Was going to post this in the other thread right before it got locked:
I read through all 26 pages of what was posted in the closed thread, and I'm still none the clearer on what is and isn't fact. What we have so far is a few people claiming to be big-name 3DS scene coders who say that there is malicious bricking code built into Gateway firmware that can be triggered through modifications. I say "claiming to be" because all they've given us so far is a bit of pseudo-code which anybody could have pulled out their ass. There's no copyright or trademark on Gateway's code in so far as I know, and the business they're in isn't exactly legitimate to begin with. There should be no issue with at least posting the portion of the code that supposedly triggers these bricks.
What is clear is that either Gateway or its clones will benefit from this whole hysteria depending on what information is validated. Naturally, the clone manufacturers don't want to be blamed for bricks, despite the fact that the vast majority of reports on 3DS consoles are coming from 3DSLink/R4i users. It would be in their best interest to pin the issue on Gateway's code, despite the fact that their hardware sales are most likely dead in the water from here on out regardless (unless they can start producing original, safe code of their own). OTOH, as Gateway has the safest hardware/firmware on the market now, they clearly don't want their reputation damaged going forward. They want people to trust that anything coming from Gateway has no chance of harming their consoles.
So I think the best thing for everybody would be for Gateway to jump out in front of this and make a statement one way or the other on their site. Either, "yes, we put code in to prevent competition from using our firmware, we apologize and it will not be present in 2.0 final," or, "no, we did not and would not cause intentional bricking to consoles, the responsibility lies with our competition's poor firmware coding." Whatever the case, the truth will be revealed eventually, so they might as well own up to it now if situational bricking code does exist in Gateway's firmware.