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Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

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Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#21
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I had to find in-depth documentation on a fairly common and new SONY image sensor, there was nothing available officially, found it in some chinese file sharing site though. Seems like they are shooting themselves in the foot by not opening it.

I think this may be some bigger market fixing situation - only big and already established corporations would get documentation preventing any competition to emerge.

They could easily control it by selling chips to big players only if they want.

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#22
Cool, I was just going to use a TPA series amplifier for my commercial design this year. I'm just going to switch to ST Microelectronics which is what Bose et al use anyway. Good riddance. If you are stupid enough to DMCA 555 timer datasheets, you just shot yourself in the foot.

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#23
post #9

This is obviously wrong. The best way to remedy this is probably to contact TI as a (potential) investor, not complain here. Link: https://investor.ti.com/resources/contact-us

The contact-us is a box to speak into that would make you feel better that you did something when you hit 'send'. If you think you will achieve anything significant with it, think again. Imagine that _you_ are TI and you receive a couple of messages there. You will think (probably even anticipate) this is clearly the public's reaction to a decision that you thought through, which is not a typo or day-to-day error. So you will thank them for their concern and will carry on with your business!

A better remedy would be to publicly shame them about what they just did. TI will still carry on with their business but others will just know better than to engage with TI in the future!

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#25
post #10

TI has also cancelled distribution agreements with several of their top distributors recently. (Avnet, etc). They have a few global distributors remaining, and if you talk to any of them for a new design, you'll notice they try to avoid promoting TI parts because of TI's new pricing and commission policies.

I had noticed that the UK distributors that I use on a regular basis, RS and Farnell, have stopped hosting TI's datasheets on their sites. It makes it quite annoying to make a quick check to see if the part does what I want.

Whats up at TI? They used to be great for datasheets and Appnotes.

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this may be some bigger market fixing situation - only big and already established corporations would get documentation preventing any competition to emerge.

They could easily control it by selling chips to big players only if they want.

Too conspicuous

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#27
post #9

This is obviously wrong. The best way to remedy this is probably to contact TI as a (potential) investor, not complain here. Link: https://investor.ti.com/resources/contact-us

In my experience (from a few large companies) I'm afraid this would accomplish exactly nothing. It is wishful thinking.

The only way to reach most companies is to turn up on their PR radar. If something is seen as potentially damaging to their brand your concern will enter the company at a place in the organization which will have a far more direct channel to someone who can make decisions.

If you go through their investor feedback channel, unless you own a fair chunk of shares in the company or represent major shareholders, they will ignore you. Of course, if you are a major investor you wouldn't contact them through that channel anyway. You would already have a relationship to someone in, or close to, top management who is responsible for handling major stakeholders.

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#28
post #10

TI has also cancelled distribution agreements with several of their top distributors recently. (Avnet, etc). They have a few global distributors remaining, and if you talk to any of them for a new design, you'll notice they try to avoid promoting TI parts because of TI's new pricing and commission policies.

Does this indicate that TI are in financial trouble?

Re: Texas Instruments sent a DMCA takedown to a site archiving data sheets

#29
I once got a DMCA takedown request (well, Wikipedia did because of my edit) from Texas Instruments for the following numbers:

p = B709D3A0CD2FEC08EAFCCF540D8A100BB38E5E091D646ADB7B14D021096FFCD

q = B7207BD184E0B5A0B89832AA68849B29EDFB03FBA2E8917B176504F08A96246CB

d = 4D0534BA8BB2BFA0740BFB6562E843C7EC7A58AE351CE11D43438CA239DD9927 6CD125FEBAEE5D2696579FA3A3958FF4FC54C685EAA91723BC8888F292947BA1

which can be used to sign firmware for the TI-83+. This lead to the creation of the Wikipedia "black lock" on articles, meaning they can't be edited because of internal Wikipedia corporate policy, which didn't previously exist.

Wikipedia eventually won the dispute, and they host the numbers here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_signing_key_...

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