Is there anything illegal about custom ROMs?

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People are constantly modifying stock ROMs, taking drivers from leaked builds, putting apps in their ROMs, ect... And it makes me wonder, is any of this technically illegal? Maybe not "directly" illegal, I'm thinking "indirectly" illegal. For example, the way installing OS X on a hackintosh is illegal cuz you violate some of Apple's rules or whatever. Get what I mean? Are we breaking the rules and violating a ton of companies' work?

Is there anything wrong with all the ROMing and rooting that goes on with Android?

Edit: Oops, this thread is probably in the wrong place. Sorry. It might belong in "General" or something

Well,I think that flashing roms by itself isn't illegal,as Android is open-source.Messing with locked bootloaders could be considered illegal,and as punishment we are deprived of our warranties.I also think that porting close-source stuff(UIs etc like Sense) that are the property of companies is also illegal,but they do have a way to protect that stuff well enough...

Originally Posted by tolis626

Well,I think that flashing roms by itself isn't illegal,as Android is open-source.Messing with locked bootloaders could be considered illegal,and as punishment we are deprived of our warranties.I also think that porting close-source stuff(UIs etc like Sense) that are the property of companies is also illegal,but they do have a way to protect that stuff well enough...

Hmm. That sucks. Basically every ROM out there is probably using something illegally taken out of some stock or leaked ROM or whatever. Doesn't it seem that way?

Originally Posted by Yumunum

Hmm. That sucks. Basically every ROM out there is probably using something illegally taken out of some stock or leaked ROM or whatever. Doesn't it seem that way?

No, not really. I think that the whole android system is based on open source (AOSP), including "stock" roms.


There are tons of roms developed directly from google's aosp source, taking nothing illegally- on the opposite- contributing to the project...

You can google or look in wikipedia for more info about android open source project.



Why, do you see any problem?


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Im calling the Police!!!! Your Going Down Town to Google Jail!

Originally Posted by mattfox27

Im calling the Police!!!! Your Going Down Town to Google Jail!

Lol, my concern isn't anything like that. I'm not afraid of getting "caught" or whatever. It's morals. And that's a whole different discussion, I'm not going to get into it ;P

Stuff that is used in custom roms that comes from paid work is ILLEGAL in any way.

Drivers as sample:
- a lot of guys working in company's where the code is done by paid work - used in custom roms is illegal because the small letters from the law
- how to get these cooks by the law. It is hard but the evidence is sampled every day, believe me.

- every cook who is using leaked or stock stuff without the permission from the owner is illegal. Oh s**t XDA has to close a lot of threads very fast, because it is illegal .

Sense is the next sample:
ok HTC is doing nothing at the moment, because they have a profit on that. But in nature it is illegal in any way

Also the Samsung leaked stuff:
Samsung has a lot of profit in that way, but wait for the day when they are bigger or equal as Apple, they will go against that.

Apple:
is the best sample. Ok Apple's politics is s**t in my eyes, but they have the right on his site. Every jail break as sample is illegal in any way.

At the end, i had asked my lawyer about all this leaked and stock stuff, modding and cookking (not a local small one, a big player in our world company). He shows me some facts and normally we all use illegal stuff in the eys of the law. And a normaly good froum, so as XDA, can't change anything on that.

Originally Posted by mike2nl

Stuff that is used in custom roms that comes from paid work is ILLEGAL in any way.



Apple:
is the best sample. Ok Apple's politics is s**t in my eyes, but they have the right on his site. Every jail break as sample is illegal in any way.

not in usa jailbreaking is legal,downloading paid apps for free,that's another story

Illegal or not once you buy the phone its up to you how you use it

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If you buy a phone, it is now yours and you can do everything with it.

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