02
Feb
htc-logo

HTC: Sharing RUUs And Sense-Based ROMs Is OK, We Just Want The HTCRUU.com Domain

Posted by in HTC, News

Over the past couple of weeks, there's been a bit of a kerfuffle surrounding HTC and its shut down of HTCRUU.com. The general consensus across the Android community has been quite understanding in some respects – after all, HTC has every right to protect its intellectual property. The problem was, however, that in the original takedown request, it also demanded that all hosted RUUs and Sense-based ROMs be indefinitely removed, as well. This, of course, didn't sit well with the dev community.

As a result, HTC took to its official blog, vowing its "continued support for the developer community." Since actions speak louder than words and HTC's lawyers were demanding that all RUUs and Sense-based ROMS be removed, there was a clear disconnect between what HTC was doing and what company spokespeople were saying.

30
Jan
htc-logo

HTC Vows 'Continued Support For The Developer Community,' But We're Not Convinced

Posted by in HTC, News

Late last week, news broke that HTC was forcing the owner of HTCRUU.com to not only give up the domain, but remove all hosted RUU files and custom ROMs based on Sense. This was, of course, because he was in violation of HTC's intellectual property rights, as the site's name had "HTC" in the title, was adorned with official HTC logos, and contained official HTC software. Needless to say, the developer community was a little up in arms over the removal of the files – especially because HTC specifically requested that the Sense-based ROMs be taken down.

Now, however, the company has taken to its official blog and written a short post vowing its "continued support to the developer community." In the midst of this post, it specifically states that "the issue with the site in question was NOT that it provided custom ROMs or RUUs.

24
Jan
wm_IMG_5157

HTC Forces Owner Of HTCRUU.com To Shut Down, Hand Over The ROMs (And Domain)

Posted by in Development, News
Last Updated: March 7th, 2013

Update: This whole situation ended up being resolved just a couple of weeks after this story was published, with HTC backing off on its assertion that the stock and custom HTC ROMs couldn't be distributed. It did request that the HTCRUU.com domain be handed over, but the ROMs that were hosted there previously will now be available at ruu.androidfiles.org. It's good to hear HTC isn't cracking down on the custom software community, though whether this resolution came about because of a legitimate misunderstanding, or simply as PR damage control, isn't clear.

It seems the days of centrally accessible HTC RUU files are at an end - for the time being - as the owner of HTCRUU.com was forced to surrender his site after a representative HTC's legal team suggested this was the only way to "resolve" his unauthorized hosting of HTC's software.