6 ms·

Out of the box those devices act as digital TV and radio receivers. In fact I have been using them for just that for many years. Weird that someone can get in t

• iaarn 7y ago
  That's like saying, out of the box a knife acts as something I use to cut bread, weird that someone can get in trouble for carrying one to stab people with it.
  • eeZah7Ux 7y ago
    No. Criminal law does not work by comparison. An SDR is not a knife.
  • mcv 7y ago
    Did the researcher actually stab someone with his RTL-SDR? I thought the arrest claimed just the ownership of the bread knife was enough reason for suspicion.
  • wongarsu 7y ago
    I don't know about the US, but German law has classes of knives you can only legally carry for purposes compatible with society. I am allowed to carry a leatherman for electrical work or to peel an apple, carrying that same knife for self defense or to play with it in front of the train station is illegal. You don't have to do anything, just carrying it in a suspicious context can be enough to have it confiscated.
    • madengr 7y ago
      I believe the USA federal definition of a weapon is a blade over 3”. Though they still won’t let you carry a less than 3” blade on a plane.
      • micmil 7y ago
        The federal definition is essentially irrelevant unless you're traveling across state lines or live in DC. Such things are handled by the states in all other cases.
    • homonculus1 7y ago
      >you can only legally carry for purposes compatible with society >carrying that same knife for self defense... is illegal God damn if the internet doesn't constantly remind me why I'm thankful to have been born in America.
      • learc83 7y ago
        Many jurisdictions in the US have similar laws. In my entire (very southern, very conservative) state, until recently, a knife designed for offensive or defensive purposes was illegal to carry. Offensive or defensive wasn't clearly defined, and it was pretty much just interpreted as any knife you intended to use for offense or defense.
        • homonculus1 7y ago
          Yes, there are many jurisdictions in the US with unconstitutional arms laws. But even then we don't have an attitude that self-defense is categorically "incompatible with society". Many politicians, activists, wealthy donors, and voters are de facto opposed to self-defense but they at least have to pay lip service to it.
          • TallGuyShort 7y ago
            >> Many politicians, activists, wealthy donors, ... are de facto opposed to self-defense but they at least have to pay lip service to it. Unless you consider hiring (or working with tax-payer funded) armed protection a form of self-defense. Then they're very pro-self-defense. "Gun control" in America is a euphemism for "gun consolidation". We don't believe weapons of war belong in middle/lower-class people's homes, but they sure as hell belong in every patrol car and on the streets of countries whose oil we want to control.
  • SideburnsOfDoom 7y ago
    It's a bit odd to compare a device that reads radio data to a "knife used to stab people". If it could send broadcast data, or could be used as an active jammer, then that might be closer.
  • thedaemon 7y ago
    It is in the UK and probably many other countries.
• crispyambulance 7y ago
  It's not really about the RTL-SDR. The person who was arrested was using the device to probe stuff that the Tunisian government doesn't want to be made known. If he had been using binoculars and a notebook at the airport, he would have been arrested too. They were watching him, knew what he was doing there, and used whatever pretext was at hand to arrest him upon arrival (which suggests he had been there before).