[Premium-Rx] Firmware postings

[Geoff Fors]

It pains me somewhat to say this, but I feel I should point out to the list membership in the USA that the firmware in the CPU and/or ROM chips involved in premium receivers, and of course everything else using these devices, is intellectual property owned by the manufacturer and not the radio owner.  As such, it is illegal to retrieve, decompile or otherwise create a record of that code with the intention of transferring it to another party.

The reason I mention this at all is that some manufacturers actually do actively monitor newsgroups looking for keywords such as "firmware" in order to take legal action against hobby "hackers" and "crackers."  There are currently several cases now in litigation brought by Ford Motor Company against persons posting firmware data over on one of the electronic fuel injection newsgroups, and Motorola has sued several persons regarding sale or transfer of radio service software and personality firmware from their two way radios, using information they obtained from newsgroups, eBay and so forth.   Yes, I know that technically you are entitled to make one backup copy of whatever software or firmware you legally have in your equipment, and modify it as you see fit, but how many of us are interested in spending a couple hundred thousand in legal fees to prove it ?  The current trend is for manufacturers to vigorously attack anyone attempting to obtain source code, firmware dumps, and so forth.   

Most premium receiver manufacturers are defense contractors with deep pockets, and posting messages about cracking their firmware and so forth would seem unwise, even on obsolete products.  Those that are out of business would seem fair game, however!

Geoff Fors
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