US Rules Committee Policy on Permitting S/W for Tablets, PNAs,Smartphones etc.

http://www.ssa.org/files/member/Rest...e%20Policy.pdf

It goes like this.

1. The FAI and US rules banning the use in competition of technology
that provide AH or T&B functionality are not going away this season.
Opine to the max on the good/bad aspects of this all you like, but the
rule will not be changed this season.

2. Recognizing the difficulty of complete enforcement against a
dedicated cheater, but not wanting to disenfranchise either the users
of software or the developers we wrote a policy governing acceptable
use of these devices.

3. Developers who wish to not disenfranchise their users will make
the necessary changes to their products and release rules-compliant
versions in a timely fashion. This basically means compiling out any
code that implements prohibited functionality and making it clear to a
non-technical contest official (e.g. via the splash screen) what the
version is. Not rocket science.

In other news:

4. Use of cellular/satellite whatever voice or data services in
flight remains prohibited but for two different reasons.

4a. Voice services are prohibited because team flying is prohibited.
Nothing new there.

4b. Data services (e.g. in-flight weather) have been prohibited up to
now because of the high cost of the necessary devices and not wanting
to send the message that you need more high cost equipment to
compete. As this situation is rapidly changing and in-flight weather
is becoming ubiquitous and cheap this ban will probably go away soon
(next season?).

Deep breaths and civility everyone. It's not our fault that vendors
and developers starting introducing prohibited functionality without
due awareness of the FAI and US competition rules.

John Godfrey (QT)
US Rules Committee