That's a good point, although they are threatening to release slightly more than just the drivers ("the complete silicon, graphics, and computer chipset files"). But the legal vs. illegal access is definitely interesting and probably not something they took into account. I don't see, say, AMD stealing from "publicly stolen" technology, I can't imagine the insane lawsuit that would ensue. Maybe some Chinese company might do it...

I don't think this group is thinking within the constraints of the law. There can be no trust in this, the data is out there and no longer in Nvidia's control. Even if they fully accept the terms, the group can still do what they want.

who would fab their chips though? i can only imagine tsmc getting an obvious nvidia knock off and refusing to fab it for them for fear nvidia would take their cards somewhere else to fab.

Your argument doesn't make sense. If TSMC are the only people who can fab them, why would they been concerned about Nvidia going elsewhere? If there is an elsewhere, that's where the chips can be fabricated.

Think of all the security vulnerabilities and patent violations that would become apparent in case the Verilog is released too.

> I don't think they've thought through their demands very well.

If you, as a person with technical skills, aren't making money hand over fist with a normal job in the tech sector and instead are doing illegal things like this, it's very likely that there is something wrong with your judgment in general.

And what about when you have enough money?

unless my reading comprehension is failing me, they are threatening to release nvidia's hardware design files, not the driver source code.

They want the driver code public but not the hardware code.