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Comment by dvzk | Hacker News Reader

Copyright laws are not what is stopping custom firmware projects on many devices. It’s the inability to flash non-signed firmware. Legal considerations in general have minor pragmatic relevance for modding projects that are not lazily redistributing copyrighted assets or circumventing copyright protection. If you’re engaging in piracy then you’re not just giving people more control over what they own.

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> or circumventing copyright protection

Exactly, you just named a subset of all the things you could do to a machine, partitioned by copyright protection. I'd agree with your general point in the context of power users, but it's worth noting that the average Joe will try to faithfully follow company policy as well as the law.

DRM protection sometimes rears its ugly head, and that is worth objecting to, but as someone who has written unpackers and game mods, it’s rare nowadays that DRM prevents modding, unless you’re creating unethical multiplayer hacks. Code that is relevant to modders is usually contained in unprotected script and library assets.

To run afoul of the DMCA a modder needs to (1) strip a binary of its copyright protection (2) distribute the unpacked executable or the unpacker tool (3) likely facilitate mass third-party piracy (more damages = more lawsuit potential). It’s principally warez and hacking groups that meet these criteria, and they probably ought to be sued.

I’ll add a point in your favor and say that for non-games DRM is often a big problem when reversing or patching code.

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