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Comment by SEJeff | Hacker News Reader

The people who are saved by oncall surgeons who might happen to be in a movie theater might beg to disagree.

There are entirely valid reasons why it is illegal to block wifi / cellular signals.

Seems like a classic case of looking for a technical solution when human solutions exist and do just fine.

All you have to do is make it clear that any and all phone use, including just looking at it, is not allowed. Encourage people to report offenders. Make it easy to do so anonymously, for example by passing a note to an usher. Eject violators and do not refund their money.

(This is stolen from the Alamo Drafthouse's policy, not just something I made up. It seems to work just fine.)

THIS, SO MUCH! Yes, I completely agree that this is the correct solution. Be very strict about people being ejected who use electronics and interrupt other patrons. That is the proper solution.

off-topic ... but i LOVE alamo's policy. my daughter loves it as "the place where they'll give you the boot."

To play devil's advocate, a lot of volunteer fire departments use pagers still - not because of the technology being cheaper, but because coverage is better, more reliable and more widespread than cellular.

Paint or wallpaper that blocks signals are perfectly legal, so I'm not sure what you mean by "illegal to block wifi/cellular signals".

You can't transmit and jam others' signals, but that's different.

This isn't true. You can't intentionally use paint or wallpaper that blocks signals in public spaces or places where a wireless device is expected to be able to be used(like a movie theatre) in the case of an emergency.

In the eyes of the FCC it is no different if it is willful.

I don't think so. The FCC law in question, from my reading, specifically mentions malicious interference, but says nothing about building materials.

Nobody has ever been prosecuted for their choice of paint on their private property.

There is indeed a distinction between your own private property and a business that invites the general public in to do business. The cinema is still private property, but it's still also public space.

That said, I don't think anyone has ever attempted a ruling on whether chicken wire/Faraday cage in the walls of public spaces is permissible according to the FCC. I'd doubt such an attempt would make it far; there are so many buildings made with metal siding which do a fantastic job of reducing cellular signals to useless levels.

I can't find anything to back this up, but I remember that in the 90ties is was well know (incorrectly or not) that you needed a permission for this.

I don't have any citations but it seems unlikely given that there's certainly no law that requires building structures to not block cell service. (I've been in enough buildings that seem to pretty much act as Faraday cages.) Intent matters I suppose but seems pretty unenforceable.

On the other hand, on-call surgeons might just have to choose not to attend radio-opaque movie theatres when they're on-call (just as they have to choose not to consume intoxicants when they're on-call).

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