FTC Declares Warranty Void Stickers Illegal

[leolinden]

https://hothardware.com/news/ftc-proclaims-warranty-void-if-removed-stickers-are-totally-illegal

 

This is quite interesting. This has been a practice for some time if I recall. I don't know if this changes much of anything though.

[Justin]

Some of the last 7800s I had coming out of Atari had warranty void stickers over all of the screws. They were papery and seemed somewhat cheap and tacky compared to NES, SMS and TG16.

[TrekMD]

I'm sure companies will figure out some other way of accomplishing the same result.  I do hate seeing these stupid stickers, though. 

[Atari 5200 Guy]

My Wii had one on it for 30 days. After that all of the stickers they placed on it, including the vinyl skin that looked like a toddler put it on there, were removed, the console was gutted, and properly cleaned. If there is one thing going against GameStop it has to be their description of "refurbished". Mine had dead bugs in it and dust bunnies as big as a small stuffed animal.

 

Most major console makers already use screws requiring customs tools. But it is not unlawful to try to repair your console yourself to save a bit of money. The charges a qualified console makes for just looking is unreal...at times it can be half the price of a new console.

 

As long as the console is not taken apart to reverse engineer it here in the States then taking apart any console is not illegal.

[dgrubb]

As long as the console is not taken apart to reverse engineer it here in the States then taking apart any console is not illegal.

 

Reverse engineering has always been legal, even of a competitor's product! Most of the pitfalls actually involve potentially violating copyright rather than the reverse engineering itself. See Compaq reversing the IBM BIOS chip (who did it the right way) and Atari vs Nintendo (who did it the wrong way, by deceiving the USPTO).

 

There's a really great chapter on the subject in: https://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Xbox-Introduction-Reverse-Engineering/dp/1593270291

Edited April 12, 2018 by dgrubb

[RickR]

So is it ok to rip the tag off my mattress now?

[dgrubb]

So is it ok to rip the tag off my mattress now?

 

Depends, is it copyrighted?

[Atari 5200 Guy]

So is it ok to rip the tag off my mattress now?

Actually, removing that tag has always been OK to remove once you buy it and it is in your home. Lol. Those come off first thing in my house. They are so annoying.

 

Compaq made great computers before HP bought them. I still remember the Apple clones by Laser. Those were in one of the schools I attended.

 

And, yep, remember the Atari vs. Nintendo when Atari reverse engineered the NES lockout chip. I understand they were trying to do to get around Nintendo's exclusive contracts but that wasn't the way to do it. EA reverse engineered Sega's Genesis and got away with it.

[Atari 5200 Guy]

Some of the last 7800s I had coming out of Atari had warranty void stickers over all of the screws. They were papery and seemed somewhat cheap and tacky compared to NES, SMS and TG16.

You seen something I haven't. The only consoles I have had that had those stickers started with the PS2. Consoles I bought before that never had them.