Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat The Philosophy of Tweaking Equipment

Until the latest firmware release, it would not have mattered where you got the firmware from as it was freely available to all direct from Meridian so it would not be possible to prove that it was not obtained legitimately. Under the new software release procedures things may be different as Meridian control the software distribution so are well within their rights to control how the software can be legally obtained.

However, whether the software has been obtained legally or not does not matter since it is copyright law and the license conditions of the 5200 firmware that dictates its use. So even if you did legally obtain it, the license terms of the 5200 firmware would dictate whether it (or a derivative or it), could be used other than for its intended purpose - ie installed on anything other than a 5200 or modified.

I'll ignore the the personal inference in there.......on which you are incorrect by the way

Look again at some of Meridian's statements from March........can you please indicate which part about Meridian's statement on IP you find to be unclear??

Gizze
Seeing as you choose to not understand my very simply analogy above about "House Burglary", let me make it even simpler for you......

* Stealing an Unlocked Car is still Stealing........and Illegal

* Stealing Property from an Unlocked House is still Stealing.......and Illegal

* Copying and Distributing Unlocked Code......most especially code which make up Unique Selling Points of the original Product.......is still Illegal

And how much "worse" is it if any of the above Acts are performed by People you considered to be your Friends

Were Meridian stupid to leave the Code as open as they did??........YES

Does that detract from the Un-Ethical nature of what happened???

In addition to Bob's post above, can someone point me to Meridian's firmware licence wording. The only text I can find is concerned specifically with MHR.

See Psystar ......which is about the most recent example of hundreds of other cases that Apple (and Microsoft) have taken against various companies down thru the years

As Ian has already pointed out above, the Legal Position on IP and Reverse Engineering is VERY well established.........and is mostly well understood by those involved in that area

Only if you can DEMONSTRATE to the satisfaction of a Court......and its Expert Witnesses........that you WROTE the Code yourself from the Ground Upwards

Obviously, Copying (and possibly Modifying) Engine Management Code from e.g. a BMW 730d and then applying that onto a Volkswagen........or even a BMW 330d.........would not stand up to the above Scrutiny.......and would therefore be Illegal

Both the Law.........and the Case Law Precedents.........are very clear on this.......as per Bob's Claims..........and Ian's Posts above

No you really don't need to....................oh too late.


I didn't choose not to understand it, I said many didn't see it as stealing, they simply saw it as tweaking.

Thanks, clear as mud.

Edit: by that I mean, they have still not said, what is being done we consider stealing and want you to stop.

Bob makes it sound more like their real concern is the customer.

Hi Malcolm
Let's assume for a second that Meridian do not actually have a formal wording for their Firmware.........

ALL Devices with Embedded Code are Automatically protected under the European Computer Program Directive 2009/24/EC.

Consider the following extracts

Malcolm

Not sure what direction you are intending to go with this so I apologise in advance if I have incorrectly 2nd guessed your thoughts.

In direct answer to your question, I have no idea. I have looked but short of running setup I, like yourself, have uncovered nothing except MHR. That not to say that they do not exist, but license agreement, or lack of, may not matter.

The license agreement assigns (it also my protect the software developers) additional rights to the user over and above what the user is allowed to undertake as defined by other aspects of the law, typically copyright. One of the users rights covered by copyright law is that if the software is legally obtained then... It may be used for its intended purpose.

So unless there was a license that specifically granted permission for a user to do otherwise, then Meridian software can only be used for its intended purpose. I believe that it was fair to say that the intended purpose of 5200 firmware was to run unaltered as supplied by Meridian only on its 5200 line of speakers. It could also be argued that the use of the the flash upload program is for uploading firmware supplied by Meridian and not for uploading illegal copies.

As for only finding reference to MHR interface. This may be because interfaces, such as MHR are not covered by computer software copyright law thus prohibiting reverse engineering is not implicitly covered in law so must be explicitly prohibited.

[Ronnie was a faster typer than me on phone]

Hi Ian
Your interpretation is correct.......Device to Device "Communication" is not necessarily covered by the above EC Directive..........which is most likely why Meridian have an express statement about MHR.

Ian's post about the EU legal position is pretty clear. However, one might comment that the 5200 transplant (for personal use) was actually not economically damaging to Meridian, but simply a stop-gap for a FREE apodizing solution what had long been promised (publically) and eventually delivered by Meridian.