3 ms·
the ones that buy Qualcomm chips off the black market?
by av500 13y ago
the ones that buy Qualcomm chips off the black market?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- sliverstorm 13y agoImitations sneak into above-the-table supply streams all the time. The bootlegger need only imitate the package shape and markings, and even knowledgeable people may not notice.
- marshray 13y agoChips as complex as SoC's having GPUs are being produced by counterfeiters who are not just copying the package and artwork, but actually making clones working only from published documentation and redistributable drivers? But they would be thwarted by license agreements making the drivers generally nonredistributable?
- sliverstorm 13y agoIt definitely is something that usually happens to simpler chips that are easy to reproduce. I'm not even trying to say it is likely that someone is or would bootleg the SoCs- just that the earlier argument that there wouldn't be any black-market buyers is irrelevant, because bootleg parts make their way in to legitimate supply streams all the time.
- lmm 13y agoAIUI sometimes the workers physically producing the chips will sneak in at night and do an extra run. Or sell chips that failed quality control.
- aeturnum 13y agoI work for Qualcomm, and I never would have expected it, but apparently this happens. There are groups that buy busted phones, get the Qualcomm cellular modem chips out of them, and then put those chips into new devices. It's significantly cheaper than licensing, and I believe the current tactic to fight it is firmware-based.
- wmf 13y agoThat sounds like a totally legitimate case of first sale, so it seems evil to fight it.
- aeturnum 13y agoI get the impression the resulting products aren't particularly high quality and there's some notion of protecting consumers, but I would imagine the primary motivator is the loss of license fees.
- bloopletech 13y agoI don't want to come across too harshly, since you've engaged in the discussion and revealed that you work for qualcomm, but: Do you morally and ethically agree with the position that Qualcomm should get paid a licence fee for the firmware for each and every resale of a particular chip? (vs the spirit of the first sale doctrine) At the moment, it seems that you're giving tacit approval to this position.
- aeturnum 13y agoI identified myself as an employee of Qualcomm because, per policy, we're supposed to do so when discussing the company. :) I think it's reasonable to sell the chips under a restricted license - you don't expect people to use the chip in a product you don't know about. Consider a metaphor using a collection of short stories. You include your story in an anthology, which lets the buyer re-sell it at will. However, it would be questionable for the buyer to remove your story, and re-bind it as part of another book, which they then sell. These actions are not restricting the actions of customers in any way (as far as I know), so they seem ok to me. Edit: sorry about the delay in reply!
- makomk 13y agoSo basically, they're doing something that saves money and is good for the environment, but it cuts into your profits.
- 13y ago