Because it’s not the Barbies that cost you the big bucks — it’s the accessories …
Manufacturers of high-tech devices love selling high-tech consumables and accessories to go along with them. Once upon a time, back when I was first getting into the IT world, it was IBM. Seems there were plenty of folks willing to make compatible equipment for IBM mainframes — controllers, disk drives, etc. — and despite IBM’s best efforts in court, it was declared perfectly legal. And despite their efforts to make the compatibles incompatible, it was not too difficult for the compatible manufacturers to backwards-engineer what it took to make such things tick, and offer patches to the IBM OSs to make them work correctly.
Back in the early PC days, compatability was a big issue, too. There was IBM (again), and then there was IBM-compatible. Compaq got its big boost by being closer to “100% IBM Compatible” than anyone else out there.
In recent years, the passage of the DMCA meant that folks flogging proprietary stuff had a leg up. As long as there was something digitally encrypted, any attempts to backwards-engineer around it, or defeat that encryption, was suddenly a Federal offense — literally.
We saw this first with ink-jet cartridges. Printer manufacturers like selling printers, but they love selling high-priced ink cartridges. Which is why the DMCA worked so well for them. Simply put a chip on the printer, a chip on the cartrdige, prevent the printer from working unless a cartridge with the chip is present, and, hey-presto, big trouble for third parties that would love to sell cartridges, too, and would be willing to sell them for cheaper.
And if those third-parties tried to defeat the chip — well, that was a blatant (if ostensibly-unintended) violation f the DMCA, trying to defeat digitally-protected copyrighted material.
And next on the hit parade? batteries.
NEC Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) and its subsidiary in Europe, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, introduces a new software for microcontrollers that detects counterfeit battery products in mobile phones and digital still camera batteries. The software offers significant performance benefits by utilizing advanced CIPHERUNICORN-S technology from NEC Corporation (TSE:6701), which operates at processing speeds up to 18 times faster and requires 80% less memory than standard encryption technology. The improved performance reduces hardware requirements and enables the software to be used with standard 8-bit microcontrollers, which in turn leads to lower overall costs.
In other words, “We can now manufacture batteries that have hardware and software encryption to keep people from using cheap third-party batteries.”
As mobile phones and digital cameras have surged in popularity in recent years, counterfeit batteries for these products have also increased.
Evil, evil, counterfeit batteries! Corrupting our children, polluting our bodily fluids, and eating into our profit margins!
However, non-original batteries often fail to meet manufacturers’ safety and quality standards, leading to product malfunctions and personal injury.
Not to mention they aren’t sold by us, thus we don’t get the money for them. I mean — think of the children!
Conventional technologies to address this issue are cumbersome and expensive hardware, or inexpensive but ineffective software solutions. NEC Electronics’ software offers a highly effective and flexible solution that helps OEMs affordably reinforce the safety of their products.
“The growing number of worldwide incidences involving inferior counterfeit batteries is a considerable source of concern for manufacturers and customers alike.”
It’s been keeping me up at night, let me tell you.
“NEC Electronics’ authentication software offers a highly effective yet affordable solution to help detect such unauthorized products and prevent the damage caused by them.” said Kazuo Nakamura, General Manager, Device SI Division, NEC Electronics.
And, best yet, it’s all protected by the force of US law, no matter how shoddy the security is! Huzzah!
Next up: cheap light fixtures with proprietary chips to require only Authentic Light Bulbs from NEC!
(via BoingBoing and LawGeek)