yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[General Topics] Haano:
As you all know we all love having our custom roms on our HTC devices, it makes them much faster and has many more applications and content!

But the truth is, is all this legal?

​

I wanted to hear it out straight from the horses mouth so i went straight to the big guys, Google INCs Android.

Dissapointingly on their website thye have no Contact Us or e-mail so i just browsed about.

What i found out?

I found out that Android is a free, open source Os so any one can come in, get an SDK and develop some apps.

What i didn't find out?

What i did not find out is it flashing or creating roms is legal.

So i went up to the guys who gave Android a try,

HTC

!

I asked them exactly this:

Is flashing custom Android roms legal on the HTC Hero/HTC Android phones?

This is because Android is a free open soruce fully customisable mobile platfrm created by google INC.

Thank you

They said:, well Terry from HTC said:

Dear Blazr Thank you for your enquiry about Android devices This is how we keep these devices up to date and current. What happens is that google inc release these Roms to us and we make HTC Rom updates from them, so they are 100% legal. If these steps have not helped, please let me know by responding using the link provided and I will be happy to check again for you. Best regards, Terry Snelling HTC customer support team HTC Corp. Global Service Division http://www.htc.com/europe/CA_Hotline.aspx

Then i asked my question again:

No i am asking if flashing UNOFFICAL CUSTOM MADE ROMS are legal, not flashinggoogles, please can you reply

And they said this:

Dear Blazr Thank you for your enquiry about Rom updates If you dont update to rom from www.HTC.com, or your providers website, then this will be a illegal rom and will lose your warranty. If these steps have not helped, please let me know by responding using the link provided and I will be happy to check again for you. Best regards, Terry Snelling HTC customer support team HTC Corp. Global Service Division http://www.htc.com/europe/CA_Hotline.aspx

Well i aint sure if this helped but there you go,

They said that

1 Flashing a rom not from HTC or Google is ILLEGAL

2 And that it will ruin your warranty

So if youre someone who doesn't care but wants the best from his device, like me, then continue supporting custom rom makers.​

But if you are someone, like my aint, who LOVES their warranty and hates hacking and 'this nonsense,' they say. Then stick with Android 2.0.

But What do you think,

Thats what i would like to know!

Please respond and give your opiion,

Regards​

Sorry if this is long
[General Topics] Master_H:
This is nothing new, we know this for already years. They (MS, HTC, etc.) tolerate it.
[General Topics] Meekel:
Many will argue that as you have paid for the device it is up to you what you do with the device..

I very much doubt flashing a non-official ROM is illegal.. I know of no law that it breaks..
[General Topics] djn541:
I think the only thing it "breaks" is your warranty.
[General Topics] Meekel:
Correct.. in addition, the email said an "illegal rom" not that it was illegal to flash a rom
[General Topics] HTC Touch Freak:
Exactly. In the e-mail and "illegal rom" is a rom that does not originat from google itself, HTC (or other manufacturer), or your carrier. illegal roms, "cooked Roms" are only illegal in the sense that you will void your warranty. Not that you will go to prison.
[General Topics] DaveTheTytnIIGuy:
lol, of course flashing an unoffical Windows Mobile ROM is illegal! From a legal standpoint, cooked ROMs are an intellectual property nightmare! That's why XDA has to remove links to ROM builds when they get a cease and desist letter. Otherwise, they'd go to court and lose the case because M$ is clearly within its rights to request the ROMs be taken down. Now, are you going to be imprisoned because you use a cooked ROM? Of course not. M$ is smart enough to know when not to alienate its best customers. HTC and M$ could take most of the software off this board in an instant due to all that software existing in a copyright gray area which favors them. However, they know when they should respect their enthusiast community and there's a defacto understanding between the device enthusiasts and them.

For Android, the situation's actually a bit different. Most of Android is open source, and licensed under an Apache 2 or a GPL v2 license. Flashing ROMs containing only the open source parts are completely legal (though warranty voiding because they're not from the OEM). However, Google includes some of their own closed source applications like YouTube, GMail, Google Maps, etc. in Android OS, and these cannot be redistributed as they are proprietary to Google. This ensures that only manufactures they approve can make Android devices with full functionality. The classic example of this is when Android ROM cook Cyanogen recieved a C&D letter from Google, because his custom firmware contained these applications and he was not within his legal rights to redistribute them with his ROMs. So, it can get a bit tricky with Android, but the short answer is yes, it's technically illegal to flash full cooked ROMS (i.e. with Google proprietary apps).

