"
I have several pieces of equipment where the manufacturer's included
software licence statement *forbids* R/E and or disclosure of any
contents thereof. "

Some slick lawyer might find a way to break that. Like a no competition clause in an employment agreement. There has to be a geographical or other area specified and a time limit or the courts will usually not enforce it.

Say I have a 15 year old Tek scope that ruins XP. I will hire school kids in China to decompile and fix the software as I see fit. When they stopped support they terminated whatever contracts they may have had with me, and I double dog dare them to sue me. Let's air ALL the dirty laundry, and I will make it a point to have live TV coverage of the whole trial as well as summaries on the evening news every night, because we are not alone. Look at al the people who have tried to eek out a living helping the repair industry.. From Howard W. Sams reverse engineering to Asti making aftermarket transformers etc.

You know, they might put that revolution sensor in an engine where you really can't get to it, but you can drill a hole in the frikken valve cover and pick up a pulse off of one of the valves. that gives you phase as well as which side is firing, which doesn't always matter because half of the older designs fired two injectors and plugs at once and did not need a cam pulse at all. Hell some of the late 1980s cars we might be able to make better than new. Problem is the bodies rust out so we need good welders. Let's ho9pe the digitalennials don't start ****ing with them or we'll have welders just using straight house current with a ballast like we used to in the old days.

Wanna see some real USian ingenuity ? Throw me a couple of million. I mean it. Know what you'll see ? Computers that can run any engine, and later transmission. (my buddy the engineer always buys stick shift cars, I actually wondered if he could even drive an automatic for a while but then eventually I saw him do it...)

You'll see these car bodies from the 1990s fixed, new ECMs and they pass emissions (pre OBD2). And last but not least, IF you select by switch, the lights go on immediately when you ope the doors and they go off imediately when you close the doors. The lights do not go on or off without your command.. And sorry, if you want the driver window all the way down you have to hold the button. And in any case those plastic tapes they use on the window regulators will be replaced by steel ones.

With all that, your great Grandson can drive your Buick Roadmaster until he is 140 years old. I always wanted one of those but they were too expensive and now they are too old. They had the old style headlight switch, the kind you pull out ! There were words in English, like "WIPER", "LIGHTS" and so forth instead of these icons. In the old windows I usually used File Manager. I do not need little pictures I know how to read. Take your icons and stick them where they are sure not to get a sunburn.