major problems in weapons design • She has some ideas about unjammable torpedo guidance systems • She explains to Antheil the idea of spread spectrum frequency hopping to prevent interception and jamming • She does not know how to control the sequencing of frequencies

40. Antheil:“With a Player Piano Roll!” Short transmissions at different frequencies = a kind of spectrum spreading

43. The Fate of the Invention • Out of patriotism, Lamarr and Antheil give the patent to the Navy and never receive any royalties • She helps the war effort by selling kisses at $50,000 each, raising $7M in War Bonds in one night • The Navy classifies but does not implement the invention, reluctant to put player pianos into torpedoes • In the 1950s electronic control became possible, and frequency hopping became the basis for all secret military communications • First heavily used for secret communications in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962

44. The Curious End of Hedy Lamarr • Antheil dies in 1959, never seeing the fruit of his labors • Lamarr runs through six husbands, several fortunes, and two shoplifting arrests • She develops a habit of suing almost anyone who mentions her name in public, but wins few of the lawsuits • In 1997, with spread spectrum technology now being used to secure millions of cell phone conversations, Lamarr, 84, is awarded the Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneers Award • “It’s About Time”

45. Lamarr on Telephone with her Sonat the EFF Award Ceremony

46. The Broadcast Spectrum is Not a Limited Resource! • Spread spectrum makes it possible to have essentially unlimited numbers of cell phone calls • If radio stations can broadcast and rebroadcast at low power over limited areas using spread spectrum, there can be essentially unlimited numbers of stations • The legal justification for FCC control of content has been rendered irrelevant by technological advances that started with Lamarr and Antheil!

47. The most beautiful woman in the world - Louis Mayer

48. Coda • In 1996, Corel Corporation, producer of drawing software Corel Draw8, awards a prize to the draftsman of this image of Lamarr as the best picture drawn using their program • Thinking Lamarr is dead, Corel puts the image on its box and startup screen • Lamarr sues Corel for $15M, eventually settles, and lives out her last years in comfort • 1999: “Films have a certain place in a certain time period. Technology is forever.” Hedy Lamarr died January 19, 2000, at the age of 86