Like you said, we are all modifying Bosch's equipment; however when you sell a tune, you are not selling the SW, you are selling a SERVICE. AFAIK nobody has a license to sell Bosch's copyrighted SW.

Now stealing would be just blatently copying someone's elses tune and call it as their own or just flashing or cloning something you didn't pay for. I think its pretty simple.

Also if you buy a car that already has tuned sw in it, purchased by one of the previous owners how could you be held accountable for what ever you choose to do with the ecu or sw .
I think sharing files is fine for r&d for your own knowledge ,Im sure tuners look at each others work if the get the chance.
Bazaa

My view point on this is as follows.

Only Bosch holds the rights to ECU software and only they can possibly pursue after and sue people for modifying or selling their software.

No tuner has the right or legal foot to go after anybody replicating "their" tune as the file doesn't belong to them at all.

Moreover, they need to sit quiet and enjoy the qui pro quo situation they're in and collect money from people who have no skills to modify it on their own.


End of story.

Now if said tuner came out with their own engine management system, invested years of development into its software and was selling thatm, then sure, they would hold the rights to software and could go after anybody they wanted.

Well I agree with you partly on this. I do tuning for a fee, so you will get a tuners point of view: I always do custom tuning, and I ask the customer if they feel the tune is good or if it needs any tweaks. I never reflash the same ol' file over and over and over again. However, someone buying a tune from me doesn't grant them the right to re-use any of my modified maps/code into making a tune for someone else. I don't mind them tweaking it for their own use, however, I already offer this for free.
One thing is looking at someone else's work and another is copying maps to tune other cars with.

Im sure a lot of people look at another person's work. The thing is that sometimes some individuals just take the easy route and copy some maps over, change the numbers slightly and call it their own...
Well what about Revo? Their trials are KNOWN to fudge with your ECU so after the trial is over, your car is slower. Not to mention other things they do to ME7/MED9 to make other tuner's lives miserable and make them look bad.

That's not protection; that's being a jerk.

Put yourself in a tuner's shoes and ask yourself if you would like everyone that has a 15 dollar dongle and pirated software (and Im not saying anyone on here does this, bear with me) to be able to copy your tune and/or even sell it without you getting one cent for all your hard work?

Just so everyone knows, Im not against this forum or anybody on here at all. Im here to share info.

It all comes down to moral's of the individual, i can copy out a unitronic big turbo tune, and flash ecu's and sell them all day as unitronic big turbo ECU's and make money, however, i dont believe in that practice, nor should anyone do that. 

Now would a company have an legal protection against this? Not really.  Lets say i change a few things in the maps and now sell it as my own, now im no different than any other tuner.  Im not saying tuners copy off each other, but we all modify bosch code, at the end of the day.  The only person who may have potential rights to this software would be bosch, but clearly its not an issue to them that i know of.

The most one could take legal action on is intellectual property rights.  That is not always easy to win.

I own ECU tunes, did I steal them? no. I was given them or asked for them..

Stealing would be taking without the owners permission. So who owns these files? The tuner or the person that paid the tuner to install the file on his ecu...

So what about the Dealers who buy their maps from someone else under franchise like Revo? Does the tuner own them or Revo.. You pay your money to the tuner..

 

I don't think off the shelf tunes are worth $600 USD. Hec, not even custom tunes for a stock car is worth that much.

With that said, just the fact that they are overpriced doesn't grant anyone the right to copy their file. If you don't like the price, just don't buy it. Plain simple.