Hardware should not be held hostage
About
Hardware should not be held hostage is the short form of a principle which might be stated ore fully as:
The ability to use a piece of hardware should not be held hostage to licensing restrictions.
In other words: If a user owns a piece of hardware but is missing software which (a) is normally provided with the hardware, (b) which is necessary for the hardware to work in any context, and (c) for which no replacement is available (e.g. firmware specific to that make/model), then the user should be allowed to copy that software from others without paying any additional licensing fees.
An exception might be made (allowing the licenser to prohibit copying) if the licenser provides sufficient technical details that a third party could reasonably create replacement software (sufficient to use enable advertised features of the hardware) without significant additional investment in development tools specialized for the hardware.
Related
This has a lot of overlap with the principle of hardware as license, but differs in that it has more to do with what the individual can do in order to be able to use their hardware.