Wireshark · Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] live data capture question

[Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AMEAUME ALAIN wrote:

> NOW, if you want to capture this payload, you need lawfull rights !

Well, one of the people involved with a GSM capture project says, after 
speaking with a lawyer in the UK:

	http://wiki.thc.org/gsm#head-e10f6c374cd8f48452202a35d763cbf99e59051d

"I have consulted a lawyer in London to find out if what we do is legal 
or not. These are the results:

There is no direct law that forbids what we are doing (Companies like 
Nokia and Sagem are doing exactly the same: Manufacturing GSM scanners 
that anyone  can buy). These are the legal implications in UK:

   1. Security Research in general is not forbidden.
   2. Designing a GSM receiver is ALLOWED (Nokia does it. Sagem does it).
   3. Publishing the design/research is ALLOWED.
   4. Receiving GSM signals is ALLOWED.
   5. Decoding (e.g. cracking) your own GSM signals is ALLOWED
   6. Decoding somebodys else GSM signals is NOT allowed (DANGER).
   7. Setting up a baby cell is allowed if you aquire a license (Any 
bank building in Canary Warf/London runs its own GSM baby cell).

The bottom line is: Publishing the research is ok. As long as you 
receive your own traffic and only send after you got the license you are 
on good ground.

This is based on UK law. European law is similiar (if not more relaxed). 
USA law might be completly different and I highly advice to check with a 
lawyer. If you do so please let me know the results."