Before you say it should be strictly illegal, consider a few consequences: - You're going to end up paying for that support in the cost of the phone or through

Before you say it should be strictly illegal, consider a few consequences: - You're going to end up paying for that support in the cost of the phone or through annual licensing anyway. Would you really prefer that vs buying a new phone with latest gizmos vs buying a second-hand phone with semi-latest gizmos? - You've just created a moat for larger companies who can absorb the costs of maintaining older systems. The only issue I see here is the bot-net threat. That's a negative externality that no one's responsible for currently, and we can definitely be more creative about the policy than forcing people to support old tech. Maybe we force users to run software without known vulnerabilities? Perhaps then people would then demand more open technologies, but perhaps it'll further entrench the disposable tech paradigm. Maybe we just force companies to open source unmaintained software? Maybe we do this in tandem with above? Maybe we only penalize companies and organizations with a certain sized user base? The possibility space is really massive, and we technologists really need to sit down and think through the ramifications of each proposal.