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Comment by andrewla | Hacker News Reader

I'm not entirely aligned with this article, though I think the principle is correct.

I do think that it should never be illegal to tamper with a device that you own in any way that you find acceptable.

But I do not feel that manufacturers have any obligation to make this easy or possible.

It should be completely legal to hack your devices and to distribute tools and instructions for hacking devices without limitation.

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But the question here is if it should be illegal for manufacturers to make the modify a product.

The difference is between a locked down boot loader and one that is just a standard boot loader.

Right -- and that I don't agree with. My concern is laws that make it illegal to modify products you own or to offer advice or tools to people who wish to modify products they own. Similarly, arrangements like leases and limited licenses that convey some aspects of "ownership" but not complete ownership should also be severely restricted.

In general if there are no legal recourses to go after people who modify their devices, then it makes it more appealing for manufacturers to allow a supported opt-out method because that reduces the incentives to compromise their products with out-of-band methods.

So I'd prefer to take an indirect route of empowering customers rather than requiring manufacturers to do additional work to free up their products.

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