I don't think it's about protection; it's power needing to stay relevant. If we let this happen, they will continue to roll more and more things into their reg

I don't think it's about protection; it's power needing to stay relevant. If we let this happen, they will continue to roll more and more things into their regulatory sphere. It's almost a law of nature. Eventually they will tell SDR owners that they need a 'license' (because bla bla safety). The same "logic" will be applied to other gadgets. Open source cars, open baseband, and ultimately, open brain implants. Casualties in the war on general purpose computing.