[TrunkCom] FCC says "250D" has NOT been type accepted.

[Larry Williams]

A system key is used to prevent people from putting radios on a system.
That would be STEALING AIRTIME!!. That is illegal. Listening to anything
you can rcv is legal unless the cryptography method is classified by the
govt. or specifically prohibited by the FEDERAL govt., NOT some LOCAL
YOKEL. If the entity that owns the system is charging people to listen
to their frequency, then yes, listening would be stealing. Like watching
cable without paying. Radio systems do not charge for listening to their
systems. Thus, NOT illegal to listen, provided as per FCC the
information heard is not disclosed to a third party or used for illegal
purposes, such as evading the law or now that cellular phones have
specifically been classified as illegal to listen in on as in wiretaps
on landlines.  If you own a copy of the programming software for a
radio, and did not obtain it in the method allowed by the manufacturer
of the equipment, and the software was written by the manufacturer or
its representative, then that's the same as copying say windows XP and
using it without purchasing said windows software.  Sorry to say, but
software is usually concidered to by owned by the developer unless so
stated in the license agreement, and is licensed to the original owner
for his use only and is not to be redistributed unless the original copy
is deleted from all computers owned by the original user when emparted
unto the new user. If a third party, not connected to the manufacturer
of a radio writes software and uses the protocol to communicate with the
equipment without prior knowledge by said manufacturer, and the manuf.
has copyrighted its software,(almost always is copyrighted), then
programming the radio is illegal.  This also applies to the
method/protocol for the transfer of programming data from and to the
target radio. If you get a radio programmed and it is used strictly to
listen and is incapable of transmitting, then no laws are broken by the
user or owner of the equipment.  The person who programs the unit may or
may not be breaking the law depending on his legal ownership to the
software. If he is allowed by the owner to use the owners copy of the
software to program radios, then he falls under the orignal owners user
license as the owner agent to use said software. If the owner of a
radio, i.e. Saber Astro, can persuade a legal owner/user of the
programming software to program his unit, then he is perfectly legal to
own and use said radio as long as he does not transmit without proper
authorization of the system owner. As long as the programing person/shop
is the licensed owner/user of the software, no law is broken. The
protocol used in encoding data such as the P25 data stream, LTR, EDACS,
MultiNet, etc. is the property of the manufacturer and those properly
licensed by that manufacturer and only those entities may use the
information to produce equipment capable of decoding said data stream.
The only radio manufacturer that has release the data protocol for
general use has been E.F.Johnson with the proliferation of information
of the LTR formats. However, even they require a license to sell radios
using their LTR protocol. As with many companies, they, with proper
non-disclosure forms signed, will provide developers with the protocols
to communicate with their equipment. 
I KNOW, BECAUSE I HAVE DONE SO, for several different pieces of
equipment.

Trunktracker wrote:
> 
> > Possession of a system key is not illegal.
> 
> It's not ?  I thought it was proprietary or something.
> 
> > Possession of the software
> > and generating keys for other people does break some laws.
> 
> Possession of what software ?  Below you mention it's illegal.
> 
> > Btw, you want to cite laws which are being broken?
> 
> Of course I don't know the exact laws.  I've simply heard that it's illegal.
> 
> > Possession of LAB software or system keys is not illegal. It's how you
> > use them.
> 
> But if you use them to program a radio to monitor a digital system, or any
> system for that matter, then it is illegal, isn't it ?
> 
> _______________________________________________
> TrunkCom mailing list
> mailto:TrunkCom@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/trunkcom