5 ms·

Whether the user knows it or not, there is still software running on the device that is working in the interests of the vendor and/or the DRMed content creator

by rossy 9y ago

Whether the user knows it or not, there is still software running on the device that is working in the interests of the vendor and/or the DRMed content creator and against the interests of the user. Yes, most users don't care, but some do. If you were the seller of a hypothetical restricted Fuchsia device, you might not lose any sleep over the users that care. As the potential buyer of the device, I will take user freedom into consideration and I will criticise the device if it's not up to my standards. Also, users don't care about these restrictions until they do. The user might be completely unaware that there are restrictions on what they can do with the device before they decide to install something like a system-wide ad-blocker (which are becoming more popular) or maybe an app that can download YouTube videos.

geocar 9y ago
> most users don't care The reason most users don't care is that they don't understand what's going on: They've been programmed to believe that law ≥ morality when there exist so many painfully simple - even modern - examples where this cannot possibly be the case. People used to buy a car with the expectation it last 20-30 years and would not think about buying a car that they had to take to the manufacturer for repairs or aftermarket upgrades, after all: You need your car to get to work, and everyone knew if there was a malfunction and the manufacturer refused to repair it under warrantee (like a broken windscreen) you could at least get a competitive best-price repair from an open market of repairmen. Without this, how could you possibly trust the purchase of a car? Now they do, and indeed I know people who rotate cars as often as they exchange their phone for the newest version. If the manufacturer won't repair it for free, they can charge as much as they can get away with - far and above the best price -- and the only reason they can do this is because they have a technical monopoly on some secret keys used to perform updates and upgrades. If there's a user who, given the choice, would protect a manufacturers' "right" to price-gouge them, then they're a fucking idiot.
- true_religion 9y ago
  > People used to buy a car with the expectation it last 20-30 years I can't speak about all people, in all time periods, but most people in the 1960s/70s in the USA were thinking about keeping their cars for 10 years maximum. Cars were dizzyingly cheap in those days, and a highschool student could work part-time during a single summer and buy a new sports car. To me, the only thing that has changed between now and then is the price of vehicles, not the expectation that they're disposable.

by rossy 9y ago

geocar 9y ago

> most users don't care The reason most users don't care is that they don't understand what's going on: They've been programmed to believe that law ≥ morality when there exist so many painfully simple - even modern - examples where this cannot possibly be the case. People used to buy a car with the expectation it last 20-30 years and would not think about buying a car that they had to take to the manufacturer for repairs or aftermarket upgrades, after all: You need your car to get to work, and everyone knew if there was a malfunction and the manufacturer refused to repair it under warrantee (like a broken windscreen) you could at least get a competitive best-price repair from an open market of repairmen. Without this, how could you possibly trust the purchase of a car? Now they do, and indeed I know people who rotate cars as often as they exchange their phone for the newest version. If the manufacturer won't repair it for free, they can charge as much as they can get away with - far and above the best price -- and the only reason they can do this is because they have a technical monopoly on some secret keys used to perform updates and upgrades. If there's a user who, given the choice, would protect a manufacturers' "right" to price-gouge them, then they're a fucking idiot.

true_religion 9y ago
> People used to buy a car with the expectation it last 20-30 years I can't speak about all people, in all time periods, but most people in the 1960s/70s in the USA were thinking about keeping their cars for 10 years maximum. Cars were dizzyingly cheap in those days, and a highschool student could work part-time during a single summer and buy a new sports car. To me, the only thing that has changed between now and then is the price of vehicles, not the expectation that they're disposable.