Re: Leverage in licensing discussions
On Fri, Nov 07, 2008 at 05:15:33PM +0100, Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
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> Josselin Mouette wrote:
> > Le vendredi 07 novembre 2008 à 00:27 +0100, Michelle Konzack a écrit :
> >> The problem is, that even if it is mass production since some time, I
> >> can not distribute the firmware as open source since it change the
> >> behavour of the hardware which then can distrurb the GSM network.
> >
> > This reasoning, as any security-by-obscurity one, is completely flawed.
> > As long as the firmware is distributed separately, you can modify it,
> > whether it is open source or not. Not having the source never prevented
> > people from making modifications.
>
> Even if it is no guarantee for prevention of modifications, it makes
> those much more difficult.
>
> > This is precisely a reason why manufacturers should actually distribute
> > the sources for such firmware files. Having the source available helps
> > fixing bugs and in the end you can make a new, improved firmware that
> > can be submitted, if necessary in your country, to the local authorities
> > for being allowed for use on production hardware.
>
> It is not a bug that certain _hardware_ has more capabilities than is
> reasonable to offer the user to tweak. Even if a physical radio
> transmitter (wifi, cell phone, radio,) is technically capable of
> transmitting/receiving at many frequencies, it is usually not desirable
> to have any average user actually _use_ it at any frequency they wish.
>
> I'm fully in favour of open source and people tweaking the code running
> on their computers, but I'd have to stop leaving the house, if people
> started to mess with the software controlling the breaks of their cars...
Up until 1968 the same reasoning wasused to present people from
connecting anything but phones provided by Bell to the Bell telephone
network. You were not even allowed to connect a modem through an
accustic coupler.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem#The_Carterfone_decision
If the networks that the operators are that badly designed, I worry
about how easy it would be when someone would actively try to DoS them.
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