EFF Warns TI Not To Harass Calculator Hobbyists

Ponca City, We love you writes "The EFF has warned Texas Instruments not to pursue legal threats against calculator hobbyists who perform modifications to the company's programmable graphing calculators. TI's calculators perform a 'signature check' that allows only approved operating systems to be loaded, but researchers have reverse-engineered signing keys, allowing tinkerers to install custom operating systems and unlock new functionality in the calculators' hardware. In response, TI has unleashed a torrent of demand letters claiming that the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act require the hobbyists to take down commentary about and links to the keys. 'This is not about copyright infringement. This is about running your own software on your own device — a calculator you legally bought,' says EFF Civil Liberties Director Jennifer Granick. 'Yet TI still issued empty legal threats in an attempt to shut down discussion of this legitimate tinkering. Hobbyists are taking their own tools and making them better, in the best tradition of American innovation.'"

Nonsense.

[jeffb (2.718)]

"Hobbyists are taking their own tools and making them better, in the best tradition of American innovation"? I think you misspelled "Pirates and cyber-terrorists are stealing money from TI's hardworking engineers at virtual gunpoint."

Early Calculator Hacks

[lewko]

Or maybe they'll change the startup screen to say "58008" upside down

Re:Nonsense.

[TubeSteak]

I think you misspelled "Pirates and cyber-terrorists are stealing money from TI's hardworking engineers at virtual gunpoint."

Now we just need to spice thay message up with a flavorful rap.
"Don't tinker with your pocket thinker"
"It's not cool to mod your calc in school"
etc

/I know it'll never compare to "don't copy that floppy" but it's a start.

Innovation

[sincewhen]

in the best tradition of American innovation

But how can this be innovation if no-one is making any money from it?

Re:Nonsense.

[Cyberia]

Ummm... My opinion is that the hobbyists are just trying to fix some bugs in calculators that the *IAA has been running into. Like for example, when they calculate damages. I think the results look similar to this: 3055 songs pirated * 0.99 per song = $309,234,408,345,345,384.94 in damages...

Re:Perfectly valid

[X.25]

Actually, come to think of it, if TI loses on this one, I'm quite eager to start 'testing' satellite TV signals again... After all, it's just some keys used for signing, right? I purchased my hardware receiver for money, right? Quite the slippery slope, isn't it?

Yes. Finding keys on smartcards in order to watch TV program you haven't paid for is the same as finding keys on a calculator so you can put your software on it.

Man, you are a fucking genius.

Re:Nonsense.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you misspelled, "I am too stupid to detect sarcasm in a text-based medium".

Re:Nonsense.

[Amazing Quantum Man]

Well, he was going to program his TI to act as a sarcasm detector, but....

Re:Uh, why just TI?

[ZPWeeks]

I 3 the EFF.

Obviously your devotion is higher than mine, I just less than three them.

big misunderstanding

[Anonymous Coward]

I read the headline as TI the rapper [youtube.com]

Re:Nonsense.

[Xaositecte]

Communists aren't really people. C'mon, you know this one already.

Re:Nonsense.

[arogier]

If someone wants their TI-89 to operate under the rule that 2+2=5 or that pi=3, it is only righteous for them to do math as their whims dictate. Peforming non-arithmetic addition should be something someone only needs to switch the operating system to accomplish. Asking someone to create chips to accomplish the task sets the bar for prank calculators artificially high.