alt Hacker NewsI like the idea of course, but such legislation would also be very disruptive, because it affects the entire supply chain. Every maker of any gadget, be it random white label android smartphone, set top box or smart home camera would have to negotiate with all their component suppliers to obtain full documentation instead of just driver and firmware blob. So would these suppliers with their suppliers. For mor niche components it seems plausible that no proper hardware spec exists and it’s instead through a combination of hardware descriptor languages, the driver code and good old tribal knowledge. Forcing Google and Apple to allow side loading on their OSs just requires them to flip a switch. I think there are also compelling reasons why smartphones are special. It’s a duopoly and most people have got to have one to properly participate in modern society.
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This seems like the perfect case for legislation that starts out targeting higher volume devices/larger companies and lower over time.
I don’t see why the industry couldn’t move to providing this documentation/full source over a few years.
Good. It only needs to be done once and the datasheets are already written and often circulate underground.
Component supplier should not be allowed to only provide datasheet upon signing an NDA and only to some customers while providing chips to the resellers. If you put it on the open market, cough up the FULL datasheet, period.