SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Hackaday sounds the alarm and along with ThinkPenguin, the EFF, FSF, Software Freedom Law Center, Software Freedom Conservancy, OpenWRT, LibreCMC, Qualcomm, and others have created the SaveWiFi campaign (archive.is capture, real link is at this overloaded server) , providing instructions on how to submit a formal complaint to the FCC regarding this proposed rule. The comment period is closing on September 8, 2015.
From Hackaday:
Under the rule proposed by the FCC, devices with radios may be required to prevent modifications to firmware. All devices operating in the 5GHz WiFi spectrum will be forced to implement security features to ensure the radios cannot be modified. While prohibiting the modification of transmitters has been a mainstay of FCC regulation for 80 years, the law of unintended consequences will inevitably show up in full force: because of the incredible integration of electronic devices, this proposed regulation may apply to everything from WiFi routers to cell phones. The proposed regulation would specifically ban router firmwares such as DD-WRT, and may go so far as to include custom firmware on your Android smartphone.
A lot is on the line. The freedom to modify devices you own is a concern, but the proposed rules prohibiting new device firmware would do much more damage. The economic impact would be dire, the security implications would be extreme, and emergency preparedness would be greatly hindered by the proposed restrictions on router firmware. The FCC is taking complaints and suggestions until September 8th.
Leave a comment for the FCC via this link to the Federal Register
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday September 03 2015, @07:41PM
If you split into a separate nation you would not have overlords that have final say over your opinions?
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Thursday September 03 2015, @07:58PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by Yog-Yogguth on Monday September 28 2015, @12:58AM
That is an interesting idea, you might know this already but just in case you don't it's often called panarchism [wikipedia.org] (the p is not a typo).
I don't know a lot about it/haven't delved into it (and I'm not too keen on pigeonholing ideas or following ideologies so there's that too). Only found out about it after thinking/speculating about having a (real) democracy where (within a nation in my thought experiment) the votes cast fund multiple overlapping governments partly doing their own thing and partly cooperating and where anything “universal” would have to be 100% consensual. Probably a nightmare to figure out how to actually implement and might not work at all, plenty of things that could go (horribly) wrong.
Bite harder Ouroboros, bite! tails.boum.org/ linux USB CD secure desktop IRC *crypt tor (not endorsements (XKeyScore))
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Monday September 28 2015, @01:19AM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings