Dear WDTV Product Managers,

The success and legacy of the WDTV product line, in my opinion, is due in large part to its community support via 3rd party unofficial homebrew firmware. I am a recent purchaser of the WDTV Live Streaming product (and let me just add, I am very pleased with the stock features and updates so far) and I know that its engineering support cannot continue indefinitely over the lifetime of the product, which I expect to use for at least another 5 years. It is my understanding that a core portion of the firmware is encrypted on this product which prevents/discourages efforts to develop a complete 3rd party firmware for the WDTV Live Streaming platform. I'm sure you are aware of the success and sales that have been driven out of the "WDLX" firmware for previous generations of your products.

I would be in favor of an option or formal protocol to forfeit the warranty agreement in exchange for ability to have decrypted firmware to the extent that your license agreements for any software IP included in it can allow - to enable a substantial custom firmware solution for your advanced userbase.

Thank you for your consideration and I hope that there is a common ground that can be achieved on this matter.