FCC Rules might force Wifi router vendors to lockdown their firmware!
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/07/27/new-fcc-rules-may-prevent-installing-openwrt-on-wifi-routers/
You might want to pickup a LibreCMC router while you can...
i just ordered one
well i guess now the world is worse :/...
Apparently some people ACT PARANOIAC AND draw conclusions, without BOTHERING RESEARCHING INTO THE MATTER.
The FCC is only wanting to control VERY SPECIFIC items, like transmission power and frequency.
The FCC has zero interest in any other aspect of the devices. The FCC ONLY cares about the settings that have any (direct) impact on the RF transmissions. Too Simple, read the FCC article.
To be honest, I'm inclined to expect this to be the case... I mean, the "new" rule in question is actually a year old (even though devices can still be sold under the old rules for another year, if I read the page correctly), so if freedom-respecting firmware is forbidden because of it, why hasn't the FSF or EFF said anything about it?
I think it's ridiculous that the FCC would require certain hardware to be defective by design; if some modifications can cause a problem, those behaviors themselves should be made illegal, and the only thing vendors should be required to do, maybe, is inform consumers that those behaviors are illegal. Still, it looks to me like the fear of alternative operating systems being forbidden might be unjustified.
chaosesqueteam
I tell you what, I believe the person that is not free is you!
Agree, that will be an issue, specially for those developers of 3rd party software for routers. It is already difficult, to modified any firmware.
I am a member!
The problem is more along the lines that it's software defined, and the way that all the chips work is that the only real solution is for manufacturers to lock the devices down via signature checks on the firmware. You might argue otherwise, but the reality is the signature checking is the cheapest and easiest solution which in a competitive market means every company is going to do it that way. Flashing third party firmware will be effectively illegal.
I'm going to say this: The issue is just now becoming known to the community it seems. Even if larger companies knew about these new rules OpenWRT, LibreCMC, the FSF, the EFF, and so on wasn't aware of them until recently.
I've initiated contacts with various organizations to try to publicize the issue and drum up efforts to object to these new rules, or portions thereof which indirectly explicitly ban free firmware. There are some organization now talking (OpenWRT for instance), but others weren't even aware of these new rules, of those who responded within the last day to my communications.
We don't have the plan of action laid out, although I did draw up a quick plan of what I thought we might do/needed to be done, and then another person responded with a draft of a press release. We still need to hear back from people/organizations though as we'll need a lot of organizations supporting the effort and publicity in the media.
There is a comment period which is open until august 16th(?I think?). I'm not sure if this will be an effective campaign though. It could be that there are thousands of comments and the FCC just ignores them saying something to the effect "we have to control our spectrum". That is there job. But the solution won't work technically speaking and unreasonably outlaws those who are not violating the rules (the vast majority- if not near everybody). We've gone 15(?) years without a problem so why start now? There is some other motivator behind this I suspect.
Chris Said:
There is some other motivator behind this I suspect.
I got to agree with you on this one.
The other problem with the logic that the FCC is using is that if they are to follow through with this to try and control the spectrum they now have to lock down firmware and drivers for WiFi cards on computers and everything else. Also, I can put a really high gain antenna or a signal amplifier on a router without even bothering with firmware. Their plan just isn't effective at dealing with the issue and if it is causing more harm than good it shouldn't be done.
If I can help you in any way Chris, just send me a message.
Isn't this the real issue:
> http://www.irjes.com/Papers/vol3-issue11/L3118391.pdf <
If it is, why do I get no Google hits for
> "peer to peer network" +trisquel <
(or linux, for that matter ?
Isn't a peer to peer network the ultimate aim of free software ?
"If it is, why do I get no Google hits for"
your saying if you type "linux" into google nothing comes up??
if that is the case then i guess its censorship
are you saying this?
The aim of the free software movement isn't a peer to peer network. That is a separate issue.
The aim of the free software movement is user freedom.
And what do you mean, "a peer to peer network?" There are already such things, aren't there?
A search on
<"peer to peer network" +trisquel>
didn't work for me yesterday, but today a search on
"p2p networking trisquel"
brought me here:
http://trisquel.info/en/forum/ot-foss-skype-replacement
so all is no lost.
What I'm thinking about would be the equivalent of ham radio or citizens
band radio, given that the wifi built into our computers can talk to
other computers in the same household or workgroup already, and that
there is enough signal strength to pick up other workgroups in the
vicinity.
Sounds a bit like https://thefnf.org/
Whatever the given reason is for this decision, you can rest assured that the NSA is probably behind it. There's no easier way to spy on the country than to make sure every router sold has a back door to facilitate it.
Corporations have just as much incentives to spy on you, if not more.
I am a member!
Many technology companies are in a position to spy, but it's not always within there business model to do so, and could cause PR problems to do so. It's these companies for which we have some hope provided the government doesn't swoop in and restrict them from letting us have control over own hardware.
Maybe I'm pessimistic, but I thnk most corporations have incentives to do this, no matter what industry they are in. And they reason they all do it, is because in this day and age its still very hard for anyone to prove it, let alone win a lawsuit in court over it. They get away scott free just like most malicious hackers.