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by renewiltord 922 days ago
I believe we currently do this in many places. There are many radios that will take orders from someone else. e.g. Many Wi-Fi routers will perform DFS and refuse to transmit on some frequency bands if they detect radar. Likewise, many printers and scanners will refuse to operate if they detect the Eurion Constellation. I imagine that the general form of the arguments that permitted those controls will also be used here.
1 comments

The key distinction is that it is legal to build and sell a scanner that ignores the Eurion constellation, or a radio capable of transmitting in radar frequencies [1]. You may not be allowed to actually interfere with radar or counterfeit money, but that is a choice that is up to you, and it is up to the state to enforce it. It does not deputize your possessions, turning them into an omnipresent police to enforce the law and tattle on you.

[1] Though FCC regulations on radio may be a gray line here, but I'm not too familiar with them.

You might be able to sell it (not sure, probably depends on what it was officially being sold for), but it wouldn't be legal for it to transmit unless it fell under some FCC approved license or statute (e.g. Part 15).