Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico • Hacker News Board

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#11

Post by blendergeek » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:13 PM UTC

gruez wrote: post #7

barney54 wrote: post #6

It appears this is a result of the harmonization of laws between Mexico, Canada, and the US.

Repairing phones and installing custom ROMs are illegal in us/canada?

Under section 1201 of the Digital Millenium Copyright, it would be illegal to install a custom ROM or repair your phone without permission from the manufacturer.

However, the Copyright office get to make official exceptions to the law and they made an exception for jailbreaking a phone. I'm not sure about repairing or installing custom ROMs. Those might fall into different categories.

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#12

Post by unnouinceput » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:26 PM UTC

prox wrote: post #10

What if you build your own phone with a Pi, or similar?

Then you become the new Apple and rule the world. And you'll see all these politicians licking your shoes.

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#13

Post by anonms-coward » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:26 PM UTC

It seems stallman had the foresight to predict things like this in 1997. I think the days where one needs to be licensed to use a debugger might not be far away.

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#14

Post by harpratap » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:27 PM UTC

jtvjan wrote: post #3

The exceptions list mentions: > When the purpose is to test, investigate, or correct the security of a computer, system, or computer network. > When a person wants their device to stop collecting personal information. Aren't those the reasons most people install custom ROMs? For getting security updates past the life of the smartphone, and to stop Google tracking you.

I installed custom ROMs on my Samsung and Oneplus devices in the past to improve performance. The hardware was more than capable but only custom ROMs were optimised enough to run smoothly. Doing the same to all the Xiaomi devices in my family too.

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#15

Post by aruggirello » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:27 PM UTC

prox wrote: post #10

What if you build your own phone with a Pi, or similar?

You write a blog about it, and get hired in the US... problem solved ;)

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#16

Post by amelius » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:37 PM UTC

How about creating a "derivative work"?

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#17

Post by pimeys » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:51 PM UTC

harpratap wrote: post #14

jtvjan wrote: post #3

The exceptions list mentions: > When the purpose is to test, investigate, or correct the security of a computer, system, or computer network. > When a person wants their device to stop collecting personal information. Aren't those the reasons most people install custom ROMs? For getting security updates past the life of the smartphone, and to stop Google tracking you.

I installed custom ROMs on my Samsung and Oneplus devices in the past to improve performance. The hardware was more than capable but only custom ROMs were optimised enough to run smoothly. Doing the same to all the Xiaomi devices in my family too.

Used to do that with every phone I had, especially the Xiaomis due to them sending lots of tracking with the default install.

The OnePlus 8 Pro is the first phone I feel doesn't need a custom ROM. It has some annoiying things such as Facebook or Chrome preinstalled, but those were either uninstalled or hidden quite fast.

Let's see how long this will get updates though...

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#18

Post by Fiveplus » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:54 PM UTC

yummypaint wrote: post #5

jtvjan wrote: post #3

The exceptions list mentions: > When the purpose is to test, investigate, or correct the security of a computer, system, or computer network. > When a person wants their device to stop collecting personal information. Aren't those the reasons most people install custom ROMs? For getting security updates past the life of the smartphone, and to stop Google tracking you.

I think it's more about boiling the frog. Temper the initial outrage with exceptions, let people get used to the idea that repairs are wrong but it's sometime ok, then remove exceptions later. It's the same long game the inkjet printer people have been unfortunately winning for a while now.

Not that I view this comment with a cynical eye, rather with an inquisitive perspective, I would love to read more examples which started with an exception cause and ended up with a blanket rule enforcement.

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#19

Post by Fiveplus » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:55 PM UTC

prox wrote: post #10

What if you build your own phone with a Pi, or similar?

Then you're halfway through to getting VCs to fund your company.

Re: Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

#20

Post by class4behavior » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 12:57 PM UTC

This is an unfortunate win against the right to repair, which is a concerning issue everywhere around the world. Just recently, in Norway its last court instance found a repair shop in breach of Apple's trademark as they used imported third-party displays.

This stifles competition as corporations are in control for how long hardware or software remain usable and who can provide alternative solutions. In the US this topic flared up again once the farmers felt the consequences of this. Now their modern vehicles and tools either have to be replaced a lot more often or they can't choose where to seek replacements.