[ILUG] Android gone Free

[Paul Jakma]

On Tue, 28 Oct 2008, John P. Looney wrote:

> Though there are two types of radio driver source. One is the stuff 
> that is open sourced for the G1. This is the bit that talks to the 
> baseband chip, wifi, bluetooth etc. The second is for the software 
> running on the baseband chip itself; this is closed-source by law 
> in most places, as no normal country will licence a device that any 
> user can use to jam mobile signals etc. by just reprogramming power 
> levels etc.

Just out of curiosity, any cites for these claims?

I'm curious whether this is actually true, or whether it's a view 
that's been received through the filters of techno-impaired lawyers 
and/or open-source fearing executives.

(I'm not implying these people work for Google. FWIW, my strong 
suspicion is no major industrialised country actually has laws framed 
in terms of source code. Also, check out the game-mod scene for how 
much of a barrier lack of source is.).

> If people could hack it, even illegally, I'm sure the device would 
> lose its licence to sell in that country.

Germany used to have to really strict laws about certifying devices 
attaching to ISDN networks. Free unixes managed to ship certified 
ISDN stacks just fine, with source..

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
"Silent gratitude isn't very much use to anyone."
-- G. B. Stearn