Re: Open hardware wireless cards

[Jim Nelson]

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.
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