@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:If understand things correctly though there is nothing to stop a third party from writing it's own software that accomplishes the same task in a different way. Patents prevent this, as long as they are active, but copyrights do not.Another way to say it is that patents allow the patent holder to prevent reverse engineering, but copyrights don't.
I think that the hardware folks needed to do what is needed are largely already available. Assuming that any applicable patents have expired are there any software engineers out there who'd like to take a stab at it and help them? Any intellectual property attorneys to verify that the approach is feasible?
I believe you are correct, but I am not a lawyer and I don't play one on TV. In any case, I suspect there won't be many takers to take on the task of creating an R2LC clone, I don't see the return on investment here.
The FM receiver chip is another issue, it's been obsolete for years.
