On May 15, 2008, "Kevin Dean" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm not entirely sure that's true. The Wifi on the Openmoko Freerunner > doesn't contain Microcode (I don't think...) but the GSM system DOES. > I know that in the UK a modifyable GSM system is unlawful but I don't > beleive the same is true in the US.
Unlawful because of private (contract) law, i.e., GSM licensing agreements, or something else? As for WiFi, I'm told it's not that FCC bans modifyable WiFi, it's that some vendors would rather not take the chances of failing certification because they fail to impose hardware restrictions on the user, and instead implement them in user-modifyable software, and then they do their best to make sure users don't get to be able to modify it. IOW, they don't care about their customers' freedoms to put join us in the trenches ;-) > It's illegal to crack DRM in the USA but it doesn't mean there are > no Free Software applications to bypass that DRM. :) Exactly. Denying access to the source code just because if you had it you could break the law is exactly the sort of thing that DRM and WiFi vendors do. Why don't they just go lock everyone in jail, because otherwise people *could* commit crimes. Images from Minority Report and thoughts from 1984 come to mind. -- Alexandre Oliva http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/ Free Software Evangelist [EMAIL PROTECTED], gnu.org} FSFLA Board Member ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/ Red Hat Compiler Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED], gcc.gnu.org} _______________________________________________ gNewSense-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnewsense-users
