Re: New FCC requirements and Linux Wifi

[Arend van Spriel <arend@broadcom.com>]

On 12/02/14 20:35, Arend van Spriel wrote:
> On 12/02/14 01:31, John W. Linville wrote:
>> On Mon, Dec 01, 2014 at 04:27:25PM -0600, Eric Schultz wrote:
>>> All,
>>>
>>> I work for the prpl Foundation, an open source foundation organized by
>>> a number of companies, most related to MIPS. One project we work with
>>> externally is the OpenWrt project. Recently one of our members
>>> mentioned a new FCC requirement (described in FCC publication 594280)
>>> which requires wifi hardware devices to restrict modifications in ways
>>> that were not previously required. Some of the suggestions the company
>>> had internally for complying would be to use features like Secure Boot
>>> and other types of DRM-like mechanisms to prevent routers from being
>>> modified. This obviously would be quite bad for the OpenWrt community
>>> (and the embedded Linux community as a whole) so we agreed as a group
>>> to try to provide hardware companies with a way of complying without
>>> harming the community.

The FCC publication can be found here:

https://apps.fcc.gov/oetcf/kdb/forms/FTSSearchResultPage.cfm?switch=P&id=39498

I had issues downloading the guidance document itself.

Another fine read from 2010 is here:

http://www.fcc.gov/oet/ea/presentations/files/oct10/FCC_Roundtable_General_Discussion_101910-Staff.pdf

At page 13 of this document are draft updates that Eric is probably 
referring to.

Regards,
Arend

>>> I'm looking to find individuals (and other companies!) interested in
>>> working with myself and the foundation, companies, the OpenWrt
>>> community and eventually regulators to provide guidance to hardware
>>> companies on how to best comply with these rules. If you're interested
>>> in getting involved or just would like to know more, please get in
>>> touch with me. We want to make sure that routers and related embedded
>>> Linux hardware is hackable and we could use all the help we could get.
>>>
>>> Thanks and I look forward to working with you,
>>>
>>> Eric
>>
>> Eric,
>>
>> Obviously, I would be interested in hearing more. I suspect there
>> are others on the list that will be interested as well...
>
> I think so too. Just not sure what "Linux hardware is hackable" really
> means here. Well, I guess I mean to say: tell me more. I guess with
> hardware companies you mean OEMs here, right?
>
> Regards,
> Arend
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