It can be, but as I recall, the crux of the whole router WRT story was the FSF or whoever called up Linksys and said, "You're in violation, but calm down, we do

It can be, but as I recall, the crux of the whole router WRT story was the FSF or whoever called up Linksys and said, "You're in violation, but calm down, we don't want money. Let's talk." -- and that is why we have e.g. DD-WRT, Tomato et al today.