Would the maker of your generator be liable if you used it to cook meth on board? If you were doing drug deals using your iPhone, should Apple be held responsible? If you stick a pencil in your ear and do damage, is that the fault of the manufacturer?

Are you saying that it was right for McDonald's to pay millions to the idiot who spilt hot coffee in her lap? Should VHF manufacturers be fined every time a faulty Mayday or DSC alert is issued?

I don't see how it can be stretched that the manufacturer of a device is partly responsible for illegal or stupid use of that device. SPOT simply reports position. That's it. If the owner of a SPOT sets up a shore-side contact with the responsibility of checking that position every day and calling in a SAR if the owner doesn't send an update within a certain period of time, then that isn't the company's fault. There is no conceivable way a sat phone manufacturer can control or be responsible for the calls made on its device.

Sometimes one is not tangoing, just playing with oneself.

Mark