However, you shouldn't worry about the police taking you away or finding yourself with a lawsuit just because you flash a cooked ROM. The corporations usually don't mess with their enthusiast community, and usually the worst they do is have the offending software taken down. However, you should keep in mind that the corporations are almost always, in these cases, within their rights to issue a law suit or similar (though they always go for the big-time chefs and not the users, to make a point).
[General Topics] HTC Touch Freak:
Well said. Kudos to you
[General Topics] Haano:
Well said man, well said.

They wouldn't track you down cause you flashed a rom but if some how, what are the likes of this but, a clever police man checked out your phone then we may be introuble. But thats what i a saying cause Modacos rom has google applications in it i think..

Non the less, what they have said is that it is illegal to post custom roms with their applications in it, so its sort of legal to flash your own rom without the need of googles stuff.​

Exactly, if the thing breaks from manufactors defects then i cant return it and have tp pay to get it fixed otherwise i must say hello to insurance, which i aint sure how much it is on the Hero.

True, it just breaks the manufactors agreement but they say its illegal, its like putting CFW on a PSP or Wii.??

Also if you piad 400 of your great british pounds or american bucks then you should be able to do what you like to it, when you like to it, (except be a stupid p!rate)..
[General Topics] Meekel:
I disgaree with this statement purely on the fact that in the UK no one has been prosecuted for chipping/modding a games console.

They have only be prosecuted for selling these devices..

I understand your point though..
[General Topics] GuestK00306:
Maybe not, but I'm fairly sure UK law states that "circumventing protection" is a crime. Flashing a ROM isn't illegal, but HSPL/SSPL is as you're circumventing the protection which prevents you from flashing.

Distributing ROMs is also illegal as you are making/distributing copies of someone else's source code.

So I think that as long as you don't use HSPL/SSPL and don't distribute your ROMs it wouldn't be illegal. But then again, I'm no solicitor (lawyer for you yanks ;))
[General Topics] Meekel:
I agree that distributing ROMs is illegal as you would be using IP from whatever company it is therefore would be breaking the law..

Ack, it's a complicated issue ain't it..? :)
[General Topics] Haano:
Your very right. Its a very complicated issue as it falls under many categories. And the fact that laws are very different in different countries. This issue can be compared with lots of cases.
[General Topics] vma:
I will try to resume it this way:

1) When you purchase an electronic device containing software, you own the hardware, but only are licensing the usage of the provided software. This means you cannot do whatever you want with the device, i.e. you may not reverse engineer the software (at least in most western countries).

2) Flashing offical ROM's, which are provided by the manufacturer to be used by customers are not illegal, or it would be the manufacturer's responsability if he did not license the software for distribution. If the customer bricks the device while flashing it, he way lose warranty.

3) Flashing unofficial ROM's: the legal aspect of it is not concerning the act of flashing, but the question if you are entitled to a valid license of all included software modules. In most cases you are not. Even if you are entitled to the software modules contained in the unoffical ROM, flashing it to the device definitly voids the warranty. The question is: can the manufacturer prove you used an unofficial ROM. In most cases he can't, specially if you flash back to an offical ROM prior to sending the faulty device in.

4) In practical terms: as long as you download the unoffical ROM without spreading it yourself (aka using a P2P client) and as long as you don't offer the unoffical ROM yourself, it is very unlikely that you risk any legal trouble. The reason being that the offense has a very small value compared to the difficulty to actually prove anything. No policeman has the knowledge and authority to check the firmware of your phone...

However, in case of malfunction, the manufacturer can always refuse warranty if he can prove that an unoffical ROM has been flashed to the device. Again, often manufacturers like HTC seem to be pretty customer-friendly. I have a Blue Angel that broke within warranty after I flashed a custom ROM (was conincidence and not the ROM's fault). I got a free repair, but the device was returned with the latest official HTC ROM. Fair enough.

