In a win for the open source community, router maker TP-Link will be required to allow consumers to install third-party firmware on their wireless routers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Monday. The announcement comes on the heels of a settlement requiring TP-Link to pay a $200,000 fine for failing to properly limit their devices' transmission power on the 2.4GHz band to within regulatory requirements. On its face, new rules about open source firmware don't seem to have much to do with TP-Link's compliance problems. But the FCC's new rule helps fix an unintended consequence of a policy the agency made last year, which had led to open source developers being locked out of wireless routers entirely.

“Kenya to require users of public Wi-Fi to register with government,” reads a July 1 Ars Technica headline. At first glance, the east African country’s proposed regulations appeared to extend their reach beyond even that broad subset of Kenyan Internet users. According to quotes from officials included in the article, the new rules would require all users of any device with wireless networking capabilities, not just public Wi-Fi routers, to register their equipment with either their Internet service providers or the Kenya Network Information Centre (KENIC).

Even correcting for what seems to be overbroad interpretation of the final regulations, Kenya's plans risk invading the privacy of the majority of its non-mobile Internet users, as well as chasing legitimate anonymous speakers from the country's Internet.