Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:09:05 -0700 From: "Wes Peters" <barnaclewes@gmail.com> To: "Graham Todd" <gtodd@bellanet.org> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD inquire Message-ID: <f83770800609131809j471ddb4fp21cf8eb2a8b04065@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <45072272.5040606@bellanet.org> References: <200609121102.12577.cms01@tampabay.rr.com> <d8a4930a0609120816ge8de09ci2fa764c477df7d26@mail.gmail.com> <200609121141.09204.cms01@tampabay.rr.com> <4506F6DF.5010900@cs.okstate.edu> <4506FE59.6000600@errno.com> <45070021.3000606@protected-networks.net> <20060912195208.GB4099@tirith.brixandersen.dk> <45072272.5040606@bellanet.org>
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On 9/12/06, Graham Todd <gtodd@bellanet.org> wrote:
> Henrik Brix Andersen wrote:
> > On Tue, Sep 12, 2006 at 02:44:49PM -0400, Michael Butler wrote:
> >> Is this as a consequence of the manufacturers paranoia that open-source
> >> developers won't comply with wifi regulatory requirements (i.e. channel
> >> and power restrictions by country) or some other reason? (not that you
> >> can't just plug in any other card into the pcmcia slot ..),
> >
> > It's not manufacturers paranoia - it a requirement from the FCC (among
> > others) that radio control must not take place in user-accessible
> > software.
>
> How does the FCC define a "user" I wonder?
Pretty much "not the manufacturer."
> Is there a difference
> between the "user" of software installed on a laptop and the user of the
> included hardware and radio equipment that develops said software.
If you're not the manufacturer of the "device", the laptop in this
case, you are a user. When the manus sold laptops with slots and let
you pick your wireless card, the wireless card was the device and YOU
were responsible for an interference caused.
> It seems like an engineer to engineer sort of matter that might require
> lawyer to lawyer interaction :-\
Reading FCC regulations IS part of engineering, out there in the big
bad REAL world. It's important not to confuse "software" with
"engineering." ;^)
--
Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain.
Friedrich Schiller
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