| DCI and
PNW are DMR networks of
amateur Radio repeaters that are independently owned and
operated. DCI
and PNW reserve the right to, at any time, make changes,
with or without notice to enhance or restrict repeater
access/hosting, data,
talkgroup or user access. DCI and PNW also reserves the right to
remove your access or block your use or use by any of your users
on or through the DCI and PNW networks, at any time, with or without notice.
DCI and PNW
Repeater owners and users
must use a valid user ID issued by
DMR MARC. Any use of unsanctioned or custom
talkgroups is forbidden without the express approval of
the repeater owner with written notice and written
concurrence to
DCI and PNW.
DCI and PNW are not public utilities nor common carriers.
DCI and PNW are private Amateur Radio networks of private
Amateur Radio repeaters which
allow use by most licensed Amateur Radio Operators under
a not-for-profit environment, subject
to control or restriction by individual and independent
repeater owners or their trustees and/or c-Bridge owners
or their administrators who may enable/disable
transport of repeater traffic and user access.
Your
use or continued use
of any repeater connected to the DCI and PNW networks,
any of our
transport networks directly or indirectly or this website infers no
right to any continued use of any repeaters or transport
networks. Any of our radio and/or network assets may be withdrawn at any time
for any reason without notice or recourse to you as a
repeater owner/administrator or any or all of your
users.
Encryption
is not permitted; your repeater will be most certainly
be blocked from our networks and your radio ID's blocked from the DCI and PNW networks
with or
without notice.
What this means in Ham
parlance: If you play in our sandbox, then you must play
nicely, get along with others and then you may use our infrastructure, if
you can't abide by our terms of service, then you cannot use our stuff.
While all of the above is
arguably not the general Ham approach to Ham Radio that
I have known for the past 45 years, please give a tip of
the hat to K1DMR, for which is the basis for its
creation.
The
TOS statement above has been added
primarily because a ham (Kenneth
Bryant, K1DMR),
incredibly, filed a
lawsuit in
2015 and is continuing his prosecution of those
NCPRN repeater and c-Bridge owners
(see the directory
for more links and files)
because his access to NCPRN was
restricted due to his (alleged) commercial/business
related use of their network and repeaters. See
the
GoFundMe Campaign and consider a donation to support
Scott's (KF4DBW) defense. By doing so, you really
are supporting your local repeater owners and the
c-Bridge administrators and...believe it or not, all
users. Make a contribution, as little as $5 to $10
to get updates from the GFM campaign. Include your
name and call sign to show your public support if at all
possible. To be very clear, you would be
supporting yourself as it is us (you, me and Scott, etc)
who provide the repeaters, c-Bridges, website and the
networking to any ham at no cost. It
will affect you directly if you simply discount or
ignore this issue. Fewer repeaters will be deployed
and/or more will go to a closed access format to
insulate themselves from hams who wish to do business in
the Ham arena. Please
educate yourself by reading from the links above.
Skip your dinner out one time and send that money to
support the defense of this outrageous case
repeater owner or network admin. --
Mike, NO7RF
UPDATE 1: November 17, 2016:
Lawsuit settled
short of trial, colossal
waste of money, but no precedent set:
|
In
the matter of Kenneth Bryant v. NCPRN, Scott
Whitaker and Wade Hampton, Jr., this issue
has been resolved. We regret this matter
occurred and acknowledge that it could have
been handled better, and regret some of the
unfortunate public comments made pertaining
to this litigation and to Mr. Bryant. It is
in the best interests of Amateur Radio that
this matter be resolved without further
litigation.
Network privileges for Kenneth Bryant are
restored.
The parties ask the community not to discuss
this matter further. |
UPDATE 2: December 09,
2016: The
GoFundMe campaign has been terminated...a total of $6,625 was
collected, much less than the $15,000 to $20,000 of costs that Bryant caused
just this single defendant in defense of the lawsuit.
UPDATE 3: July
12, 2019: 3 years later, I find that Bryant now has on his QRZ page
(April 28, 2019), in part, the following text:
RE: Lawsuit Against NCPRN (filed on behalf of, and in
support of, the Amateur Radio Community)
For anyone truly interested in the facts of the matter, rather that hearsay
from someone who has never read the court file, please contact me and I will
be happy to provide you with court documents in the case via email. Many
individuals were duped into donating to a Go Fund Me campaign started by
Mike Shirley, NO7RF, based on false and misleading information about the
case. Since it was questionable about how these donations were obtained, I
had asked that these funds totalling almost $7k be donated to the ARRL Youth
Education Fund (which is dedicated to fostering new hams from childhood
ranks) but the Defendants refused. In any event, the matter has reached a
final outcome and here is the latest update posted on the NC PRN website
dated November 17, 2016:
"In the matter of Kenneth Bryant v. NCPRN, Scott Whitaker and Wade Hampton,
Jr., this issue has been resolved. We regret this matter occurred and
acknowledge that it could have been handled better, and regret some of the
unfortunate public comments made pertaining to this litigation and to Mr.
Bryant. It is in the best interests of Amateur Radio that this matter be
resolved without further litigation. Network privileges for Kenneth Bryant
are restored. The parties ask the community not to discuss this matter
further." [original emphasis retained]
The first paragraph quoted above under Update #3 from Bryant's
QRZ page (4-8-2016) is much a mischaracterization of the case as well as my support
for the defendants and the ham radio community. Bryant filed this case
for himself as he was not satisfied after he was banned from the NCPRN
network. You may make your own determination on who truthful by simply
reading the documents that I made available during the course of the
lawsuit. I read the pleadings and the later filed documents.
Bryant has never made the court file publicly available. I founded the GoFundMe page and all money raised went directly to the defendant(s) with no
strings on how it may be used in their defense.
Some of the links (above and in the directory) are no longer valid after 3
years but the basic information is unchanged. Had Bryant prevailed in
his lawsuit, it could have set president or case law that would cause
current and potential repeater owners, c-Bridge owners and manager in the
DMR world to reconsider deploying a repeater or network as they more easily
prevail when some wingnut gets his panties in a twist.
$20,000 was spent by 1 defendant to defend against Bryant's lawsuit and
what came of it? At the bottom line, it was the settlement agreement
and the above statement. The ham community is fortunate that Bryant
did not prevail. Bryant has since violated his own settlement
agreement by his posting of more comment on his
QRZ page,
that content which further bolsters the defendants original reason for
banning Bryant's activities on the NCPRN network.
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