Firmware fun - why fix what ain't broke? Who pays?

Recently my MacBook failed to recognise a portable Lacie firewire drive. My G5 PowerPC continues to recognise it. The drive is in excellent condition, has operated problem-free for many years and continue to work properly.
After much testing (and posting to another part of this discussion forum) the general consensus seemed to be that it was likely to be a firmware issue.
I wrote to the vendors: "The drive was purchased in 2002. That may sound 'old' to you, but it's in excellent condition, been well looked-after, and continues to perform perfectly. A pretty good ad for a product, no?"
The vendors said, "Having checked with your device unfortunately we no longer have any updates for it... It is possible that updates would have been the issue here as they would provide additional support for newer versions of Windows and Mac OS including more support for firewire and USB."
Does anyone know what the legal position is here? I have a perfectly good product that can no longer be used in the usual way. Do the vendors have a responsibility in storing firmware their clients may need in order to use their products? Or is it the responsibility of the computer vendors to ensure that their customers can continue to access the 3rd party devices they customarily use with the computer?
The drive I purchased has been made redundant through no fault of my own. Can I ask the drive vendors to replace it?
iHope

JoeyR, thanks for your comments.
JoeyR wrote:
If your drive is being recognized by another machine, I can't see the firmware being the cause for it not working with your MacBook.
The (Intel) MacBook doesn't recognise, the (PPC) G5 does.... Today the vendor wrote, saying there has never been a firmware update for this particular drive.
When you say "recently my MacBook failed to recognize..." do you mean that it did work at some point on your MacBook or it never did?
It's always been recognized by the MacBook until recently.
Does it just not mount the drive or does it not see it at all? Meaning if you go into Disk Utility, can you see the drive there?
Disk Utility doesn't see it.
If you have any data on that external drive that you don't have stored elsewhere, you'll want to be sure it is backed up before the drive fails.
The FW external drive is used in my workflow, but not for archiving.
The issue began after installing the latest Apple security update (for Intel computers only). As I asked at the start, who pays for the fact that this device is no longer fully available to me?
iHope
Message was edited by: iHope

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Why fix what ain't broken?

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If it ain't broke..BREAK

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Didn't you just finish ranting similar misinformation in another thread?
Let's have a look
SHK_Design wrote:
We were forced to "upgrade" to Lion for mail.
No one was ever forced to upgrade for anything, except those wanting iCloud.
But since then the computer has been acting strange, not only did we lose iPhoto and Word for Mac but the mail icon dissapears from the dock and working with files that I've worked on before with ease is now harder to open.
If did not lose iPhoto. I owned a disk that I purchased. I did not lose Word as I was using a version which was up to date, and there are many other free options to open Office documents with. If Mail is missing from your dock then simply drag the Apps icon back into the Dock. Takes 2 seconds
Burning disks does not work 40% of the time.
Have hardly misburnt a disc in 2-3 years
Re starting the computer sometimes takes 10 min. I'm running a 2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo With 6 Gigs of Ram so It's not my computer.
I would argue strongly with that. That is totally abnormal behavior for any computer. Chances are pretty good that you imported over problems from your last system and just made the computer worse.
All my problems started the day I installed LION. Apples new moyyo "If it ain't broke, break it and sell it to 'em again". If Apple no longer wants to make computers, OS, or Final Cut Pro, SELL those divisions off to someone who does. Go make your phones and music players.
So you obviously just want to rant. My advice, sell your Mac if you don't want to troubleshoot your problems (You have given no information to troubleshoot from or what 3rd party apps you are running) and maybe buy a nice little Windows notebook. I don't think Windows have ever had problems.
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Firmware fun - why fix what ain't broke? Who pays?

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