TI, the DMCA, and the Calculator Programming Community

[KermMartian]

We haven't really discussed this ongoing situation here at Cemetech, but unless you've been living in a hole for the last few months and/or don't keep up with TI community news, there's an ongoing battle between our favorite technology giant and the community about the keys used to sign the TI-OS. As many of you know, we've long been able to sign our own Apps using the 0104 key, but that was not always the case. Back in the day you had to submit Apps to TI, who would approve (or disapprove) and then sign your Apps for distribution. The TI-OS, however, is signed by a similar key, a mathematical combination of two very large prime numbers. To date, the community has had to use various tricks and hacks in order to trick the calculator into accepting an unsigned OS, but recently, the situation changed. On July 31st, 2009, ticalc.org reported that Benjamin Moody, a member of United TI and other sites, had posted the factorization of the TI-83+ OS key, which would allow programmers to sign their own OSes. Flush with excitement, members of the community quickly set up an initiative to factor the remaining calculator keys via distributed computing.

Needless to say, TI was not happy, and responded swiftly and vengefully. A week after the last key was factored, TI started sending DMCA takedown notices to UnitedTI, Benjamin Moody, Brandon Wilson, and many others who either worked on the key-cracking project or hosted the results on their websites. The keys appeared on Wikileaks following the takedown notices, and on October 13th, ticalc.org once again reported that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an organization that fights for the rights of free/open-source software authors and reverse-engineers, had taken up the banner for the community. They took over legal defense for the interested parties, issued a press release warning TI against issuing improper DMCA takedown notices, and stated that pending subsequent developments, the keys would be reposted on October 26th, 2009.

The Internet always loves a story of David vs. corporate Goliath, so soon stories on the topic appeared at Slashdot, Boing Boing, CNet, Ars Technica, and innumerable websites and blogs around the internet. Two days later, CNet then posted another article addressing the TI calculator hacking and programming community, and what drives us to do what we do; the IEEE Spectrum, the publication of the largest associated of Electrical Engineers, has written a similar article criticizing TI and supporting the community's efforts. This morning, ticalc.org posted the latest update, that since TI has not addressed the EFF's ultimatum regarding October 26th, and in fact continues to spam websites and universities with improper takedown notices, that the original keys have been restored to their original websites.

So what do you think? Even though the TI-OS is not covered as encrypted content under the DMCA, is the community wrong to want to modify the software on hardware that they own? Is this incident an example of the problems with the DMCA or an argument towards why the DMCA is important? What should the key-crackers and posters do?
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[elfprince13]

To clarify, the original purpose of cracking the keys was not to modify the OS but to sign brand new ones.
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[tifreak8x]

I think in the end we shall win and TI will end up looking quite the corporation of fools. Oh wait, they already have done that.. hmm.. =p
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[rthprog]

[Mapar007]

TI's claims are baseless. Period. They have to understand. We own the calcs, we do to them what we want, be it modding the software or whatever else. Are we doing them any harm? No, we definitely aren't. Why are they bugging us, then?
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[KermMartian]

[The Tari]

Something it seems you omitted: TI has sent a takedown notice to chronomex's school, where he put the keys up (on his student webspace).
So what now? Countersuit!
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[KermMartian]

[Ultimate Dev'r]

[KeithJohansen]

The problem at hand as has been theorized (and discussed quite a bit) could be that TI's position in the education world is being threatened. The TI line of calculators are used in schools and colleges nationwide. They're some of the most accepted calculators for use on standardized tests and whatnot. By cracking the keys and enabling ourselves to create our own OSes for the calculators, we threaten that. Basically, we gain the ability to enable our calculators to do much more than they do by default which can be much more than what is allowed for the aforementioned tests. Thus, we are potentially stripping the TI graphing calculators of their allowed-on-tests status and TI could lose a lot of profit.

The reason they're sending DMCA notices, improper as they are, is because they were hoping the community wouldn't fight back. They hoped we'd just roll over and give up. Fortunately, we're a ferocious bunch with the EFF on our side

</reiteration of known information>
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[Eeems]

Were like ants, tiny, and only one of us isn't that dangerious. When we group together though we can strip flesh from bone quite neatly :p
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[rthprog]

[KermMartian]

[Ultimate Dev'r]

[GloryMXE7]

0x5 lol
Not!
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[Kllrnohj]

[KeithJohansen]

[Mapar007]

It is easy to stop a teacher from resetting your calculator with one of the dozens of fake resetters or some patches. (an 1-bit patch is enough to reduce an all-mem reset to a ram clear)
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[swivelgames]

Exactly. The point is there are already plenty of ways to fake the memory clear on a calculator. If anything, this will only create more revenue. To hobbyists, the hardware has now become even more valuable and in turn may produce an uptick in revenue. To assume Schools and Universities will no longer use their calculators is ridiculous... what other calculator company out there will they turn to? Casio? HAH! It is very unreasonable to expect the hobby OSes will be harmful to the education system.

Besides, this doesn't even exploit TI's freely-distributed OS or give access to it's source, it allows TI calculator owners to utilize and modify their hardware. It doesn't even alter TI-OS. The hardware is owned by the purchaser, and therefore they have the right to do as they please with it. Let them be!
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[elfprince13]