It makes me sad to think that first a group of engineers spend time writings this complex system of checksums, partially encrypted firmware images, proprietary challenge-response handshake and communications with the battery so that another hacker must spend days to allow himself to make a fix as simple as replacing the battery in <i>his own laptop</i>. Is this because of fear? Money? Greed? All three? <i>How much money</i> does Lenovo make out of Lenovo batteries to make this all this extra complexity worth its salt in the first place? Consider that maintaining all that complexity is a recurring cost: it&#x27;s not just writing the authentication scheme but making sure it works for each future firmware release.<p>I haven&#x27;t let go of the 80&#x27;s and I still think if you buy a car, phone, laptop, compact disc or a video disc, then it&#x27;s <i>yours</i> because you <i>paid for it</i> in your <i>own money</i>. From that standpoint it&#x27;s simply inexcusable for manufacturers to try to re-own parts of a device they&#x27;ve already sold to someone.