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France Says D-Star Ham Radio Mode Is Illegal
gyrogeerloose writes "Citing 'national security concerns,' the French Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP, France's equivalent of the US's FCC) has ruled that D-Star, an amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet.The ARCEP also cites alleged concerns regarding cryptography and national security as well as the use of a proprietary codec. While it's true that the D-Star codec is proprietary, its owner has openly licensed it (for a fee, of course) to any manufacturer who wants to build it into their equipment. Any licensed amateur radio operator who lives within the EU can sign an online petition protesting this decision."
Be thankful it is how it is. If commercial interests got access to the amateur bands, they'd push individual "amateurs" out. Just imagine if the bands were crowded with business traffic, with powerful stations paid for by commercial interests. The regular Joe would never be able to get through the din.
Historically, that's the reason the word "amateur" is in "amateur radio" -- to differentiate the service from "commercial radio", which is nearly everything else.
I wonder if they're going to ban carrier pidgeons as well since they also allow connections to the net.
http://www.blug.linux.no/rfc1149/
They seem to be claiming that it would allow somone to set up an unofficial ISP.
By that kind of logic just about anything at all could be used to connect to the internet.
If I was a big electronics geek I could theoretically set up a pair of toy laser pointers + some light sensors to allow me to relay internet traffic by line of sight (with crappy bandwidth) but that wouldn't be that much more complex than what they seem to be talking about.
Hell you could set up a piece of string with some motors and sensors to relay ip data IPOP (IP Over Pullies)
But this unsecured link is legal everywhere but France, so the French could not shut down a link in Belgium, Spain, the UK, or anywhere else nearby that wants to host one.