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: 4, Informative) by miljo on Thursday September 03 2015, @04:46PM
Unless my Google-fu is weak, Here's where I was able to find mention of this campaign by the organizations named in the unquoted paste from Hackaday.
ThinkPenguin [thinkpenguin.com]: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/save-wifi-fcc-attempting-criminalize-freedom-new-regulations [thinkpenguin.com]
EFF [eff.org]: Nothing found
FSF [fsf.org]: Nothing found
Software Freedom Law Center [softwarefreedom.org]: Nothing found
Software Freedom Conservancy [sfconservancy.org]: Nothing found
OpenWRT [openwrt.org]: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=59365 [openwrt.org]
LibreCMC [librecmc.org]: https://librecmc.org/librecmc/wiki?name=Save_WiFi [librecmc.org]
Qualcomm [qualcomm.com]: Nothing found
I'm not suggesting that this isn't a potential issue and shouldn't be brought to folk's attention. Rather I'm suggesting that the alarm hasn't been as loudly sound as advertised.
Even the prpl ("Purple") foundation, where the the discussion about this is being hosted, has nothing in their news section, http://prplfoundation.org/news/ [prplfoundation.org]
What's more, the list for said discussion? It's only 2 months old.http://lists.prplfoundation.org/pipermail/fcc/
Finally, the server that's being hammered so hard that a proper link couldn't be provided? It seems to be working just fine. https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Save_WiFi/Individual_Comments [libreplanet.org]
I know I'm picking knits, feel free to mod as you see fit.
One should strive to achieve, not sit in bitter regret.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2015, @09:55AM
indeed, I went to fsf.org and searched the frontpage for fcc. nada. This doesn't sound like a real issue. Of course if a year from now I'm not legally allowed to operate a raspberri pi as an AP with a usb wifi dongle, then I might shed a tear. But I don't anticipate that situation coming to pass.