5) What you should be carefull about: take care not to publish (or at least in a traceable way) unofficial firmware containing third party software which has not been licensed, i.e. using a cracked version.

6) Final thoughts: As has been stated here already, I believe that a forum like this one is probably monitored by people from Microsoft and HTC (both companies being the reason for this forum to exist in first place). Because it has been pretty clean and basically providing corrected ROM's to entusiasts, no real harm is done to either company and perhaps even quite the opposite: any problem you experience on an HTC phone, search for a resultion in Google and you end up here. I think this is the best support forum any company could desire, so why make a war against it...

Cheers,

vma
[General Topics] Haano:
Well said vma
[General Topics] dirkbonn:
Deffinition of illegal,

1. not according to or authorized by law

2. not sanctioned by official rules

I think in the context we're discussing here #1 does NOT apply, but #2 does.

I don't think any law has been written that makes it a crime to flash a custom ROM to your phone. However according to some "official" rules it is illegal. But when you commit an illegal act that is a violation of rules, it is not punishible by law. No, the punishment is handed down by the manufacturer and that is the voiding of your warranty.

It's hard to commit a truly illegal crime against yourself. Can you steal from yourself? Can you hit yourself in the head and be prosecuted for assault? The only one I can think of is suicide. But have you ever seen the crime of suicide prosecuted? (I'm not talking about assisted suicide here)

Interesting discussion, and just my 2 cents,
[General Topics] vma:
@dirkbonn:

Your line of thinking is wrong. I am by no means a lawyer or what so ever, BUT: the flashing of cooked ROM's is illegal because:

1) It required REVERSE ENGINEERING of software to be done. Defined in most countries as illegal.

2) It involves the use of unlicensed software. Defined in most countries as illegal.

3) It involves in many cases the removal of locks imposed by the operator. Again, this is illegal, because you accepted a contract in which you commited to refrain from doing that.

What some people don't seem to understand is: when you purchase the device, it comes with software which you only license for use. You do not own the software. Also, you are only granted to use the provided versions. You cannot assume that you have the right to use a more recent version or a version in another language. The right to decide upon that, belongs to the owner of the intellectual property of the software.

Again, debating about the logic of such laws will not change the law.

To change the law, you need to vote for the right politicians and pressure them to approve laws, you are comfortable with.

In my modest opinion, laws regarding the protection of intellectual property have to quickly be revised, in order to avoid having the whole population commiting offenses and crimes.

Cheers,

vma
[General Topics] sblubb:
Request to HTC

hello everybody. recently I asked HTC about this issue.

Question:

"Dear Sirs and Madams

I wanted to ask you if updating a HTC Touch HD from WM 6.1 to WM 6.5 with a downloaded ROM not from the HTC or Microsoft-Website is illegal or not. For me it is clear that if I do so, I lose my warranty on it, but am I allowed to do so?"

Answer:

"Thank you for contacting us. Installing non official ROM on your devcie will void your warranty . It may also cause problems in funcionality on your device. It is up to you to decide to install any ROM on your device. I trust that this resolves your query, please do not hesitate to contact us again if required."

best regards,

sblubb
[General Topics] mercianary:
Definatly not illegal. Will void your warranty BUT most of the things you get in your warranty are covered by your statutory rights, which you still have.
[General Topics] incredulous:
As an employee of Vodafone UK. I can confirm from a network operators POV, we do NOT refuse warranty exchanges on an Android device that has been rooted or custom ROM'ed as long as the fault is a hardware fault.

This is because Android is open source and it is illegal to try and charge or restrict it.

Windows devices however, we will not do anything if they are not running the stock image. That is because Windows is licensed software that the manufacturers have to pay to use.
[Touch Viva, MDA Basic ROM Development] step88:
hi friend, is possible to found ROM for s1?
[Touch Viva, MDA Basic ROM Development] step88:
nothing????
[Touch Viva, MDA Basic ROM Development] TheRem:
i think you're in the wrong section... Dopod S1 is ELF not OPAL.
[Touch Pro, Fuze ROM Development] EclipseX:
Please, Put the Energy rom on PT-PT .... and t9 PT xD
[Touch Pro, Fuze ROM Development] biker14:
NRG only cooks ROM's in WWE, world wide english, not specific languages.

