Some legal aspects of direct satellite broadcasting

Abstract

The International Telecommunications Union in its 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference defined 'telecommunications' as: " .... any transmission, emission or reception of signs, signals, writing, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire, electromagnetic systems", further specified that radio, optical or other 'radiocommunications' telecommunications but attained by means of radio waves. 2 are Radio waves (also known as Hertzian waves) are, according to the same WARC document: " ... electromagnetic waves or frequencies arbitrarily lower than 3000 GHz, propagated in space without artificial guide". More specifically to the topic in hand, radiocommunication' means: " ... any radiocommunication involving the use of one or more space stations or the use of one or more reflecting satellites or other objects in space". A 'space system' is made up of: " ... any group of co-operating earth stations and/or space stations employing space radiocommunication for specific purposes". A space system using one or more artificial earth satellites is defined a 'satellite system'. Put in less technical terms, a satellite communication system therefore comprises both the satellite itself with the necessary control and tracking facilities (space segment) and the associated earth station (ground or earth segment). Satellites orbiting the Earth provide links between terrestial stations sending and receiving signals. An earth station transmits the signal to the satellite (up-link), which receives it. amplifies it, and relays it to a receiving earth station (down-link). At the frequencies involved, radio waves are propagated in straight lines, so that in order to perform its linking and relay functions, the satellite must be 'visible' that is, above the horizon - at both the sending and receiving earth stations during the transmission of the message. Artificial earth satellites (called so to distinguish them from the Earth's only natural satellite - the Moon) may be active that is equipped with the necessary devices to transmit or retransmit radiocommunication signals or passive, intended solely to reflect radiocommunication signals by means of their metallic surfaces. They may be positioned either in a random or in a geosynchronous orbit.