In general, Framework has been extremely transparent, but they haven't given specifics about this issue. In a previous video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cJj8PUY0DU ), Louis Rossman mentions that he asked Framework why they wouldn't release schematics and was given an answer (that he deemed valid) on the condition that he couldn't publicly say what that answer is. I imagine it's because of some sort of legal agreement, either with the ODM that designed the motherboard or one or more of their chip suppliers. I doubt it's for fear of cloning, leaked schematics for products from a variety of manufacturers (Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, etc) have been available for years and you don't see any cloning going on there.
> I imagine it's because of some sort of legal agreement, either with the ODM that designed the motherboard or one or more of their chip suppliers. I doubt it's for fear of cloning, leaked schematics for products from a variety of manufacturers (Apple, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, etc) have been available for years and you don't see any cloning going on there.
This doesn't make sense to me. If it was because of a legal agreement I imagine they'd just publicly say that they can't "for legal reasons" and everyone would just shut up about it because, hey, it's not strictly their fault, so why give them grief about it? An easy way to snip the whole "no schematics" controversy in the bud. "Sorry, we can't release them publicly for legal reasons, but for future products we'll try to negotiate with the vendors to allow it." And they're done.
But the only thing we get is radio silence, so either they don't want to explicitly say that it's "for legal reasons" (which, again, doesn't make sense to me), or because it's due to something else.
Publishing schematics doesn't mean publishing the PCB design, which is where most of the work is. If you wanted to clone Framework you could just as easily grab the leaked schematic for any other Intel laptop, they're all functionally equivalent.
I bet Framework has a legal agreement with someone not to publish the schematic so they're sharing it with repair shops under NDA so they're not liable when it leaks.
Somebody can & will co-opt their production & magically sell it for less if they completely open source things. Cuz third world country labor n shit.
Lack of published schematics means that the Chinese cloners will not be able to copy the design in 2-3 weeks as usual. Instead it will take them at least 14-21 days.
Somebody can & will co-opt their production & magically sell it for less if they completely open source things. Cuz third world country labor n shit.
They made something pretty cool, they definitely deserve to enjoy the fruits of their labor for a bit.