[Commotion-discuss] New wifi products now already with locked firmware

[Josh King]

Hey Marina,

The Open Technology Institute (one of the main sponsors of Commotion)
is working on some pretty extensive FCC comments to file on this issue,
and will most likely be looking for sign-ons, if you (or anyone else on
this list) are interested.

Is the idea with the Vermont state government that they would put
pressure on the FCC? That sounds like an interesting idea...

On Sat, 2015-09-26 at 12:07 -0400, Marina Brown wrote:
> On 09/26/2015 09:55 AM, Dan Staples wrote:
> > It's hard to say whether you'll be safe or not. Most of these
> > companies will make decisions based on risk of perceived liability,
> > which is why we're seeing them lockdown firmware before the FCC
> > regulation even goes into into effect. They really don't have any
> > interest or stake in supporting open source firmwares, as that's
> > not their business model.
> 
> 
> The Vermont Representatives are **Very** responsive to complaints
> from
> constituants. Would commotion be willing to help us draft a letter
> about the new proposed rules. We can tell our representatives the
> impact it would have upon low income residents of Newport and
> Commotion could focuss on the free speech and freedom to tinker
> parts.
> 
> Would you all be willing to help with this ?
> 
> --- Marina Brown
> 
> > 
> > On 09/26/2015 08:58 AM, dpeel at vtlink.net wrote:
> > > A small group of us are really excited about building a small
> > > mesh network in our low income neighborhood in a city in Vermont.
> > > The politicians all say they want to expand broadband internet,
> > > but the people we would like to reach can't afford to pay much at
> > > all for internet. The cheap internet the big  providers offer
> > > them is not very good at all. We think a mesh could do much
> > > better for them. It makes me extraordinarily angry that once
> > > again government is serving the needs of big corporations. Right
> > > now we're using mostly Ubiquity routers. Will they be safe from
> > > being locked down?
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message----- From: "Ben West" <ben at gowasabi.net> 
> > > Sent: Friday, September 25, 2015 10:20pm To: "commotion-discuss"
> > > <commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net> Subject: Re:
> > > [Commotion-discuss] New wifi products now already with locked
> > > firmware
> > > 
> > > Wired published an article today as well: 
> > > http://www.wired.com/2015/09/hey-fcc-dont-lock-wi-fi-routers/
> > > 
> > > On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 12:20 PM, Ben West <ben at gowasabi.net 
> > > <mailto:ben at gowasabi.net>> wrote:
> > > 
> > > This is the thread start on the PRPL Foundation listserv
> > > discussing the appearance of wifi routers that now have locked
> > > stock firmware that prohibits flashing alternate firmware.  Yes,
> > > /before/ the FCC's proposed rulemaking even gets approved! 
> > > http://lists.prplfoundation.org/pipermail/fcc/2015-September/0003
> > > 39.html
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> This thread began at prompt of an Ars Technica writer, who just
> > > published this story:
> > > 
> > > FCC: Open source router software is still legal—under certain
> > > conditions Locking out OpenWRT and DD-WRT is the easiest way to
> > > comply with new FCC rules 
> > > http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/09/fcc-open-so
> > > urce-router-software-is-still-legal-under-certain-conditions/
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> These are the specific products mentioned in the thread where locked
> > > firmware was encountered: Rosewill RNX-N300RTv2 TP-Link TL-WR841N
> > > v8.2 Netgear WNDR4300
> > > 
> > > Some of these products were observed to not have locked firmware 
> > > previously, even for the same hardware revision.
> > > 
> > > The TL-WR841N, for example, appears on the list of hardware 
> > > potentially supported by Commotion, which evidently may change
> > > very soon. 
> > > https://wiki.commotionwireless.net/doku.php/development_resources
> > > /router/hardware_compatibility_list
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> _______________________________________________
> Commotion-discuss mailing list
> Commotion-discuss at lists.chambana.net
> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/commotion-discuss
-- 
Josh King
PGP Fingerprint: 8269 ED6F EA3B 7D78 F074 1E99 2FDA 4DA1 69AE 4999

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