Hi,
On Wed, 30 Aug 2006 16:12:06 -0400, Andrew Barr wrote:
On Wed, 2006-08-30 at 15:56 -0400, Michael Wiktowy wrote:
Unfortunately, I don't think the waters are all that clear in this
situation.
No, unfortunately they're not.
IANAL but it is my understanding that most countries have RFI laws
that do not allow RF chip manufacturers to allow their users to modify
their chips to switch to licensed bands or use an amount of power that
brings it into a licenseable realm. It is not just the case of the law
saying that a user can't operate in certain realms ... the user can't
even be allowed to *possibly* operate in certain realms.
Give me wire, a jar and a diode and I'll build you a device that does
exactly that in 2 minutes. Oooh radio is sooo complicated. NOT.
Let's outlaw wire (the most important part here - or is it the diode? :)).
So if an
embedded chip is flexible enough, the manufacturers nerf it with a
binary blob.
Unneccessary, see below.
The legal reasoning has been debated extensively on LKML and elsewhere
multiple times, but I think it's worth pointing out that not everyone
buys the regulation argument. That the regulations require withholding
source code is, as I understand it, the prevailing interpretation among
corporate attorneys rather than language in any particular regulation.
Do a search at lkml.org for the recent ipw3945 discussions for details.
The law defines what people are forbidden to do. Regulations define
how people are supposed to use shared media. Devices are not people.
The tool is not the wielder.
Did I miss anything?
In all reality the world's communications regulation agencies need to
address the issue of open source code and software radios with updated
regulations, and in the very least WLAN vendors will no longer have an
excuse to hide behind, should that be what they are doing--I suspect at
least some of them are.
Yes, they are hiding, obviously.
I thought we had the we-are-only-protecting-you-from-yourself laws
scrubbed by now, but maybe I'm wrong...
cheers,
Danny
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