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

xataka.com.mx

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

#91

Post by imtringued »

nurettin wrote: post #55
cs702 wrote: post #53

Sometimes it feels as if politicians and lawmakers are drawing inspiration from the direst scenarios envisioned in the science fiction literature. Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing the kind of tinkering, exploration, repurposing, interconnecting, i.e., hacking, that leads to innovation? Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing new kinds of competition…

People are tinkering with phones in order to circumvent law and make quick, short term profit at the cost of tax paying citizens. None of the noble reasons you'd think of apply.

You're overgeneralizing. A company has a limited amount of employees that are working full time. Meanwhile the millions of people who install ROMs may spend a week tinkering and then it's over for them. The chance that a few thousand of them become interested in making their own ROMs (and therefore become software engineers) will become zero thanks to this law.

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

#92

Post by imtringued »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #69
gspr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the days where one needs to be licensed to use a debugger might not be far away. GNU/Linux and the BSDs have never before looked so essential to the survival of computing as we know it.

What good is Linux and free software if the hardware won't let us run the programs we want? Computers could ship with a preconfigured Linux distribution that does all sorts of abusive things and since we wouldn't have the cryptographic keys to the machine it's impossible to do anything about it. In the future, all computers could very well be just like video game consoles: devices which refuse to run software not cry…

This reminds me of ARM SBCs including the raspberry pi. The manufacturer creates a device specific build of Linux. Usually the vendor doesn't care and just provides you with an ancient 2.6 kernel because the SoC vendor provides GPU drivers that only support 2.6. There are also often device specific modifications in the kernel and since Chinese vendors don't care about upholding the GPL they just give you the kernel without source code.

Ironically nobody cares about these SBCs because of their poor software support for new versions of the linux kernel.

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

#93

Post by switch007 »

tmh88j wrote: post #76
switch007 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. The last good car they made was the E46 M3 anyway (2006!)

Have you driven any modern BMW's? If size is your issue the M2 Competition is far superior to the E46 M3, and the F80 M3 is far superior to the E39 M5 and E60 M5.

Superior is an opinion just like mine.

I’ve not driven a modern M but I’ve driven the 330d and 420i loads and they’re incredibly dull. I’m sure the Ms are more fun and advanced and the fake engine noise pumped in to the cabin is exciting and all .. ;-)

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

#95

Post by lumberingjack »

izacus wrote: post #28
jacquesm wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Norwegian decision is a travesty as presented here, how can a repair infringe on a trademark and how on Earth did that not lead to an appeal. Using aftermarket parts is a well established practice in automotive, I see absolutely no reason why that would not extend to phones. Are they going to demand cars are only repaired with OEM parts as well?

The practice in automotive is there due to historical legacy - it would never be allowed in modern world. If anything, the carmakers have started to prevent you from doing your own repairs by demanding their own proprietary software to pair car controller modules. That software is licensed only to dealers and trying to use it outside those licensed conditions is a DMCA violation. With BMW pioneering car microtransact…

The thing with BMW is that their DRM is usually cracked in about 5 years. Just about every BMW up to 2017 can have all of its electronic features enabled for free if you just buy a $20 cable and hook it to a laptop. Sometimes this is viewed as a positive thing it's something that has tons of features that can be enabled free by hacks then hackers like me will buy it at a discount. I bought a base model 3 was able to turn on all of the extra options for free including an additional amount of horsepower from modding wastegate actuation

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

#96

Post by nurettin »

imtringued wrote: post #91
nurettin wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are tinkering with phones in order to circumvent law and make quick, short term profit at the cost of tax paying citizens. None of the noble reasons you'd think of apply.

You're overgeneralizing. A company has a limited amount of employees that are working full time. Meanwhile the millions of people who install ROMs may spend a week tinkering and then it's over for them. The chance that a few thousand of them become interested in making their own ROMs (and therefore become software engineers) will become zero thanks to this law.

Governments should not enforce international trade agreements on the off-chance that someone somewhere might have an epiphany while installing illegal software? No.

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

#97

Post by gspr »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #69
gspr wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the days where one needs to be licensed to use a debugger might not be far away. GNU/Linux and the BSDs have never before looked so essential to the survival of computing as we know it.

What good is Linux and free software if the hardware won't let us run the programs we want? Computers could ship with a preconfigured Linux distribution that does all sorts of abusive things and since we wouldn't have the cryptographic keys to the machine it's impossible to do anything about it. In the future, all computers could very well be just like video game consoles: devices which refuse to run software not cry…

Fair enough. The FOSS operating systems are not sufficient to save computing as we know it. But they are necessary. So I don't think it's wrong to bring up their importance. Hardware under our control won't do us any good if we don't have the software.

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

#98

Post by samus »

nurettin wrote: post #55
cs702 wrote: post #53

Sometimes it feels as if politicians and lawmakers are drawing inspiration from the direst scenarios envisioned in the science fiction literature. Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing the kind of tinkering, exploration, repurposing, interconnecting, i.e., hacking, that leads to innovation? Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing new kinds of competition…

People are tinkering with phones in order to circumvent law and make quick, short term profit at the cost of tax paying citizens. None of the noble reasons you'd think of apply.

These are pretty bold points that would deserve to be expanded, as they cover everyone doing non-standard things with their hardware or even just changing their battery. The whole statement sounds like a "think of the children"-style argument to me.

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

#99

Post by samus »

nurettin wrote: post #96
imtringued wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're overgeneralizing. A company has a limited amount of employees that are working full time. Meanwhile the millions of people who install ROMs may spend a week tinkering and then it's over for them. The chance that a few thousand of them become interested in making their own ROMs (and therefore become software engineers) will become zero thanks to this law.

Governments should not enforce international trade agreements on the off-chance that someone somewhere might have an epiphany while installing illegal software? No.

The term "illegal" deserves some definition. Arguing that something is forbidden because it is illegal is circular reasoning.

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

#100

Post by samus »

aesthesia wrote: post #46
HeckFeck wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the telcos had their way, once your contract ended the phone would vaporise before your eyes.

If that's the case, why don't they already do this? It's totally feasible to design a phone that will brick itself when your contract ends. There's no legal impediment to doing it either.

Phones whose batteries cannot be easily changed pretty much fit that definition.
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