Legality of WM 6.0 Upgrades

romeroom · #1 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 09:51 AM

Lately I've been asked how "legal" it is to go from WM5 to WM6/6.1 through kitchen magic. I'm not talking a "voiding the warranty" issue. I'm referring to copyright infringement, etc.

[I apologize if this issue has been threaded before. I'm having trouble with the search feature again (not enough words, even if I put in a string with 8 words.]

romeroom · #2 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 09:52 AM

I guess I forgot to ask what your opinions are on the subject.

So, what do you think?

**weedahoe** · #3 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 10:02 AM

Let me put it to you this way, we cannot share pirated software or links to anything pirated but we are able to talk about and share and assist each other with the kitchen and its software within. Besides, dont tell me you never burned a CD/DVD or recorded a TV show or much less copied something from a book or magazine.

mikeklemz · #4 (**permalink**) 10-30-2008, 04:23 PM

IIRC, everything is gravy because they provided an update for the device (even though it wasn't 6 or 6.1), and they have 6.1 on other phones. Something stupid like that... read the EULA if you want to be sure, I suppose.

*edit*

Meh, totally wrong. They don't sell an upgrade, therefore aren't losing anything. Somebody mentioned the license is for "Windows Mobile", with 6.1 evidently falling under that catagory.

Whatever. If they cared, this site, and xda-devs, would have been gone a long time ago.

Check the thread from XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=296359

gambatte · #5 (**permalink**) 10-31-2008, 08:55 AM

Well, I guess I never thought about it that much. I don't know where the kitchen makers got the WM 6/6.1 files from...heard it was from some phone (TyTN??) that came out with it and they were able to figure out how to integrate HTC's RUU and carrier info. If anything, I would think the carriers would put up a stink (not MS since WM is not available for sale) for putting an unproven device on their network. IDK maybe it isn't as big a deal as they say it is with all the testing that they say they go through, which takes so long for the release of the phone. Surely, they must know this is going on. The only thing I was a little wary of was the offering of Voice Command in the kitchen. That is software that you can buy but it also comes on certain phones. Just hope it never comes to fines/lawsuits....

**jmorton10** · #6 (**permalink**) 10-31-2008, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gambatte

The only thing I was a little wary of was the offering of Voice Command in the kitchen. That is software that you can buy ..

That one is kind of a sore subject for me. I actually did buy MSVC for $40 from Handango & later found out the only way to get all the functions to work correctly with bluetooth was to use an older version I DL'ed for free...........

~John

**gguruusa** · #7 (**permalink**) 10-31-2008, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by romeroom

Lately I've been asked how "legal" it is to go from WM5 to WM6/6.1 through kitchen magic. I'm not talking a "voiding the warranty" issue. I'm referring to copyright infringement, etc.

Discussed many a time.

The versions the kitchens provide come from freely available downloads, distributed by carriers and/or HTC. Because the files are provided freely, the files are unmodified, and you are licensed to run Windows Mobile on your phone, there isn't an obvious copyright issue.

Interestingly, actual ROMs are an infraction (because they contain modified files).

So, the answer is...the kitchen is legal, the files the kitchens use are legal, installing WM on your WM phone is legal, but building a hybrid ROM is questionable and distributing a hybrid ROM is illegal. Selling a ROM (even an original unmodified one) is unquestionably illegal.

Think of it this way...when you buy a book, it's not illegal to rip out the individual pages and give them away as "pages of book XYZ". It is illegal to reassemble the pages in any fashion other than their original order, to modify their content, to bundle them with other pages, or to call them your own. In the software world, there are additional rules around the "giving away of the pages" because of the non-physical nature and ease of exact reproduction, but I think the analogy is still viable.

**gguruusa** · #8 (**permalink**) 10-31-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmorton10

That one is kind of a sore subject for me. I actually did buy MSVC for $40 from Handango & later found out the only way to get all the functions to work correctly with bluetooth was to use an older version I DL'ed for free...........

~John

Are you sure what you bought was newer? The for sale version is not quite the same, and to my (admittedly poor) knowledge hasn't been updated in forever.

Legaility of MSVC is an interesting issue. There doesn't appear to be a seperate license for it on newer devices and it's packaging is as if it is now part of the OS. That brings us again to it's legal to "have the unmodified files", but not necessarily legal to "build a rom" with them if your device isn't available with such functionality.

gambatte · #9 (**permalink**) 10-31-2008, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmorton10

That one is kind of a sore subject for me. I actually did buy MSVC for $40 from Handango & later found out the only way to get all the functions to work correctly with bluetooth was to use an older version I DL'ed for free...........

Yeah, there is a new version of MSVC (1.6?). The small print says that it won't announce right on the 6800 via BT. Don't know what the WM6 kitchen version was but it work great on the 6700.