Surf City libraries get tough on mobiles
Print$1,000 fine for persistent phone bores
Posted in Mobile, 31st August 2004 14:53 GMT
Free whitepaper – Enhancing retail operations with unified communications
Officials in Huntington Beach, California - aka Surf City - have waved through a new by-law which could see people fined up to $1,000 for using their mobile phone in a library.
The new regulation, which comes into force from 15 September, means that if a phone rings, or if anyone is caught talking or texting, then they will face a stern warning. After the first ticking-off, though, library vistors can expect to receive fines of $250, $500 and $1,000 for repeated offences.
Acording to AP, local officials felt they had to act after the book worms of Huntington Beach complained about the noise caused by phones ringing and beeping, and people talking all the time.
Still, mobile phone-equipped library goers might think this is a bit harsh. Actually, it could have been worse. Much worse. One proposal included jailing offenders for six months if they were caught using their phones. ®
Related stories
Deafening phone - Siemens issues health warning
Phone spam misery looms Stateside
Mobiles in hospitals now safe: official
Mobile phones rot your balls
Free whitepaper – The business value of SIP VoIP and trunking
Enabling the Agile Data Center
The business value of SIP VoIP and trunking
Analyst Keynote: The Register Agile Data Center Summit
Managing desktop software for fun and profit
Enhancing retail operations with unified communications
Google Spanner — instamatic redundancy for 10 million servers?
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Fedora 12 polishes Linux for netbooks
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter