> patents Yep, viable choice. Patents definitely are standing in the way of many things, IMO, but this is the very reason of its existence, so we need to decid

> patents Yep, viable choice. Patents definitely are standing in the way of many things, IMO, but this is the very reason of its existence, so we need to decide whether we want to protect companies (and spur innovation, at least that's the theory - we definitely should revisit it and measure it) or if we want to allow people to start new companies making now-not-patented cheap hardware. > "only sell to us"-contracts, not offering specifications What's wrong about that? > laws against reverse engineering Are there any? I'm not aware. Can you elaborate? > why [...] aren't they available? Probably because making counterfeit (as defined by law) hardware isn't that profitable anymore and the market is too small for legal newcomers. What I really don't understand is why the company he bought from had to stick an Apple logo on it. It wouldn't be counterfeit if they didn't.