Fake HDMI cable crackdown - Taiwanese police raid suppliers of counterfeit HDMI cables, seize $2.6 million in knockoffs in a single day::Police in Taiwan have cracked down on counterfeit HDMI cable sales, raiding online sellers across the island.
It was warned that cables that have been manufactured without following HDMI standards and guidelines might not provide a good or consistent signals and might be poorly made. They might also have the potential to cause electrical fires.
So the cables are working and are not really “fake”, but more like counterfeit. It’s just that they didn’t pay for the stupid license,
just like USB-C,and thus those cables are IlLeGaL.Poor quality cables can be official too, as paying for the license may take money away from quality. The concerns can be understandable but it sounds more like FUD to make sure people keep buying the “official” and "legal’ cables.
All in all it’s just a question of laws and money for a stupid connector.
EDIT: See replies to my comment. USB-C is not licensed. It just costs more than micro.
It is. HDMI is proprietary technology.
DisplayPort ftw
How did you get that from this quote? It says they don’t follow standards and could even cause fires. That’s not simply “they didn’t pay for a license”.
This sounds like FUD.
Fear, uncertainty and doubt (often shortened to FUD) is a manipulative propaganda tactic used in sales, marketing, public relations, politics, polling and cults. FUD is generally a strategy to influence perception by disseminating negative and dubious or false information, and is a manifestation of the appeal to fear.
The line about the “warning” sounds exactly like like my old boss when he was selling LCD panels and telling people they had to clean their monitor with the special liquid he was selling at 200% markup because otherwise it would ruin their warranty. Or like some big box employee trying to sell you gold plated HDMI cables so the image can be better quality. Gotta buy the certified one because the cheapo could cause issues!
It’s an HDMI cable FFS! It probably has been made in the exact same plant than other HDMI cables, but without paying for the license.
Another example from the same article is the $2.6m price tag. If they don’t work and cause fires, why are they worth any money?
Selling a component that you know isn’t likely to work? That’s called fraud
There is nothing saying the cables don’t work. The article speculates that they may be faulty but it’s just that, speculation. It’s just that the manufacturer didn’t pay to have the HDMI logo/license. A logo or a license won’t make the cables faulty.
The fraud is not paying the license to the consortium, but the consumers should not really see anything wrong with it. It’s a digital signal. Even if the cable is poor quality, it either works, or not.
I guess maybe the only problem that could arise from this is when trying to watch DRM content on cables that are not properly licensed, there may be some sort of HDCP protection that will not work properly. Maaaaaybe.
So yes, it’s fraud, but not really towards the consumers. The manufacturer was committing fraud by making HDMI cables without paying the license. The cables should be fine but they had to write something about them, like “you know, maybe they will be poor quality or don’t work” to encourage people not to buy them. It’s about money, not the cables.
Sounds like the Taiwanese police were under some pressure to make a big bust so they pulled out a box of cheap cables they acquired from the local markets and made up some public service maths to look good.
Then they valued it like US drug cops. Oh yeah, one bag of misc. cables from someone’s junk drawer, that’s, uhh, $2,600,000, street value.
