Those current and retired professionals who belittle those who like to listen into ATC broadcasts might like to dwell on the fact that quite a few current controllers actively embrace the personal monitoring of the ATC broadcasts. I could personally name a large handful of these professional chaps who embrace the enthusiast community and actually do a great job in
PR terms of explaining the high standards employed by pilots and controllers. You guys should be proud of what you do and not defensive.
I'm a professional in the aerospace & defence industry but certainly wouldn't describe myself as a crank. I'm in business and have to defend my decisions and actions everyday to anyone in my business who cares to comment. That's face to face comment as well.
Had the decision been made to police the law re; listening to ATC transmissions, the hobby would never have taken hold. However, it's far too late to ban airband radios and also radar tracking software now.