It is now a federal crime to bring a Galaxy Note 7 onto an airplane | Hacker News Reader

It is now a federal crime to bring a Galaxy Note 7 onto an airplane

theverge.com

20 pointsstevebmark12 comments

Laws like this are exactly what's wrong with the legal system. First, they're overly drastic - why ban the device outright instead of just mandating that they remain powered off at all times. Second - the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Not even close. $100k fine because someone brought a specific model of tablet on a flight? The punishment is so severe, that it's almost guaranteed to never be enforced in full. Just imagine the PR nightmare the prosecutor would have if he tries to fine someone's grandma $100k because she didn't realize that the tablet her son gave her is actually a "galaxy note 7." No prosecutor in hell is going to take that chance. Instead, the vast vast majority of people who break this law will get a slap on the wrist and then walk away. Unless you happened to have an affair with the AG's wife 5 years ago, in which case he might decide that rules are rules and he simply has to prosecute you to the full extent of the law. And all of a sudden, you're fucked.

Have laws that are as minimally restrictive as possible, and have punishments that are fair enough that you don't mind enforcing them every single time someone breaks the law. This is so simple, and yet, the people who draw up these rules never seem to get it.

Apparently, a recent fire was caused by a powered off device.

And I wouldn't trust end-users. I was just in US customs today where they said not to use your phone, 3 people within my reach were talking on their phone.

There were reports from Melbourne (Aus) Airport this morning about queues 4x or 5x times normal length (for a Monday morning). Security were checking every mobile phone going through and not letting anyone carry Galaxy Note 7s on.

We are such a foolish species.

What's wrong with our legal system? The penalties mentioned are really steep. Up to 10 years in prison and/or a $180K fine for bringing a galaxy note 7 onto a plane.

Imagine one blows up in the air and forces the plane to be grounded. Someone has to pay for that emergency landing. $180k does seem excessive though.

Maybe Samsung should pay that bill?

Why should they? If you take a Note 7 onto a plane that's on you.

Your idea would shift the disincentive not to fly with a Note 7 away from the passenger.

It's reasonable to expect your phone to not act like thermite randomly. Until they have 100% of sold devices accounts for, they should be accountable for producing something which malfunctions so spectacularly with potentially deadly consequences. I'm sure there are many people who still don't know about the recall (or who don't understand the actual risks and thus don't care). I'm sure that their notification system to urge owners to bring the device in for recall is not without bugs and didn't reach every last owner. I'm sure there are plenty of GN7s sitting in boxes.

It's not really the fault of a person to know that what they though was a normal phone is now considered contraband because the manufacturer goofed epically. Consider also all of the tech-illiterate who may have received one as a gift or whatever, and they don't know / care what model it is. It's not really fair IMO to fine them. I guess this is why they're checking all phones now.

I'm not sure of the exact mechanisms employed by them, but they likely need to work with every telco on which their phone can connect and go through all active IMEIs and ESNs to identify any still-active GN7s, likely at great expense to Samsung. They should also probably then blacklist those so the devices become unable to connect to the carrier, so any people still using them will actually bring them in for disposal.

This is still a massive over-reaction for a device with a manufacturing defect that affects less than 0.01 percent.

Some people flew out with their Note 7, sometimes across continents. Now, how can they go home and return the phone to get a refund?

I've really not been paying attention to this; I'm still working along on my busted-ass, cracked Galaxy 4 and I've got a ways to go before I'm due for a handset upgrade on my plan.

Did Samsung really screw the design, or did they blunder into a bad batch of batteries? How many times has this catastrophic failure actually happened? Is it anywhere near frequent enough to make something like this a proportionate response to the risk?

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