Even if it can be modified, because the manufacturer didn't put in place the correct safeguards, all that means is that the manufacturer broke the law. If I then modify it, I'm not breaking the law, because I'm a US citizen living in the US. However, after such a modification, it becomes my legal obligation to NOT export it to anybody outside the US (and also may be illegal to sell it to anybody in the US who's not a US citizen). There is no legal obligation however, at all, for me to avoid discussing the topic on the internet. If, for example, I had knowledge (which I don't actually) of how to modify it to get full 30Hz frame rate, there is no law that forbids me from posting such information on the internet. Such a law would be a violation of my first amendment right to free speech. The only crime would be if I posted it with the intent to help enemies of the US, which would be an act of treason. Spreading info to cause harm is illegal, while spreading info for the sake of simply educating others on a topic is not illegal. Intent is the key.
So, suppose you're right, and there's no
law preventing you from developing and disseminating such a patch. You do so, secure in your Constitutional rights, or some such. What happens next?
If the powers that be go after FLIR for failing to lock down their modules, the very first thing they'll have to do is
stop selling them. That might not sink the company entirely, but it would mean no more FLIR modules at
any frame rate for you or anyone else until they come up with a fix.
If they
do come up with a fix, they're likely to lock down any other "hackable" settings as well, one of the things we've feared about the Ex series.
Oh, and by the way, I'm pretty sure that the FLIR user agreement expressly forbids any attempt to reverse-engineer or modify the internal workings of the device. You may or may not agree with the legality of such agreements, but they give FLIR a legal opening to come after
you, directly, and maybe to come after EEVblog as an accessory. So far, FLIR hasn't been aggressive about pursuing that avenue. If someone came up with a mod that brought the US government down on FLIR's head, do you think they'd be so forbearing in the future?
It's a bad idea. It's
such a bad idea that the entire community of independent, free-thinking, extremely smart, and not-terribly-impressed-with-ITAR engineers and enthusiasts here have
all refrained from going there.
You
might be right, and everybody else wrong. You
might have thought this all the way through, where nobody else has. I don't think that's the way the smart money would bet, though.