Principles are principles. If hardware designers have no competition for their hardware then there is no reason for them not to make the firmware source availab

Principles are principles. If hardware designers have no competition for their hardware then there is no reason for them not to make the firmware source available. The only commercial reason for firmware to be secret is the fear that competitors will create alternative hardware designs based which may be compatible with the firmware or even improve on it, or that the firmware can be enhanced to extend the working life of the hardware. As more and more functions are being baked into software this issue is going to become more critical, and all talk about tackling the planting of secret backdoors into software becomes moot, as it can all be done in firmware without detection. This does not even deal with the issue of unintended bugs which are just as exploitable.