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Now I'm curious about the legal angle of this. If a company claims their product is "USB compatible", but the product doesn't 100% comply with the detailed tec

Now I'm curious about the legal angle of this. If a company claims their product is "USB compatible", but the product doesn't 100% comply with the detailed technical specification, what's the company's liability? And if the company knew the product didn't strictly meet the USB standard, but marketed the product as "USB compatible" anyway, does that rise to the level of fraud?

londons_explore 6y ago
"We claimed our device met USB, which claimed a max power draw while unenumerated of 1mA, yet our device actually used 500mA. Whoops. How long did you have this device unenumerated for? 1 second each time you plugged it in? Well damages can be calculated then... 1 second * 365 (number of times plugged in per year) * 500mA * 5 volts * 5 years (expected lifespan) * $0.14 ($/kWh electricity)... Total compensation is $0.00014... Would you like a check for that?
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  That's one end of the spectrum. The other end is killing a phone's battery in a couple hours.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  No, you sue for false advertising, not the electricity.
  - jrockway 6y ago
    I looked up the laws in New York (other states may vary), and you can recover your damages or $500, whichever is greater. You have to prove that the advertiser knowingly misled you (which software bugs probably aren't), and that the false advertising is what influenced your purchase. I doubt it's likely to succeed. Everyone on the jury will be easily convinced that software is hard to get right, since they have probably used a lot of shitty software and consider it normal.
oh_sigh 6y ago
USB compatible, and USB compliant may be two separate things?
R0b0t1 6y ago
I've thought about this a fair bit. Nothing can prevent you from plainly stating what your device does. You can claim interoperability with USB if your device works for the advertised use. You don't need to pay the USB consortium for licensing, but you can't use their branding. If you don't make a claim about power draw, then I suspect your consumers can't complain unless the power draw is unexpectedly large. And even then, what are the actual damages you need to compensate them for?

londons_explore 6y ago

"We claimed our device met USB, which claimed a max power draw while unenumerated of 1mA, yet our device actually used 500mA. Whoops. How long did you have this device unenumerated for? 1 second each time you plugged it in? Well damages can be calculated then... 1 second * 365 (number of times plugged in per year) * 500mA * 5 volts * 5 years (expected lifespan) * $0.14 ($/kWh electricity)... Total compensation is $0.00014... Would you like a check for that?

Dylan16807 6y ago
That's one end of the spectrum. The other end is killing a phone's battery in a couple hours.
yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
No, you sue for false advertising, not the electricity.
- jrockway 6y ago
  I looked up the laws in New York (other states may vary), and you can recover your damages or $500, whichever is greater. You have to prove that the advertiser knowingly misled you (which software bugs probably aren't), and that the false advertising is what influenced your purchase. I doubt it's likely to succeed. Everyone on the jury will be easily convinced that software is hard to get right, since they have probably used a lot of shitty software and consider it normal.

oh_sigh 6y ago

USB compatible, and USB compliant may be two separate things?

R0b0t1 6y ago

I've thought about this a fair bit. Nothing can prevent you from plainly stating what your device does. You can claim interoperability with USB if your device works for the advertised use. You don't need to pay the USB consortium for licensing, but you can't use their branding. If you don't make a claim about power draw, then I suspect your consumers can't complain unless the power draw is unexpectedly large. And even then, what are the actual damages you need to compensate them for?