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

[Marina Brown]

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On 09/28/2015 11:12 AM, Josh King wrote:
> 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...
> 

Yes.

Senator Leahy's office in particular has been receptive to
electronic freedom issues. If we get a good letter drafted i can
send it out to all our representatives here.

- --- Marina


> 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

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