On Wed, 2004-06-02 at 09:16, Matt Zimmerman wrote: > On Wed, Jun 02, 2004 at 09:05:18AM +0200, Bernhard R. Link wrote: > > > * Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org> [040602 01:54]: > > > Also, vendors in the USA may be required by law to not release the > > > source in order to comply with FCC regulations. > > > > Has anyone any source or quote for this? I searched for it and found > > nothing, I've never seen any hint of a proof in any former discussion. > > Until someone comes up with any more substantial proof than > > "they may" or "I've heared", I hereby claim this to be at least > > an urban legend, most probably simply FUD. > > madwifi Thanks Matt, I use that driver, but I did not know about that: Quote from the madwifi README: ... The ath_hal module contains the Atheros Hardware Access Layer (HAL). This code manages much of the chip-specific operation of the driver. The HAL is provided in a binary-only form in order to comply with local regulatory agency requirements. In the United States the FCC mandates a radio transmitter can only be operated at power levels and on frequency channels for which it is approved. The FCC requires that a software-defined radio cannot be configured by a user to operate outside the approved power levels and frequency channels. 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. Regulations for other agencies are similar (often more stringent). Because the module is provided in a binary-only form it is marked "Proprietary"; this means when you load it you will see messages that your system is now "tainted". ... So it should be possible to put the code into non-us... Greetings, Oliver
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