HTC Hates on Handset Hacker Site, Throws Down the Legal Gauntlet : Information Technology Leader

HTC Hates on Handset Hacker Site, Throws Down the Legal Gauntlet

Posted by Ludwig on Jun - 18 - 2010

The latest tale involving third-party ROM sites has HTC huffing and puffing and threatening to blow Shipped-ROMs.com’s site down, or at least hit the site owners in the wallet if they don’t comply with a cease and desist order. That’s what Shipped-ROMs is saying, anyway, who posted what they claim is the exact letter they received from HTC.

“It is our understanding that you are responsible for the hosting of an internet webpage located at http://shipped-roms.com,” the letter states. “HTC has also recently learned that the Site contains software/ROM related to HTC’s Intellectual Property which entails illegal copying of HTC’s original art work.

“We have very strong reasons to believe that the HTC Intellectual Property was illegally obtained by fraudulent means. The subject dissemination and publication of HTC’s Intellectual Property is in clear violation of HTC’s legal rights and is an infringement of the HTC’s copyrights, goodwill, as well as the other intellectual rights. The continuing distribution of HTC’s Intellectual Property without authorization has constituted a serious criminal offense under the Copyright Act in the U.S. and the EU and other countries where similar laws are enforced.”

The site in question contains ROMs for a whole host of popular HTC handsets, and what’s most interesting about this is that HTC takes exception to copying the “original art work.” HTC didn’t go on to clarify what exactly has their undergarments in a bunch, whether it’s simply the design of the GUI, or the entire ROM. Either way, best of luck in trying to squash the third-party ROM development community, HTC, because if that’s your goal, you’re going to need it.