From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263039AbVAFVnu (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 Jan 2005 16:43:50 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263017AbVAFVmD (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 Jan 2005 16:42:03 -0500 Received: from out011pub.verizon.net ([206.46.170.135]:16561 "EHLO out011.verizon.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263001AbVAFVjk (ORCPT ); Thu, 6 Jan 2005 16:39:40 -0500 Message-ID: <41DDB02C.1030205@cwazy.co.uk> Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 16:39:56 -0500 From: Jim Nelson User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040922 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Lee Revell CC: Norbert van Nobelen , Raphael Jacquot , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Open hardware wireless cards References: <20050105200526.GL5159@ruslug.rutgers.edu> <20050106172438.GT5159@ruslug.rutgers.edu> <41DD8D71.7000708@imag.fr> <200501062032.13513.Norbert@edusupport.nl> <1105045205.15823.4.camel@krustophenia.net> In-Reply-To: <1105045205.15823.4.camel@krustophenia.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Authentication-Info: Submitted using SMTP AUTH at out011.verizon.net from [209.158.220.243] at Thu, 6 Jan 2005 15:39:36 -0600 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Lee Revell wrote: > On Thu, 2005-01-06 at 20:32 +0100, Norbert van Nobelen wrote: > >>100mWatt antenna (-: Gives 4 mile range (-: >>Make it USB powered (-: (so that the pcmcia card does not overheat!!) > > > Ah, this reminds me, isn't there some kind of issue with open source > wireless and FCC (or whatever your local equivalent is) regulations? Or > was that just an excuse the vendors used for their closed source > drivers? > > Lee > A little of both, methinks. Most vendors build their hardware to the most powerful that any law (or engineering limits) will allow. They then use country-specific drivers to keep tha hardware operating within legal limits. Open-source drivers would make it trivial to make the hardware operate beyond its legal limits - and could potentially land them in trouble with the FCC/whatever. IANAL, but I'm pretty sure that there hasn't been a case of open-source wireless drivers tweaked beyond the legal limits landing someone with a fine.