Does Open-Source Software Make The FCC Irrelevant?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andy Oram <andyo () oreilly com>
Date: October 18, 2005 8:46:46 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: Ip Ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Does Open-Source Software Make The FCC Irrelevant?


When a writer for Forbes says a free software advocate is
"using the tools of capitalism against itself" (a charge
that many free software advocates would reject) you can
suspect the article is not meant to put the subject in a
good light.

The FCC can be infuriating sometimes, but I think if you go
through all the things they do one by one you can find some
that are indispensable.

I don't think software can solve the problem of competing
signals that refuse to play fair and drown each other
out--that takes some sort of social interaction or
control. There is probably still a reason to reserve
bandwidth for emergency responders (for reasons we can see
in recent disasters).

Senator John Sununu (a conservative free-market advocate, to
be sure) made a good case at the reason VON
(VoIP) conference in Boston that there are things a vendor
can do with high-power frequencies in a licensed part of the
spectrum that low-power radios can't do.

Andy Oram
CPSR
O'Reilly Media




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