Dear all,
Maybe you heard of the Radio Equipment Directive already. It's a directive passed by the European Parliament forcing radio device manufacturers (routers, mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS...) from around 2017 on to check every software able to run on the respective devices to be compliant with applicable radio laws (e.g. frequency or strenght).
Seeming to be reasonable at first sight, this directive will cause huge damage to Free Software, innovation, security, fair competition, volunteering and more. We have been in contact with many actors around this issue since a few months already; now we published our official information page about the EU Radio Directive, trying to summarise all necessary background info, bad consequences, and recommendations how to improve the situation:
https://fsfe.org/activities/radiodirective/
Please share your thoughts on this issue, and please also speak with friends and colleagues about it. Feel free to help us gathering more information and share it on this list or with me directly. Thanks!
Best regards, Max
P.S.: In the USA, the FCC wants to push a quite similar law. Let us try to at least protect Europe from such damage, and let's hope the US activists will be successful as well.
Max Mehl max.mehl@fsfe.org wrote:
Maybe you heard of the Radio Equipment Directive already. It's a directive passed by the European Parliament forcing radio device manufacturers (routers, mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS...) from around 2017 on to check every software able to run on the respective devices to be compliant with applicable radio laws (e.g. frequency or strenght).
Seeming to be reasonable at first sight, this directive will cause huge damage to Free Software, innovation, security, fair competition, volunteering and more. We have been in contact with many actors around this issue since a few months already; now we published our official information page about the EU Radio Directive, trying to summarise all necessary background info, bad consequences, and recommendations how to improve the situation:
I've heard that claim before, but consider it FUD as article 3 of the directive ends with:
"The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 44 specifying which categories or classes of radio equipment are concerned by each of the requirements set out in points (a) to (i) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph."
Therefore it's unclear at this time if and how the directive will affect free software or "routers, mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS ..." in general.
Given how unrealistic some of the requirements from article 3 are (even when using proprietary software), it also seems unlikely to me that compliance will be actually enforced.
I believe (but did not check) that Germany's Bundesnetzagentur already has a similarly vague mandate and thus it's not obvious to me that the directive 2014/53/EU will makes things worse for people in Germany. Presumably the situation is similar in other EU countries.
Fabian
# Fabian Keil [16.03.2016 @ 15:38]:
I've heard that claim before, but consider it FUD as article 3 of the directive ends with:
"The Commission shall be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 44 specifying which categories or classes of radio equipment are concerned by each of the requirements set out in points (a) to (i) of the first subparagraph of this paragraph."
Therefore it's unclear at this time if and how the directive will affect free software or "routers, mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS ..." in general.
Well, right now, it's pretty clear. All devices (with some narrow exceptions which do not include normal users or Free Software in general) are affected which send or receive radio waves.
Given how unrealistic some of the requirements from article 3 are (even when using proprietary software), it also seems unlikely to me that compliance will be actually enforced.
It may be considered unlikely that the European Commission will not use its mandate to further define classes which are (not) affected. Our goal is to make the exceptions as broad as possible for users of Free Software and consumer electronics.
In my opinion we must not rest on a false confidence that political institutions will somehow find a good solution magically, or that the regulations are too strict so manufacturers will not make the compliance checks. Right now, it can be considered FUD. We have to change that, for our benefit.
Best regards, Max