[aprssig] PSKMail Live CD

[Rick Green]

On Wed, 20 Dec 2006, Jeff Davis, KE9V wrote:

> All of what you say is true but much more appropriate to the Internet
> cloud than amateur radio, IMHO.
>
> Following your logic I could develop a new mode of operation that
> could only be accessed using a certain ICOM transceiver (for example).
> Legal? Yes... in the spirit of the hobby?
>
> Creating and promoting exclusionary modes that require proprietary
> hardware and software seems more like an old boys club than
> enlightened thinking -- especially when those signals invade the RF
> sandbox where we are all allowed to play.
>
   Openness isn't just in the spirit of Ham radio, it's the law.  On some 
level, using the Amateur frequencies to make transmissions in proprietary 
protocols could be seen as proscribed under the 'Codes and Ciphers' 
rule.  If the protocols that Winlink uses are indeed closed, then its 
use on the ham bands is illegal, pure and simple.

-- 
Rick Green

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
                                   -Benjamin Franklin