[Battlemesh] FCC Rules?

Ben West ben at gowasabi.net
Mon Nov 16 21:44:59 UTC 2015


There is an active thread about this over at the Purple Foundation listserv
for the issue, this post in particular:
http://lists.prplfoundation.org/pipermail/fcc/2015-November/000455.html

Heavily summarized salient points appear to be:
- FCC doesn't grasp that their proposed requirements effectively require
locked down firmware per how cheap personal electronics like wifi routers
are built.  I.e. they're not mobile phones.
- FCC likewise doesn't grasp that manufacturers have no incentive
whatsoever to increase the complexity (and cost) of such cheap products to
meet any new rules, beyond the easiest option of simply locking the
firmware.

That thread post in particular describes possible benefit of a hypothetical
manufacturer having open firmware certified.

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 2:46 PM, Ryan Hughes <ryan at iheartryan.com> wrote:

> So, the FCC posted a thing a couple days ago, saying that they don't
> intend to block custom software on wifi devices.  But they definitely say
> they still want manufacturers to show that they will be able to prevent
> software modifications that can provide harmful interference.
>
> https://www.fcc.gov/blog/clearing-air-wi-fi-software-updates
>
> They seem to think that this distinction should make me feel better, but
> it does not.
>
> The comment period is closed, but the final rules haven't been issued yet.
>
> Do we know what manufacturers are thinking?  Are they still thinking of
> locking down all modifications because that's the easiest way to stay in
> compliance?
>
> It's probably hard to say what else they can do to comply with the rules,
> since the final rules haven't been issued yet, but what are we looking at
> here?
>
> --Ryan
> _______________________________________________
> Battlemesh mailing list
> Battlemesh at ml.ninux.org
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>



-- 
Ben West
http://gowasabi.net
ben at gowasabi.net
314-246-9434
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