[aprssig] Igateing a Non Amateur

[Andy Gonzales]

No no no

I fully support you and others like you.  You guys all deserve the
recompense
for the time and money you expend.

I understand that using the airwaves for advertising is not allowed.  Funny,
though,
using the internet is allowed, which is where all this apparently got
started.

If a ham starts a company related to amateur radio thats great. Who better
to understand the requirements.
Advertise over the air - no
Advertise in club newsletters - yes
Advertist over the internet - yes
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Dimse" <steve at dimse.com>
To: "TAPR APRS Mailing List" <aprssig at lists.tapr.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2005 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: [aprssig] Igateing a Non Amateur


>
> On Oct 2, 2005, at 11:04 AM, Andy Gonzales wrote:
>
> > What are their calls ?
>
> Many of the employees of these companies are hams. Many companies you
> would recognize, like MFJ and PacComm were started by and are owned
> by hams, who have made plenty of money off of amateur radio. (Many
> have lost a lot of money, but that's another story!)
> >
> > I meant of course the operating community.  If I come up with a 4
> > band radio
> > product for sale and advertise it over the local repeater and make
> > a profit,
> > that's not amateur radio.  If I set up a server or write some
> > software or
> > produce some sort of kit, and I get money enough to defray some or
> > all of my
> > expenses then that seems to be correct
>
> Don't feel bad that you are mistaken on this count, many people have
> an incorrect impression about the meaning of amateur. Back when the
> term was coined, its meaning was an enthusiast, rather than the
> present connotation of non-professional. The prohibition in the FCC
> rules is against using the airwaves to make money. Your first example
> is against the rules, you could not advertise on your 2 meter
> repeater. You could go to the local ham club and sell all you want
> though, and make as much or as little profit as your choose. Note
> that the rules are not about whether you make a PROFIT, so even if
> you are selling it for half your cost, you still cannot advertise on
> the air if it is an ongoing enterprise. The rules allow for the
> exception of selling amateur radio gear if the selling is not done on
> a regular basis... e.g. I can sell an old rig on the air, but if I
> run a home business in old gear, I can't use ham radio to promote it.
>
> You are trying to put limitations on me, and every other producer of
> intellectual property. You are not alone, Richard Stallman feels the
> same way you do, and is quite eloquent in his promotion of the
> concept. He believes any information that is useful belongs to
> civilization as a matter of morality. He thinks it is OK to write a
> novel and sell it, but if I write a how-to book, it belongs to
> everyone and it is immoral to make money (even expenses). I call that
> information communism, and I reject it just as I reject material
> communism. I have rights to the output of my brain just as I have
> rights to the output of my hands.
>
> Steve K4HG
>
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