Open Hardware Access

General
#1

The HW access has always been a problem for open systems.
Mobile device situation is probably worse than pc/computers in the '90.

For the savvy ones here, I wonder to which extent manufacturers could be law- constrained to provide a OS-agnostic API (specifications / blobs/ microcode) for being allowed to sell their gear in given jurisdiction. Ex: EU.

My naive thought is than when purchasing hardware, there is full transfer of ownership - thus buyers should be in position to choose how they exploit their hardware, had they the will and skills to.

Manufacturers should apply for obtaining specific exemptions - ex self steering modules in cars, industrial grade machines, aeronautics, etc - which can easily turn dangerous (intendedly or not).

Exemptions should not be available at all for general purpose devices,

  • comm enabled devices, phones, tablets, watches, computers, routers, car entertaining, cameras, heating , TVs, - almost anything.

Could this be achieved legally?
Maybe we can launch a petition, try to lobby or even catch some politician’s ear on the matter…

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#2

The only way to achieve this is having money and doing it yourself. No need for politicians or laws.

Also if you do it well enough people will take notice and you will make money.

#3

The only way to achieve this is having money and doing it yourself.

Well, I’d say we can rule that out - the amount of money needed is not in our reach. I wonder even phone manufacturers have NDAs giving them direct chipset access - or if it’s only through blobs from manufacturers (QCom, etc).

I was thinking to rather condition the market access in a jurisdiction on the public availability of APIs/specs, blobs, libs - for controlling the sold HW. That goes for about all computing hardware (PC, laptop, phones, tablets, smart watches - or parts like graphic cards, etc).

And I don’t see that happening without law enforcement.

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