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Replying To:
Do they have a right? (none / 0) (#3)
by modcon on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 09:23:04 AM PDT

Does a company have the right to supply and withhold features from their products as they see fit? IMO, Without a doubt - yes they do. Do they have the right to stop a purchaser from activating those features on their own by modifying the company drivers? IMO, without a doubt - no they do not. It gets sticky when you ask if a company has the right to stop a customer from distributing and/or profiting from the changes s/he may make. My personal opinion is they should be able to stop someone from hacking a driver to activate a feature and then profit from that hack. But they should not be able to stop someone from freely distributing either the hacked driver itself or instructions for creating the hack as long as it is clear the hacked driver is NOT supported by the original company.



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