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What are you talking about? First sale doctrine means that if you sell something, you've sold it and no longer own it. It does not mean you own the IP that went

by olliej 4y ago

What are you talking about? First sale doctrine means that if you sell something, you've sold it and no longer own it. It does not mean you own the IP that went into making that product. Buying a car doesn't give you the rights to the manufacturers patents, or the design of the engine, it gives you ownership of the final product. If someone sells you a computer with linux on it you don't suddenly have ownership of the linux copyright. > From a consumer protection perspectiv, it seems completely reasonable to say hardware devices have to have FOSS drivers, and that all hardware/software errata must be documented in public for at least N years. Why? > That could be watered down by only requiring the open sourcing / public docs when the manufacturer decides to drop driver support for the current release of the phone OS. Again why? If your device still functions why should the manufacturer be required to give up ownership of their IP?

hedora 4y ago
First sale doctrine is an example of the law taking away people’s property. Without it, sellers would (and did) claim to still own something (the device, copyright, and patent license have all been litigated) after selling it to someone else. Ending support for software on a network connected device is practically equivalent to revoking the license to the software that came with the device — it renders the device unfit for purpose. Requiring manufacturers to support everything forever is probably infeasible/uneconomical. There are precedents for using source code escrow to protect investors / purchasers in situations where companies become insolvent. Those same mechanisms could be used to protect consumers from phone manufacturers that decide to drop device support. Mandating FOSS licensing once the escrow agreement seems practical. Can you have a better legislative solution for ensuring phone operating systems are maintained in perpetuity?

by olliej 4y ago

hedora 4y ago

First sale doctrine is an example of the law taking away people’s property. Without it, sellers would (and did) claim to still own something (the device, copyright, and patent license have all been litigated) after selling it to someone else. Ending support for software on a network connected device is practically equivalent to revoking the license to the software that came with the device — it renders the device unfit for purpose. Requiring manufacturers to support everything forever is probably infeasible/uneconomical. There are precedents for using source code escrow to protect investors / purchasers in situations where companies become insolvent. Those same mechanisms could be used to protect consumers from phone manufacturers that decide to drop device support. Mandating FOSS licensing once the escrow agreement seems practical. Can you have a better legislative solution for ensuring phone operating systems are maintained in perpetuity?