[Discuss] Fwd: Hey FCC, Don't Lock Down Our Wi-Fi Routers | WIRED

[cra at WPI.EDU (Chuck Anderson)]

On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 03:22:12PM -0500, Derek Martin wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 26, 2015 at 01:12:33AM -0400, John Abreau wrote:
> > Well, this is disturbing.
> [...]
> > http://www.wired.com/2015/09/hey-fcc-dont-lock-wi-fi-routers/
> 
> Seems to me you'd get around this by buying a router that had DD-WRT
> or OpenWRT preinstalled, such as:
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=dd-wrt+preinstalled+routers&tag=googhydr-20&index=electronics&hvadid=70174300225&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1524473840025439463&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_67tjrsue90_b

Not really, the vendors may still lock down the firmware, even it if
originally ships w/DD-WRT or OpenWRT.  In fact, the FCC uses DD-WRT as
an example that could be locked down in its entirety to "protect" the
SDR portion.

The question is what if there is GPLv3-licensed software embedded in
the firmware?  Distribution of such software, along with measures to
lock down the device, may violate the GPLv3 license.  See Tivoization
[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tivoization