LegalAspects » History » Version 1
laforge, 02/19/2016 10:48 PM
add page on legal aspects
1 | 1 | laforge | = Legal Aspects = |
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3 | This page documents our position on legal aspects of the project. |
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5 | Since there is a lot of uncertainty and confusion regarding the legality of any independent open source work in GSM, |
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6 | we explicitly state that this is a legitimate project. |
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8 | * We do not infringe on any copyright |
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9 | * We do not reveal any trade secrets |
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10 | * We do not break any digital restrictions (DRM) |
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11 | * We do not implement or break any encryption algorithm |
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13 | == Copyright == |
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15 | This project honors the copyright of third parties. |
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17 | Specifically, the source code published by us does not infringe on copyrights of others like Motorola, TI, Vitelcom or Compal. |
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19 | The software we publish for the GSM baseband is either original development by the project engineers or source code that is taken from sources licensed under GNU GPL. |
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21 | == Information Sources == |
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23 | We outline that we have only used public sources of information in the development of this project. There is no infringement on trade secrets of any sort. |
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25 | === Documentation on the GSM protocols === |
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27 | The GSM protocols are fully documented and specified by the 3GPP. They are publicly available for everyone. |
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28 | There are no trade secrets involved in imlpementing the GSM protocols, including the Um air interface betwee phone and network. |
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30 | The only parts that are undisclosed are the optional encryption methods called A5. Despite their secrecy, they have been thoroughly documented and broken in |
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31 | academic research and resulting publications. There is no trade secret in that encryption anymore. |
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33 | Furthermore, in those phones that our software runs on, the A5 encryption is implemented as a black box in hardware. Our software contains no information |
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34 | about the GSM A5 encryption at all. |
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36 | === Documentation on Phones === |
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38 | Service Manuals including circuit descriptions and full schematics are widely available for all major phones, including the Motorola phones that we started this project on. |
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40 | Such service manuals are authored by the phone maker and distributed to cellphone repair shops around the world. They are intended to aid understanding the phone hardware. |
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42 | There are dozens of web sites in various countries around the world that make those schematics available. There is no serious attempt by any phone maker we know of to |
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43 | halt the unofficial circulation of service manuals. |
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45 | We officially buy the respective phones, and we wish to simply make our own software interoperable with the hardware. |
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47 | === The Vitelcom TSM30 source code === |
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49 | In 2005, the complete source code of the software running on the Vitelcom TSM30 phone was uploaded to the popular open source sourceforge.net website, from where it is publicly |
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50 | availalbe for download. According to sourceforge.net statistics, it has been downloaded thousands of times ever since. As the download was never removed and no action has |
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51 | been taken by the copyright holders, we assume that the source code was legitimately published, but under a non-permissive license. We do not use any of that copyrighted |
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52 | code in our software, and we do not distribute that source code. We therefore do not infringe its copyright. |
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54 | Even if its publication was unauthorized, its public availability for five years clearly outlines that any information contained in it can no longer be considered a trade |
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55 | secret. Therfore, any information we deducted form it about how the digital baseband hardware works is not a trade secret either. |
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57 | === The leaked Ti Calypso documentation === |
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59 | At various places on the internet, two documents with register-level details on the TI Calypso DBB circuit have been published. While those documents contain notices |
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60 | of confidentiality, their availability online once again indicates that the information contained in the documents is no secret, at least not ever since somebody might |
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61 | have broken an NDA and publicly disclosed the information. |
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63 | == Using modified phones on carrier networks == |
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65 | Note: So far, our custom software does not activate the transmitter in the phone. Therefore, it works in receive-only mode as of now. |
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67 | There are many reasons why we do not recommend or endorse operating our software on carrier networks |
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68 | * the software modifies the RF parameters of the phone, which are part of the regulatory approval |
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69 | * regulatory approval of the phones is lost once our software is installed |
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70 | * operating equipment without regulatory approval is illegal in probably almost all jurisdictions |
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71 | * our software is in early development stage, and while we keep our best effort, we never |
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72 | * the terms and conditions of carrier networks vary, but will likely not allow the use of uncertified/unauthorized phones |
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74 | We therefore only use our software with our own GSM test networks, e.g. using OpenBTS or OpenBSC with BS-11 or nanoBTS. |
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76 | DO NOT USE OUR SOFTWARE ON NETWORKS WHERE YOU DO NOT HAVE EXPLICIT PERMISSION TO DO SO! |