the T9 PT is around xda somewhere, do a search

-----------------------

o NRG só faz as ROM's dele em Inglês, não em linguas especificas de cada país.

o T9 PT está aí algures no xda, é uma questão de procurar.
[HD2 General] tsttse:
The picture although have improved with the hot fix but I find that the picture is still very pixelated. For example, if you take a picture and you zoom into the picture on your PC, you can see each pixel, edges are hard and not smooth and there is a lot of noise. It seems like as if a picture was blown up to be 5 megapixel when it isn't or there is some sort of bad compression? I already set the quality to be highest. The capture format is fixed to JPEG and I cannot change it.
[HD2 General] methree:
did you turn off widescreen mode to get true 5mp?
[HD2 General] tsttse:
yes.. o wellz i guess it just can't compare to the nokia cameras.. but none the less it is good enough as i will never zoom in like that in real life...
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Themes and Apps] helikopterpilot:
Hello all,

Is there a possiblity to remove the tap sound when dialing a number. It is pretty irritating.

thanx in advance
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Themes and Apps] christonabike:
go to 'All settings' in the settings tab, then 'Personal', then 'Phone'. You should be able to select 'Long tones', 'Short tones' or 'Off' :)
[HD2 Windows Mobile 6.5 Themes and Apps] helikopterpilot:
Thx it solved my problem
[General Questions and Answers] Soulfyr:
I'm seeing that having apps on my SD card (as I expected) is becomming kinda of unstable. Like if the card is slow and dosen't load fast, or some times rebooting messes them up. There are some apps that I would like to give the Higest priority (Chomp, Taskill..) My quest is: Is there a way to move some apps to the phone? or just install them to begin with?

Thanks,
[XPERIA X1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ukintel:
Hi. Sorry if this question has already been answered but ive wasted hours searching XDA & Google for the answer...

On my SE X1 I Have the new WM6.5.3 Taskbar that shows both battery and Clock in the righthand corner of my taskbar.

I recently installed the new X2 Taskmanager and now it displays The Quick link for the task manager over the top of my Clock.

Ive seen it fixed on a third party ROM before. I like the feature of touching the clock to view the task manager but i dont need an icon to be displayed.

Is there a Registry edit for this?

Thanks in advance :)
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] guilhermp:
Hi,

I've tried upgrading my RADIO-3.22.20.17 to a RADIO-6.35.07.29 (`flashboot flash radio radio.img') and my Magic keeps rebooting some seconds after the Vodafone logo (I'm not able to use the Recovery - it appears reboots after some seconds). I updated my SPL to HBOOT-1.76.2007 as well and the same thing would happen.

I had to flash my radio back to the original but I really wanted to try the new official HTC Sense ROM. Could it be that I'm doing something wrong? afaik any 32A should support this radio.

Any suggestion?

Current details of my Magic:

SAPPHIRE PVT 32A ENG S-OFF H
HBOOT-1.33.2010 (SAPP10000)
CPLD-12
RADIO-3.22.20.17
May 8 2009,21:02:32

regards
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] cursordroid:
The recovery is rebooting after a few seconds due to a kernel panic. It's not made for the 6.35 radio. You need to download the Amon_RA Hero recovery from here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=561124

Can you get into FASTBOOT by holding Back and pressing Power to turn on your phone?

If so, then save the 6.35.07.29 radio.img and the Hero recovery into the same folder and run this on your PC from the folder you saved to.

fastboot flash radio radio.img
fastboot flash recovery recovery-RA-hero-v1.5.1.img

Then turn off your phone, boot into recovery again using Home and Power, then apply update-hboot-1.76.2007-signed.zip

Then you should have radio 6.35.07.29 and SPL 1.76.2007.
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] guilhermp:
So the problem was that I was flashing a recovery-RA-sapphire.img rather than a recovery-RA-hero-v1.5.1.img?

