Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S275013AbTHQERi (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:17:38 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S275016AbTHQERi (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:17:38 -0400 Received: from mail.jlokier.co.uk ([81.29.64.88]:4995 "EHLO mail.jlokier.co.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S275013AbTHQERg (ORCPT ); Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:17:36 -0400 Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2003 05:16:54 +0100 From: Jamie Lokier To: insecure Cc: Martin List-Petersen , "Bryan O'Sullivan" , Christian Axelsson , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Centrino support Message-ID: <20030817041654.GA32559@mail.jlokier.co.uk> References: <1060980941.29086.25.camel@serpentine.internal.keyresearch.com> <1060982549.15347.30.camel@loke> <200308170132.50312.insecure@mail.od.ua> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200308170132.50312.insecure@mail.od.ua> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1531 Lines: 37 insecure wrote: > This makes it difficult to open-source code that enforces limits on > the power levels, frequency channels and other parameters of the radio > transmitter. See > > http://ftp.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Orders/2001/fcc01264.pdf > > for the specific FCC regulation. I have just read that FCC regulation. It doesn't prevent open-sourcing the code. It does require that each software-defined radio must have some kind of authentication mechanism to ensure that unapproved software cannot be loaded on to the device. It seems to me that distributing a binary, which is easily modified by users, (as proven by all the game patches and application cracks out there), does _not_ satisfy the FCC regulation. The only way to satisfy the regulation is to have an authentication mechanism of some kind, so that the radio will not operate with unapproved software. If Intel have not implemented an authentication mechanism, then they are not compliance with the FCC regulation as I read it because it won't be long before some enterprising user patches the firmware and makes the radio behave in an unapproved, possibly RF unsafe manner. If Intel have implement such a mechanism, then regulation is no excuse for them to not release the source code. -- Jamie - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/