Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them
Polish Hackers Repaired Trains the Manufacturer Artificially Bricked. Now The Train Company Is Threatening Them
After breaking trains simply because an independent repair shop had worked on them, NEWAG is now demanding that trains fixed by hackers be removed from service.
like fucking clockwork. “we didn’t program our trains to brick themselves when repaired by third parties, and also we’re going to sue these hackers for disabling that code we didn’t write” I’m really hoping this transparent shit gets laughed out of court if they try to sue (and that the corresponding countersuit is damaging as fuck to their inflated bottom line)
Just to be clear, the company is sueing for defemation, in which the hackors claims could have damaged their image. Either way if the hackers are correct they will be able to prove this in court no problem. This would really be bad for the company, so as far as I'm aware they have only threatened this for the media and are not going through with it.
(and that the corresponding countersuit is damaging as fuck to their inflated bottom line)
It should really escalate to the European Court and end up in the loophole used by the train manufacturer to be destroyed or at least amended. This violates Right to Own, and would make everyone's life better if it weren't something you could be sued for.
just to be clear: trains run on original, unmodified firmware, they just reverse engineered it and made a tool that allows for unlocking them just like it would be by manufacturer
the newag's narrative is generally bull; and the folks from the dragon sector do have legal representation.
also reverse engineering with the goal to make things interoperable is explicitly allowed by polish author's law (we do follow the continental copyright conventions in poland, so it's not entirely the same as what the common law countries understand as copyright)
This should be treated as a severe crime against the state like treason.
What the fuck happened to owning something?
Oh yeah… subscription based profits. Fuck that.
some extra statement from Dragon Sector and Newag response
https://oko.press/kto-unieruchamia-pociagi-impuls-sledztwo-hakerow article in polish, wasn't written yet first time around
and update from z3s: https://zaufanatrzeciastrona.pl/post/jak-badacze-naprawili-zepsute-pociagi-newagu-i-inne-ciekawe-aspekty-tej-afery/ (also in polish)
i keep updating links to them original articles in a single place
Their answer: "Uuh, do you remember that movie starring Keanu Reeves and a train with control problems?"