How is it different than modifying any other consumer product?  Plenty of engine builders will pop 11:1 compression pistons into a customer's engine for pay.  The engine designer had a specific set of goals in mind with his original creation; however, the customer (and his service provider, the engine builder), had other ideas.  Taken one step further, let's say the carb no longer functions as intended, so now we have to change jets etc.  And we want to advance the timing curve  ("tuning").  All of which we paid someone else to do.  (Well, not me, but you get the idea.)  As long as you aren't claiming that it came from the factory that way, and you don;t try and make a warranty claim when something stupid you did bites you in the butt.

Not much different with this as far as I can see.

The fact that anybody thinks reverse engineering is unethical always frightens me.

Checksums were put in place to prevent engine damage in the event a file became corrupted, not to prevent tuning.

Seriously!?!?
 

Warranty claims, requests from manufacturers, things like that.

Bottom line, unless you're copying the hardware or rebranding the ecu (lol @ nyet's super duper ecu), you can modify the code however you like UNTIL someone tells you otherwise in a legally satisfactory manor.

No. It is not. All of science is based on reverse engineering. What is ethically bankrupt is when lobbiests cram things like the DMCA down our throats, criminalizing something that should be a civil matter.


The entire 'IP' regime (in the US anyway) is corrupt and broken, and has been for a century now.


Of course I can.

Bosch did not develop/invent checksums.

They use checksums, just like many other mfg's of hardware/software to verify that the code being executed is sane.  It has nothing to do with tuner-protection.

Tuner protection is something that is thrown-around too loosely now a days.  And of course they're going to make it harder to tune the ECU's as time passes.  But not because you're a threat to Bosch, but because with the use of flashed ECU's people are taking advantage of car mfg's by using their warranties to cover MODIFED cars.  

If you crank the boost up on a K03 to 20psi and it lasts 6 months because you're over spinning it by working far outside it's efficiency range and then bring it into the dealership to have the turbo replaced for free that is STEALING.  And mfg's know this is happening and they are trying to curb that these days with various tactics (like making the ECU harder to be accessed, or with internal things like VAG's TD1 situation).

Hey Nyet-isn't that the like the third time you've used Riker and Picard this week?