Re: FreeBSD inquire

On 9/12/06, Graham Todd <gtodd_at_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