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They are Illegally distributing copies of my firmware on their badges


DMCA is probably irrelevant.

This is textbook copyright infringement. $150k statutory damages plus, at the court's discretion, legal costs and fees. And that is just the result of civil action. You could probably find a prosecutor who would love pursue criminal action against the conference to appear strong on cybersecurity.

There is a reason why even large corporations, which often play chicken with lesser laws, are extremely careful about copyright infringement. The law has real teeth if the infringer has significant wealth.

https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#504


If they don't have a licence to distribute your software, it's plain copyright infringement. The same as selling photocopies of a book.

The DMCA criminalises breaking DRM, or providing tools to do so, such as distributing a tool to remove the DRM from an e-book.


The Digital Millennium Copyright Act also does have provisions related to copyright infringement, not just circumvention devices.




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