ATCS Terms of Use

ATCS Monitor Guide to software Use

Credit to Tim Christensen for this:

The real-time or pseudo-real-time streaming of the Dispatcher Display is a violation of law prohibiting rebroadcast of intercepted private radio communications. The Dispatcher Display has been defined as a ‘human readable’ medium revealing proprietary information pursuant an agreement with the US Dept. of Justice. The ‘human readable’ finding makes the Dispatcher Display subject to the rebroadcast prohibition. Pseudo-real-time streaming is defined as fixed delay and/or frequent short interval snap-shotting of the Dispatcher Display for presentation via the Web. The law does not differentiate between ‘password protected’ or ‘open access’; they are both prohibited.

The moderator/author has stated that violators and those complicit with the violation of law will be removed from the group.

Further Clarifications:

The raw decoded data and cryptic main ATCS Monitor window are not considered ‘human readable’. ATCS Monitor ‘rules’ spawning email notifications keyed by MCP actions are not considered extensive enough to trigger the definitions of the Dept. of Justice.

One-to-one desktop extenders such as TeamViewer™ or LogMeIn™ are not considered a rebroadcast so long as they permit only a single user to view the single PC running the ATCS Monitor application remotely. The key is the one-to-one remote viewer to running application limitation.

Museum, train-show, and hobby store displays are allowed under more liberal allowances of case law which are more lenient to hobbyists as forms of ‘art’, ‘educational use’, ‘freedom of the press’ and ‘freedom of expression’. However, in the good will interest of the hobby, the display sponsor should be considerate of specific objections raised by a railroad owner of the intercepted and displayed information on a case-by-case basis.

Static (not real-time or pseudo-real-time) snap-shots of a Dispatcher Display screen captured for social media or publication are permitted.

Per conversations with the moderator/author… This is the policy of the ATCS Monitor group and is considered a Term of Service for the ATCS Monitor application which prohibits use which violates the law. This is the group policy notwithstanding the existence of various guide and Wiki content which instruct the user in the ‘how-to’ of streaming the Dispatcher Display.