Texas Instruments threatens calculator hobbyists
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Texas Instruments should stop using the DMCA to threaten hobbyists who blogged about potential mods to the company’s programmable graphing calculators, says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation).
TI’s calculators perform a “signature check” that allows only approved operating systems to be loaded onto the hardware, says the story.
But, “researchers were able to reverse-engineer signing keys, allowing modders to install custom operating systems and unlock new functionality in the calculators’ hardware,” it says, going on:
“In response to this discovery, TI unleashed a torrent of demand letters claiming that the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) required the hobbyists to take down commentary about and links to the keys.”
The EFF says it’s representing three men who received threatening letters.
In fact, “the DMCA explicitly allows reverse engineering to create interoperable custom software like the programs the hobbyists are using,” it says, adding:
“Additionally, TI makes its software freely available on its website, so there is no connection between the use of the keys and unauthorized distribution of the code.”
For the full letters sent to Texas Instruments by EFF on behalf of their clients:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/coders/TI%20Claim%20Ltr%20101309.pdf
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
October, 2009
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