[MLUG] Re: Frame Relay or Better

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Gene Worth wrote:
> #2 Under no circumstances is any encrypted data allowed to be sent by
> amateurs. This would include VPNs, etc. Clear text or commonly used
> applications, like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, jpg, etc. are fine.

Jason McFarland writes:
> Compression is fine as long as anyone listening can also decompress it.
> 
> Hams operate under Part 97 of the FCC rules.  See
> http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_04/47cfr97_04.html and look
> at section 113 (Prohibited transmissions.) and look at A.4, "messages
> in codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning thereof" are
> prohibited.

So, has anyone pressed the case with the FCC (or via the FSF) that Microsoft Word formats, 
by the intent of Microsoft, and their proprietary nature, are, by definition
"codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning thereof". They are
constructed specifically so that only licensees of the Microsoft Word application,
which only runs on a licensed Microsoft Windows operating system, can decode or
decipher the obscured meaning (the document) in the Microsoft Word document.

It seems to me, that, any way you cut it, unpublished, proprietary, patented, encumbered 
file formats are legally indistiguishable from the defined prohibited transmissions. 
Especially when the "codes or ciphers intended to obscure" are brandished about as a 
"technological measure" in accord with the DMCA precisely to prevent "unauthorized"
access to and use of the "meaning thereof" (the document). It is effectively a private,
encrypted conversation between to Microsoft Word users, irrespective of the large number
of licensing fees paid to Microsoft to "join the club".

I would love it to see patent-encumbered, proprietary, non-free, abusively licensed 
software file formats were pro-actively banished from our public airwaves. But then again,
FCC chairman Powell (Colin's son) has been pretty busy all these years looking for his spine.

BTW, are the hams going to get any of that TV spectrum once the networks are forced
to HDTV?

mike/
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