Re: Open hardware wireless cards

[Norbert van Nobelen <Norbert@edusupport.nl>]

It is an excuse:
The hardware is not capable of more output than the legal limit. The external 
antenna is an illegal addition, which has nothing to do with opensource. It 
is a pretty easy mod.

On Thursday 06 January 2005 22:39, you wrote:
> 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.