Hi,

whoever doesn't know XDA developers should have a look at their site (http://www.xda-deveolpers.com).
These folks make HTC devices worth their money. I would never buy HTC if I had to use the shipped ROMs. These are IMHO slow, buggy and featureless.

When flashing a customized ROM to your device you need the shipped ROM in case you need to send in your device for warranty issues. This is where shipped-roms.com comes in.

Unfortunately/stupidly HTC threatens shipped-roms.com with a C&D letter (see http://ongoingissues.wordpress.com/2010/06/17/htc-threatens-handset-hackers-with-legal-action/ for details). I ask you to express your feelings towards HTC regarding this matter.
I, as stated above, buy HTC for its hardware. I would never buy if I needed to use the crappy software on the devices. So for me HTCs behavior is self-destructive. Threatening their best supporters.

 

If I was HTCs CEO I would donate money to these folks actively helping HTC to sell devices. For free!

 

Regards and Thanks for your support,
Franky

I am 100% behind Frankly.

My first HTC handset was badged as an Imate PDA2K.

Within a day or two I was getting rather hacked off with windows mobile's quirks.

As it was an Imate I was unable to turn to HTC for support- Imate's support was virtually non-existent.

In time I found the XDA-developers. Thanks to them I was able to reflash with a rom that was more stable and faster. Had they not had access to shipped roms this would have not been possible.

It was the knowledge that I would be able to tweak/reflash a windows phone that convinced me to eventually upgrade to the Athena. Yet again the out of the box experience was poor and frankly frustrating, but another visit to the guys at XDA-developers and I was a happy bunny. The same applied to my next HTC purchases.

I now find myself looking for a new phone and I have to ask myself if I want to run the risk of purchasing another HTC handset if I am going to be unable to make it work properly.

HTC kept windows mobile alive by minimising the users' need to interact directly with it. The rom cooks have gone one step further and made it usable.

IF HTC are trying to prohibit ROM cooking then I might as well sell my soul and purchase an I-phone. I might not ever be able to customise it but at least it works out of the box and doesn't need rebooting every other day.

The truth is that I do want another HTC but at the same time I am an adult and I want to be able to decide if I want to sacrifice battery life for speed, features for reliabilty and so forth.

I think this is the biggest slap in the face I have ever encountered as far as corporate to consumer is related. Especially it being windows mobile! I do not flash roms and have though about trying it but am too scared to brick my device but I see these cooked roms and these chefs as far as I'm concerned are doing the HTC company a whole lot of good with keeping their customers happy since they will not offer this sort of thing and guess what they do it for free and only ask for donations. So why the big deal? I feel that it's because HTC's customer service/support is being shown up by developers in the online world.

 

So what HTC so some developers are hosting ROMS. If I bought my phone and I have that rom why shouldn't I be able to find it just in case you take it off your website. So that leaves this big theory to take place. For everyone one person there are at least 2 different kinds of phones multiplied by how ever many customers HTC may have thats alot of roms and access to those roms should be available either on the HTC site itself or suffer the consequences of developers doing it for you.

 

Like I said I feel these developers have done the HTC company some good. Given support and options to KEEP customers. I have seen alot of testimonials online the dev communities stating if HTC follows through with this and cracks down like were "criminals" and punishes us by jailtime or even fines then don't expect us to stick around as HTC customers.

These cooks  give people stuck with a boring OS on their phones a taste of what Android can do In turn leading people to the best Android OS phone available........they send you customers.......and to sue em is kinda lame.

I agree... this is a very bad public relations move HTC!  

How does that Motorola commercial go?  "When there is no limit to what Droid gets..."

I've been loyally buying HTC phones since early 2005.  I would have never bought a second one (let alone the third, fourth and now my fifth HTC phone) if I wasn't able to build and install my own custom ROM on my old PPC6700.

Maybe my next phone will be a Motorola Android based device... now that I really think about it, the Motorola Droid 2 is looking better every day that this threat of suit continues.  I think I'll start recommending those to my friends instead of HTC!

HTC is not threatening custom roms. Aside from the fact that the C & D order only covered art work, the general consensus is that they are just trying to plug leaks of unreleased roms  and roms from devices that have not been released yet. And also beta roms.

All of which  it seemed conflipper had an inside source for.  The only thing that is going to harm XDA is their ( stupid , I was against it ) decision to start including non HTC devices in their forums. HTC knows the value of XDA's input, software and custom roms to their devices and they look the other way regarding this, But if XDA starts bolstering the sales of  competing handsets with software, roms and support, how much longer is HTC going to look the other way.

wow did you even read the C & D? Than you would know it's not just the "artwork" or the "unreleased roms" that they are getting at. You would know they are after cooked roms and chefs who cook them. They are after it because they "think" it's copy write infringement which is why coinflipper has been in so much heated trouble. Not over some "inside source" like you think. Read everything before you make a comment man. And yes it is just a matter of time before htc comes down on xda and not just cuz they support other software or handsets but because they have stock htc roms on their site and chefs cook those stock roms with their stuff in it and thats why htc is all butthurt.

Here is a copy of the letter, because obviously you have not read it

 

From: XXXXXXXXX

Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 2:50 PM

To: ‘request@shipped-roms.com’

Cc: XXXXXXXXXX

Subject: Cease and Desist Letter of HTC ROMs posted on your website

Importance: High

Dear Sir or Madam:

I write to you on behalf of HTC Corporation (“HTC”), a Taiwanese company with a global business, who is the owner of certain intellectual property (“HTC¡¦s Intellectual Property”).  It is our understanding that you are responsible for the hosting of an internet webpage located at http://shipped-roms.com (the “Site¡¨).  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 offence under the Copyright Act in the U.S. and the EU and other countries where similar laws are enforced.

As you would expect, HTC is the owner and the use of the copyrighted work described above has not been authorized by the owner.  By publishing and displaying the Intellectual Property on the Site, you, as the publisher, along with the information source are infringing HTC¡¦s Intellectual Property rights, including but not limited to causing HTC irreparable harm.

For the above reasons, HTC requests that you immediately remove the Intellectual Property from the Site or of all infringing works derived from the Intellectual Property.  You shall desist from this or any other infringement of HTC¡¦s rights in the future.

The above information is true and correct. If we have not received an affirmative response from you within two weeks indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, we shall take further legal action, and pursue all means necessary to protect HTC¡¦s legal and equitable rights.  HTC reserves all its rights against you, including legal and equitable remedies.

Best regards,

Legal Counsel

HTC Corporation

 

 

It specifically points to artwork and vaguely mentions intellectual property. Where exactly does it say we are going after cooked roms and rom chefs. If that was the point of the letter, as you say, then why did they specifically mention artwork, but didn't bother to specifically mention cooked roms or chefs. Maybe they sent you another copy than the one they sent conflipper.

 

Why wouldn't they send the same letter to XDA, MoDaCO, PPC Geeks, HTCpedia and the hundreds of other sites that list stock and cooked roms ?

Because they have a specific problem  with conflipper and his site, for the reasons I posted above. Do some reading dude, I have been flashing and cooking roms for years, didn't join XDA yesterday.

Why is no one noticing that it says it was obtained through illegal means? That means he didn't get it from a released source. He did illegally. Also, proof of this, is he didn't even bother to change the details enough so that it wouldn't be unnoticed.