Hello forum,
because i dont like bloatware and buggy and slow stock firmwares, im a fan of alternative roms like CyanogenMod or others. But theres a big disadvantage in this roms:
Im just wondering why i can not find any Custom Roms for Android phones with ANT+ support for phones which are ANT+ ready with stock roms. Is this because the custom rom developers do not care about implementation of ANT+ drivers into the AOSP kernel or is this a licence thing?
Is it legal to implement ANT+ into prebuild, downloadable custom roms, if the developers join the Adopters program for the following cases:
1. Adding ANT+ into a custom rom for a phone which is ANT+ certified out of the box (like Samsung Galaxy S4)?
2. Adding ANT+ into a custom rom for a phone which has ANT+hardware inside but is not ANT+ ready out of the box? For example, the Samsung Galaxy S4 ACTIVE should be ANT+ ready, because its the same hardware as the normal Samsung Galaxy S4, just with a other display and a other camera.
3. Adding ANT+ code into roms which are for phones which do not have ANT+ hardware build in. For example, the ANT+ modifications could be implemented into the mainline sourcecode of i.e. CyanogenMod to automatically support all devices with build in ANT+ hardware, but it would also be automatically be into roms for phones without ANT+ hardware.
In addition and to be more explicit:
The Adopters licence agreement says:
e) You agree to not reference or include the ANT+ trademarks or logos with respect to any product or application that You develop under this Agreement that is sold or made generally available for use unless Your product or application has been certified under the ANT+ Product Certification program, or granted a written exception from Dynastream. [...]
So, if a custom rom developer would make his rom ANT+ ready, can you agree to the following:
a) Its legal to implement ANT+ code into a generally available rom which is for a phone which is ANT+ certified by the manufacturer of the phone
b) Its legal to implemant ANT+ code into a rom which is for a phone which is NOT ANT+ certified by the manufacturer of the phone, but comes with ANT+ ready hardware, IF he do not use ANT+ trademarks or logos?
c) Its legal to implemant ANT+ code into a rom which is for a phone which is NOT ANT+ certified by the manufacturer of the phone, but comes WITHOUT ANT+ ready hardware, because the modification is in the mainline code of the rom.
If you do not agree to a) and/or b) and/or c), is there a fair chance to get "a written exception from Dynastream." for custom roms?
I think the custom rom community can not pay certifications for every phone which comes with ANT+ hardware.
More questions about certification:
d) Is the ANT+ certification dongled to the device as it is or to the combination of device and software version?
e) Is a recertification needed if a manufacturer would change anything of the hardware layout (lets say Samsung would change the camera or the ram size of the Galaxy S5)?
f) Is a recertification needed if a manufacturer would change the stock rom (lets say Samsung or CyanogenMod would upgrade the Galaxy S4 from Kitkat 4.4.x to Lollipop 5.x)?
If there is recertification needed in any of this cases or any other cases? If so: Can you tell something about the premises of recertifications?
The last question is:
g) When worse come to wores: Could one private person start a crowdfunding project to finance the certification of S4 / S4 Active with a custom rom to make a custom rom with ANT+ support generally available or is certification only allowed by the manufacturer of the device?
Thanks for your response and sorry for the grammar
