Am 2008-11-08 00:20:52, schrieb Ben Finney:
> Are you saying that EU law makes the vendor liable *only* in the case
> where the copyright license to the firmware permits the recipient to
> modify and redistribute, but *does not* make the vendor liable if the
> license doesn't allow this?
It seems it is the case becase the procedure is:
1) building the hardware
2) coding the software
3) testing the ensemble in a protected environement
4) certify the hardware to meat certain criterias
(emision, antenna power)
5) certify the software FIRMWARE BLOB together with the hardware.
Now the original soucre is "worthless" and can be distributed WITH the
firmware blob. The license for the source and the blob must say clearly
that ONLY the blob is certified und permited to use on the device.
If now there is a hacker called "Ben" and find an error and fix it, he
can not legaly use use the fixed software because it must be recertified
together WITH the hardware. (point 3 and 5)
So the only option for "Ben" ist, to send the corrected source back to
the manufacturer and ask him to test and relicense it...
The problem is, that certifying cost up to 40.000 Euro and re-certifying
arround 10-15.000 Euro. So after ONE bugfix, no manufacturer would
recertify the software. IF the hardware is not sold at least 50-100.000
times where arround 30-80¢ are calculated for software updates over the
first 2 years after first hardware sell.
2 years is the normal European Waranty for NEW bought hardware.
This is WHY most cell-phones get not a singel software update (no mather
which manufacturer as Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, Siemans/BenQ, LG, ...)
Thanks, Greetings and nice Day/Evening
Michelle Konzack
Systemadministrator
24V Electronic Engineer
Tamay Dogan Network
Debian GNU/Linux Consultant
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