Kid's Toy Snoops On The Polizei
Free with Mickey Maus issue 12 - a police band radio! Hold on...
Issue 12 of the German Mickey Maus magazine came bundled with a Chinese-made novelty radio. The problem: said radio was reportedly able to tune into the normally secure police-band channels.
The German police were first alerted to this rather odd eavesdropping through concerned parents, who were wondering why Mickey was calling an Alle Punktnachricht [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_points_bulletin].
A copy of the white mini-radio, about the size of two matchbooks, was picked up by several of Hamburg's finest so that they could conduct further tests on the radio's limits.
Hamburg police spokesman Ulrike Sweden confirmed to the Hamburger Morgenpost: "We've received reports and detectives are finding out whether it's in violation of telecommunications law."
Publisher Ehapa Verlag assured worried parents that the novelty had been "scrupulously tested at an institute for toy safety" and "should only be able to tune into normal radio stations".
Even the Mickey Maus website [http://www.micky-maus.de/] promised that the cases were isolated, warning that "The radio is exclusively designed for listening to music. Everything else is not allowed."
One begins to wonder what else you could do with the radio....
Source: The Local(German) [http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090320-18141.html] via The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/mickey_mouse_radio/]
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Free with Mickey Maus issue 12 - a police band radio! Hold on...
Issue 12 of the German Mickey Maus magazine came bundled with a Chinese-made novelty radio. The problem: said radio was reportedly able to tune into the normally secure police-band channels.
The German police were first alerted to this rather odd eavesdropping through concerned parents, who were wondering why Mickey was calling an Alle Punktnachricht [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_points_bulletin].
A copy of the white mini-radio, about the size of two matchbooks, was picked up by several of Hamburg's finest so that they could conduct further tests on the radio's limits.
Hamburg police spokesman Ulrike Sweden confirmed to the Hamburger Morgenpost: "We've received reports and detectives are finding out whether it's in violation of telecommunications law."
Publisher Ehapa Verlag assured worried parents that the novelty had been "scrupulously tested at an institute for toy safety" and "should only be able to tune into normal radio stations".
Even the Mickey Maus website [http://www.micky-maus.de/] promised that the cases were isolated, warning that "The radio is exclusively designed for listening to music. Everything else is not allowed."
One begins to wonder what else you could do with the radio....
Source: The Local(German) [http://www.thelocal.de/society/20090320-18141.html] via The Register [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/23/mickey_mouse_radio/]
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