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This seems like an easy problem to solve. Require companies to open source at least the API for any device they discontinue providing service for.
by stult 9y ago
This seems like an easy problem to solve. Require companies to open source at least the API for any device they discontinue providing service for.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoIt does sound easy to solve, unless you start digging into the inevitable workarounds and exceptions to the law. What if service isn't discontinued, but merely suspended? What if the company goes out of business? What if it's purchased, and becomes a different legal entity? What if the service is discontinued as the result of a legal action? What if the API depends on some proprietary technology?
- pc86 9y agoWhat if one license on one dependency prohibits it from being open sourced? "Just open source it!" is a knee-jerk reaction with little bearing on the practical realities.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pavel_lishin 9y agoThere's no way to make this sound non-insulting to the person I originally responded to, but one of my most-hated pet peeves is the "it's easy, just <8 year old's solution to a problem>" comment. "Why don't we just make bad things illegal?"
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- lurker12390879 9y ago"Source available" - ie licensed for end users to build and use, vs "open source" would be a good middle ground for such cases.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoOk; what if a dependency forbids that?
- lurker12390879 9y agoWrite an open source alternative or put the deps under the same license.
- dpark 9y agoWhat if the API is open sourced and it doesn’t matter because the device is not open sourced and provides no way to point it to an equivalent API service?
- pavel_lishin 9y agoI think that's slightly simpler to work around - my mom probably wouldn't be able to do it without help, but most people commenting here could redirect DNS requests to point to your own API.
- dpark 9y agoSure. But assuming Logitech isn’t completely incompetent, that connection will be TLS and the device will refuse to handshake when it receives some random cert that doesn’t match the domain it expects (or is signed by a CA it doesn’t trust).
- TorKlingberg 9y agoOk, the API docs start with: "The devices makes a HTTPS request to product.company.com using a pinned public key." They aren't going to publish their private key or let you control their servers.