Why GPL Enforcement Is Essential to OpenWrt's Past and Future
Channel: Adjy Leak
Date: 2016-10-13

The first SVN checkin to OpenWRT repository nearly 15 years ago was the release of source code that was released from BusyBox and Linux GPL enforcement efforts against Linksys and Cisco. From its very beginning, OpenWRT has been intertwined with GPL enforcement, and that relationship should continue.

Historically, more than any other industry, wireless device manufacturers have attempted to lock-down devices. Some manufacturers now cooperate with the project, but recent disturbing trends in the FCC and elsewhere show clearly that such lock-down efforts will continue by some manufacturers to decrease hackability and increase control and lock-down. Linux's license, GPL, is the best defense we currently have against these efforts.

This talk will present the current state of compliance problems seen in the wireless router space, discuss how GPL and its enforcement can be used as one tool among many to assure software freedom for all wireless router users, and how better cooperation between the OpenWRT community and current enforcement agents can make a big impact on the lock-down problems we currently face.

Bradley M. Kuhn, Software Freedom Conservancy
OpenWrt Summit 2016 - Berlin