I'll try this when I'm home then... Thanks for relpyin! :D
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] cursordroid:
That's what's happening... You need to make sure that the radio and recovery are flashed, then reboot and flash the hboot update.zip through recovery.
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] joetong:
updated to 1.76.2007 can go back to 1.33.2010 ???
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] guilhermp:
Yep or at least I did it and am not having any prob.

same for the radio, check http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=544761
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] cursordroid:
Yes, but make sure you follow these directions very carefully.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=544761
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] guilhermp:
That was it!! Thanks a lot. I'm now using CursorSense :p
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] bolux:
heh...

That's what happened to me earlier today, i used the latest sapphire image because i thought it would be better (since the hero recovery doesn't accept the trackball press and you have to push the call button instead). Unfortunately, the recovery crashed everytime it started, so i found myself in the position to use the hero one that worked like a charm.

Also using sense UI by cursordroid and it is unexpectedly delightful. I used amon_RA's 1.6.2 donut edition before that, but it had bugs, like internet disconnects on wifi and camera causing the phone to restart.
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] guru_root:
Can I install the the latest radio “6.35.07.29 Radio and 1.76.2007 SPL” and use the latest cyanogen ROM ??
[myTouch 3G, Magic Android Development] codington:
This radio and SPL only support CursorSense ROM. ALL other ROMs will fail to load.
[Android Software Development] IConrad01:
http://www.jcraft.com/weirdx/screenshots.html

I'm not a developer -- but I saw this and thought that some intrepid Android dev might find a use for the code above.

It'd be great, for example, to be able to run standard Linux apps without needing to root our devices -- and WeirdX seems to potentially allow for just that. Yes/no?
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nlock:
Hi all,

Looking for a bit of help/advice.

On occasions, probably between 1-3 times a day, when I try to make a call on the Hero, the call appears to look like it is dialing out but it just sits there saying 'dialing' but never connects to the destination which can be any UK number / Orange 150 etc. Either rebooting the phone or leaving it for 10 mins or so fixes the problem, but it does become annoying!

At the same time as this happening, when I try to send an SMS, I get the error 'SMS not able to send' in the notification bar. Again, I have to keep trying and it sorts itself out.

A final problem and I am not sure if it is related or not is I have had numerous people try calling me at various times, my phone doesn't ring or display a missed call, nor do I get a missed call SMS but the person who tried calling me said the line was actually ringing first and then went through to voicemail. I have witnessed this myself by calling my phone, getting a ringing line but the phone doesn't respond?

Any ideas of help would be appreciated. This problem has existed on Modaco Roms 2.2, 2.8 and 3.0 - I'm on Orange UK.

Thanks,

Nick
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Devkoko:
I have the same problem with the Orange Poland. When I logged on to the 3G sometimes you can not call or send SMS. When I switch to the 2G network problem disappears.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nlock:
Yeah, it is strange, I have done that too, turn off the 3G to 2G and back to 3G which sometimes cures it, but not all the time.

I've tried various things, made sure the apps aren't closed with Taskkiller or anything like that. There is no specific time or occasion it happens, it just does now and again.
[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] omokas:
Well I have tried everything. I recieved all the settings from my operator , changed over 10 ROMs and gone back to the original too, i tried what you said to turn 3G off , i reset to factory , i unrooted.....Nothing works for me. I just get "Unable to send". I also tried 4 SIMs from different operators !!!
[Touch Pro2 CDMA] aalim:
How can I disable Sprint hands-free-activation after boot??

every time I boot ot hard reset I get this message of trying to activate then fail

how can I stop this from starting

thanks
[Touch Pro2 CDMA] kabuk1:
What exactly is sprint hands free activation? I'm on sprint & I've never heard of this. But check your startup folder & see if that program is in there.
[Touch Pro2 CDMA] sigiloso:
Hi,

Same thing here. I bought an unlocked sprint phone. I'm using it on another carrier. Each time I make a soft reset it boots up, starts Flow 3D, and then launches a screen with the title Sprint hands-free-activation.

Because I am on another carrier it can't connect, so after a minute or so, it displays an error message, with the instruction that if you want to reattempt connection you should go to All settings => System => Update Profile

In my startup folder I got the following items:

\Windows\BTTrayCE.exe

\Windows\HTCStartUp.exe

\Program Files\S2U2\iLock2.exe

\Windows\PKG.exe

poutlook.exe

\windows\voicecmd.exe

Any ideas? Thank you in advance!