You're equalling basic human rights with the freedom to modify a tool (which the computer is). If you step back a bit you'll recognize that computers aren't the

You're equalling basic human rights with the freedom to modify a tool (which the computer is). If you step back a bit you'll recognize that computers aren't the only important thing in your life. Many people own cars and there's lots of proprietary things about them. Does that mean car owners are living in an authoritarian world? If those people just didn't ride cars they would be so much more free! It's the power to tinker with the cars, not the power to use that makes them free! Electronics generally contain chips that are proprietary and that we can't change. And we usually can't change the firmware of those devices. Nobody seems to be complaining about that (except firmware in computers because that's supposed to be software again or something). Apparently we don't see how we're living in such an authoritarian world. Computers and smartphones are also tools. Just like with the stuff before, the most important thing is that they do their job in a good way. Being a toy to tinker around with isn't one of them, at least for me. And that's the only thing your so called freedoms really give you.