[lxgr]

Not sure about the details, but I suspect it's more a consequence of laws on telecommunication privacy from analog days being very generic than a specific intention to make ATC listening illegal. Opt-out vs. opt-in by frequency and/or purpose, essentially.

That said, it's supposedly still being very much enforced against e.g. planespotters at airshows in some places – no idea what the point of that is.

[lxgr]

Baffling to get downvoted for a suspicion about the origins of the status quo, as if that were an endorsement of it.

[lazide]

Forget it up Jake, it’s Chinatown