USB Implementers Forum Won't Play Nice With Open Hardware

Posted by timothy on Tuesday October 22, 2013 @12:49AM from the keeping-the-universal-out-of-universal dept.

DeathToBill writes "Hack A Day reports on the attempts of open hardware hackers to obtain a vendor and product ID for their devices to be able to sell them as USB compliant: 'A not for profit foundation [in this case Arachnid Labs] could buy a VID, give PIDs away to foundation members making open source hardware, and we would all live in a magical world of homebrew devices that are certified as USB compliant.' The USB Implementers Forum, which controls the sale of PIDs, has lawyered up, responding to the effort with a cease and desist notice, requiring Arachnid Labs to stop 'raising funds to purchase a unique USB VID' and 'delete all references to the USB-IF, VIDs and PIDs for transfer, resale or sublicense from your website and other marketing materials.' A slight over-reaction? Or dark conspiracy against open hardware? You decide!"

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Re:Pardon my ignorance but... by VortexCortex · 2013-10-22 01:44 · Score: 5, Funny

History is littered with "technically superior" crap that nobody adopted.
Mfh... n-- You take that back! My Dreamcast is Not CRAP! I'll show you crap!
...
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to change my HDDVDBVDs.
Re:Pardon my ignorance but... by Minwee · 2013-10-22 02:41 · Score: 5, Funny

Do you know what de facto means?
Well, I know what everybody says it means, but not necessarily what the rules say it's supposed to mean.