5 ms·

Putting in backdoors is sure fire way to kill US based mobile phone producers. Criminals will just use foreign produced phones and only way to counteract that

by adrr 10y ago

Putting in backdoors is sure fire way to kill US based mobile phone producers. Criminals will just use foreign produced phones and only way to counteract that is to outlaw those phones. Can't wait till they criminalize having certain firmware on your phones.

jjawssd 10y ago
It's already a violation of the law to import and sell routers with unlocked firmware
- abritinthebay 10y ago
  Isn't that due to FCC regulations. It's not illegal if you work out how to do it yourself (hard, not always impossible).
- Larrikin 10y ago
  Why is this illegal?
  - SXX 10y ago
    Because if you can control or modify radio firmware then it's can usually operate outside of certified range and power. Most of routers use same hardware for all markets while radio regulations are different. So limits are enforced per-country in software and it's easier for manufacturers to completely lock down devices.
    - noir_lord 10y ago
      Yup, I'm in the UK and dd-wrt allows me to push my router power output far beyond the legal spec (since the actual router can support that but is software limited). I didn't because I'm a good neighbour and it's not a massive apartment.
- mnw21cam 10y ago
  Um. So, if I have a laptop, running Linux, with a built-in ethernet port, and plug in a USB ethernet adaptor, it is suddenly illegal to import it? Crazy.
  - jjawssd 10y ago
    No
Corrado 10y ago
I had a slightly different take on the issue. If you require U.S. companies to include backdoors (or whatever word the FBI comes up with) then those companies will simply move operations to another country. Silicon Valley will dry up and innovation will happen somewhere else. You can already see the seeds of such a movement; when researchers are afraid to present at a conference for fear of being arrested[0], or a company is being forced to do something it doesn't want to do[1]. These things are not conducive to a growing, free nation. Our current leadership talks about bringing jobs back to America, but this course of action is forcing companies to move elsewhere, and taking their jobs with them. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Elcom_Ltd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Elcom_Ltd. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_dispute#Apple_ordered_to_assist_the_FBI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_d...

by adrr 10y ago

jjawssd 10y ago

It's already a violation of the law to import and sell routers with unlocked firmware

abritinthebay 10y ago
Isn't that due to FCC regulations. It's not illegal if you work out how to do it yourself (hard, not always impossible).
Larrikin 10y ago
Why is this illegal?
- SXX 10y ago
  Because if you can control or modify radio firmware then it's can usually operate outside of certified range and power. Most of routers use same hardware for all markets while radio regulations are different. So limits are enforced per-country in software and it's easier for manufacturers to completely lock down devices.
  - noir_lord 10y ago
    Yup, I'm in the UK and dd-wrt allows me to push my router power output far beyond the legal spec (since the actual router can support that but is software limited). I didn't because I'm a good neighbour and it's not a massive apartment.
mnw21cam 10y ago
Um. So, if I have a laptop, running Linux, with a built-in ethernet port, and plug in a USB ethernet adaptor, it is suddenly illegal to import it? Crazy.
- jjawssd 10y ago
  No

Corrado 10y ago

I had a slightly different take on the issue. If you require U.S. companies to include backdoors (or whatever word the FBI comes up with) then those companies will simply move operations to another country. Silicon Valley will dry up and innovation will happen somewhere else. You can already see the seeds of such a movement; when researchers are afraid to present at a conference for fear of being arrested[0], or a company is being forced to do something it doesn't want to do[1]. These things are not conducive to a growing, free nation. Our current leadership talks about bringing jobs back to America, but this course of action is forcing companies to move elsewhere, and taking their jobs with them. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Elcom_Ltd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Elcom_Ltd. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_dispute#Apple_ordered_to_assist_the_FBI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93Apple_encryption_d...