Companies going bust should have their IP (code, design, patents etc) transferred to FOSS licenses automatically; at least here going bust is a strain on the tax payer, so give it back to the tax payer. Then someone else can pick this up and potentially fix these devices. Or at the least it’s good for the world to have the tech open to be studied.
But who would that "someone" be, and to what conditions? Or do you expect the people in the article to just write the drivers for their own implants themselves?
> Or do you expect the people in the article to just write the drivers for their own implants themselves?
No, but a community of volunteers might. ThreadX [0] is proof enough that an OSS community can keep a piece of software certified under strict security standards. I don't see why the same couldn't be achieved with software for medical devices.
We, society, grant temporary monopolies in the form of copyright/patents "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". They do not intend to further use that monopoly, so they lose it.
Public trustee. That’s how it works with other assets, like apartment buildings with people living in them. Often public trustees will outsource the management & disposal of these assets. Hopefully for the people depending on the assets, “disposal” means “sale to a new owner.”
Maybe another company? It seems this company was badly ran with nice tech. But at least if open, we have a chance. If closed, nothing happens and things get lost.
Presumably James Weiland [0]. He's the (excellent) USC engineer that moved to Michigan in the fallout of the dean Puliafito scandal [1]. Puliafito was great at raising funds by conning rich people, but uninterested in supporting legitimate scientific research. His antics would make Hunter Biden blush.
If they could open it, send pictures and send dumps of its firmware, I'm sure there would be people around the world curious enough to reverse engineer it, and with that knowledge available, they could (at least potentially) get some support.
Only if the user base is large enough to gather enough interest. I expect someone reverse-engineering popular devices like nintendo switch but not bionic eyes used by a few hundred people.
Corporations exist to do whatever purpose is spelled out in the articles of incorporation. That purpose can be eleemosynary or profit or whatever the founders want.
Readit News
No, but a community of volunteers might. ThreadX [0] is proof enough that an OSS community can keep a piece of software certified under strict security standards. I don't see why the same couldn't be achieved with software for medical devices.
[0] https://threadx.io/faq/#what-happens-with-the-existing-safet...
We, society, grant temporary monopolies in the form of copyright/patents "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts". They do not intend to further use that monopoly, so they lose it.
What do you think might be done to avoid this sort of thing?
[0] https://weilandresearch.bme.umich.edu/ [1] https://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-usc-doctor-20...
Reading this has me horrified and wanting to help with the effort.
If it's more profitable to go bankrupt and screw their test subjects, they will not hesitate - it is legally required they do so.
Corporations exist to do whatever purpose is spelled out in the articles of incorporation. That purpose can be eleemosynary or profit or whatever the founders want.
For example, it's extremely unlikely that the victims in this story knew to check the articles of incorporation.
Second Sight left users of its retinal implants in the dark - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30349871 - Feb 2022 (85 comments)