Civic Image and Domestic Receiver Act

PUBLIC LAW 81-447 · CHAPTER 212 · APPROVED COPY · 12 MAY 1950

Civic Image and Domestic Receiver Act of 1950

Commonly cited as the Aldridge Act. An Act to preserve civic order in the exhibition, transmission and domestic reception of moving images; to establish licensed rooms for their supervised display; and to protect the certified national sound service.

Be it enacted

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the reception of moving images, being capable of presenting distant persons, events and instructions with an appearance of immediate presence, shall be regulated in the interest of civic order, public confidence, national security and the reliable attribution of public information.

Section 1 · Short title and effective date

This Act may be cited as the “Civic Image and Domestic Receiver Act of 1950” and shall take effect one hundred and eighty days after approval. Regulations, room classifications and inspection forms necessary to its administration may be issued before that date.

Section 2 · Congressional findings

1. Moving images may reproduce the appearance of an event without preserving the circumstances under which that image was made, selected, altered or transmitted.
2. Unscheduled domestic reception removes the image from a room in which its source, operator, audience and time of exhibition can be certified.
3. Radio and other sound services already provide national information, emergency instruction, education and entertainment through established domestic apparatus.
4. The public interest is served by permitting moving images where an institution accepts responsibility for the room, the operator, the schedule and the record of exhibition.

Section 3 · Definitions

Moving image

Any electrically transmitted, mechanically reproduced or optically projected succession of pictures capable of representing motion, whether accompanied by sound or not.

Domestic receiver

Any apparatus situated within a private dwelling and capable of receiving a moving image originating beyond that dwelling.

Licensed image room

A room approved for supervised exhibition, assigned a permanent or temporary room code and operated under a current certificate.

Certified sound

A domestic radio or wired-sound apparatus incapable of receiving or reproducing a moving image and bearing a valid inspection seal.

Household

A dwelling, its occupants, the person responsible for the premises and any receiver, aerial, repair work or image material found there.

Operator

A person licensed to receive, schedule, project, interrupt and record an authorized moving-image exhibition.

Section 4 · Licensed public exhibition

Moving images may be exhibited in theatres, courtrooms, schools, hospitals, approved churches, government offices, civic halls and other rooms licensed by the responsible authority. Each room shall display its room code, operator, access class, approved capacity, certificate period and emergency interruption route.

A license attaches to the room and use described in the certificate. Permission granted to a hospital for clinical instruction does not authorize public news exhibition. Permission granted to a court for evidence does not authorize entertainment. A temporary exhibition shall expire at the hour printed on its certificate.

Section 5 · Prohibition within the private home

No person shall manufacture for domestic reception, sell for domestic reception, install, conceal, maintain or operate within a private dwelling any apparatus capable of receiving a moving image transmitted from outside that dwelling.

Possession of an incomplete receiver, altered radio cabinet, unregistered display tube, image tuner, converter, aerial arrangement or repair assembly may be referred for technical review when its parts, placement or wiring indicate probable domestic image use. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a still photograph, an undeveloped private film, a child’s optical toy or a camera incapable of receiving a transmitted image; provided, however, that sequence material may be examined when it reasonably indicates contact with an unlawful reception source.

Section 6 · Certified domestic sound

Radio and other certified sound receivers remain lawful for domestic use. Every new domestic sound apparatus shall be sealed by an authorized manufacturer, dealer or repairer. Removal, substitution or duplication of the seal shall be reported under the address at which the apparatus is found.

Emergency, election, weather and civil-defence messages carried through certified sound retain the standing of the national service. No household shall be required to obtain a public-room admission in order to receive such messages by sound.

Section 7 · Manufacturers, dealers and repairers

Manufacturers, dealers, landlords, aerial installers and repair establishments shall retain invoices, serial numbers, cabinet descriptions, parts orders, installation addresses and inspection-seal records for seven years. A repairer encountering a part inconsistent with certified sound use shall attach a numbered repair tag and submit the corresponding carbon to the district office before returning the apparatus.

No repair tag, customer explanation or technical notation shall by itself establish a violation. Such material may support a household review, a comparison of addresses or an application for inspection authority.

Section 8 · Household inquiry and inspection

When the Bureau receives a repair tag, sworn statement, public-room discrepancy, unexplained signal report or other articulable indication of domestic image reception, it may open a numbered household file. The file shall identify the source of referral, premises, assigned inspector, material sought and disposition.

An inspector may request entry, inspect the certification seal of lawful sound equipment, observe wiring and aerial access, interview adult occupants and record image-related material voluntarily produced. Where entry or retention is refused, the inspector shall record the refusal and seek further authority before returning. A refusal is not a finding.

Section 9 · Material, custody and review

Material taken for administrative comparison shall be receipted, described and placed in a sealed review envelope. The household shall receive a copy stating whether the material was surrendered, copied, photographed or retained. Each later transfer shall be entered on the custody side of the form.

Material made by a child shall not be treated as testimony. It may be reviewed only to determine whether it identifies a possible apparatus, room, operator, exhibition or sequence source. The child shall not be required to sign a statement.

Section 10 · Records, cross-reference and correction

Every licensed room, operator, repair tag, household inquiry, seal irregularity and retained item shall receive an index entry. Related entries may be connected by a public or restricted cross-reference. No entry shall be removed solely because a case is closed; its disposition shall be written beside the original relation.

An occupant, operator or license holder may request correction of an address, date, name, room class or quoted statement. The office shall preserve both the original entry and the correction, together with the authority on which each rests.

Section 11 · Offences and administrative remedies

Knowing operation of an unlawful domestic receiver, commercial installation for domestic reception, alteration of a certified sound seal, destruction of required repair records or false certification of a licensed room may be referred for prosecution. Ordinary household occupants shall first receive notice of the alleged condition and an opportunity for administrative review unless immediate concealment, destruction or transmission is reasonably believed to be underway.

The Bureau may suspend a room license, operator certificate, manufacturer authorization or repair seal pending review. All suspensions shall state their duration and appeal route.

Section 12 · Oversight, reporting and appropriations

The responsible departments shall report annually to the House Subcommittee on Civic Image Licensing concerning licensed rooms, domestic inquiries, suspended operators, retained material, correction requests, regional signal incidents and expenditures made under this Act. Classified schedules may be filed separately, but their existence and total cost shall be acknowledged in the public report.

There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as Congress may determine necessary for room certification, inspection staff, technical laboratories, records storage and public information.

Section 13 · Severability

If any provision of this Act or its application to any person, household or institution is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of its remaining provisions shall not be affected.

APPROVED COPY