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Good. I don't know the details of this case, but they don't even matter. Whether it's Facebook nuking all your Oculus Quest content because you were at a pro-d

by veidr 6y ago

Good. I don't know the details of this case, but they don't even matter. Whether it's Facebook nuking all your Oculus Quest content because you were at a pro-democracy Hong Kong protest, or Apple remotely deleting all your music and apps because their fuzzy-logic automation incorrectly correlated the pattern of your network traffic with illegal activity, there has to be some recourse — and in the US, that recourse should obviously be the courts.

nicbou 6y ago
I think that many people are now realising the cost of putting all of your eggs in the same basket, particularly when the company that owns the account offers no recourse that involves human intervention.
- mark_l_watson 6y ago
  I split purchases for books, movies, and audiobooks across Apple, Kindle, Audible (also Amazon), and Google Play. This is a nuisance, but I am spreading the risk of loss due to no fault of my own.
  - eindiran 6y ago
    The golden age of "I don't bother pirating anything anymore" is rapidly coming to a close, and tech companies have killed it. Ever-worsening DRM, paying creators amounts asymptotically approaching zero, nuking accounts with thousands of dollars invested into the ecosystem (because the algorithmic gods saw a pattern in clouds), balkanizing content until streaming services just become cable, increasing prices while decreasing quality of service, triple-dipping their customers (why just have them pay for your service when you can get them to pay for your service, serve them ads, and sell profiles of their browsing habits!).
    - fckthisguy 6y ago
      Exactly this! I used to pirate everything because it wasn't available easily. We're rapidly approaching the same scenario. It's not "thieves" not wanting to pay; it's normal folks not wanting to desks with the growing consumer hostility.
  - carlmr 6y ago
    I try to buy as many books as possible as paperback.
  - boojums 6y ago
    For archiving ebooks you have purchased, you might want to check out Kobo's book store instead of Amazon. Some publishers chose not to use DRM at all or use Adobe's. Depending on the jurisdiction you live in, downloading the file with Adobe Digital Editions and stripping DRM with Calibre and the DeDRM plugin[0] can be an option as well. It take a bit more effort, but prevents the store from pulling an Amazon on your purchased ebooks like they did with 1984 a while back. [0] https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/ https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    When it comes to buying content, I think I'd rather have a 1x chance of losing all of it (and going on a torrent spree) rather than a 3x chance of losing a third of it (and going on a torrent spree).
- granshaw 6y ago
  It’s a tradeoff - you’re starting a business. It’s risky and time consuming enough as it is. You go with what’s quickest and where the users are. Thinking of vendor lock in is low on your list of priorities and rightly so. When you grow big enough then it takes higher precedence but till then there’s bigger fish to fry
- jukabo 6y ago
  This is a great use case of the ethereum block chain and NFTs. Anyone that says NFTs are a solution looking for a problem, here you go.
canadianfella 6y ago
> Whether it's Facebook nuking all your Oculus Quest content because you were at a pro-democracy Hong Kong protest Did this actually happen?
ksec 6y ago
We need to swing back from Cloud Storage and Services hosting our Data as hostage. ( Time Capsule for iOS ) Or may be we could go back to the simplest form. Physical Media. I think there is something to be learn from the Japanese on how they value something physical.
- redwall_hp 6y ago
  Imagine if Time Capsule was brought back more as a NAS: it's your home router, so they can automatically deal with port forwarding and dynamic DNS. iCloud could transparently connect you to your home storage wherever you happen to be, and your files could be stored locally instead of on servers Apple has.
  - ksec 6y ago
    That is exactly what I have been crying for all along close to 10 years. And I am willing to pay. But Apple doesn't like this because it offers no recurring revenue. ( They could still offer Off Site backup as services which i will also pay. )
  - lamontcg 6y ago
    This is exactly how I wanted federated auth to work. Everyone would have their own DNS domain (this was in a science fiction reality where DNSSec was very secure). That DNS domain would be exposed by their firewall, it would serve a single static domain. Something like MX records would be setup for simple auth services and one-time payment transactions. So when I needed to login to a site instead of talking to facebook, the site would talk to the root servers which would hook them up with my domain on my router. The for a credit card transaction I could authz a transaction between the remote website, my router with my information and the credit card payment provider, so that the website never saw any details. This would be wrapped with a service so that the home user never hand managed their DNS zone similarly to the way NAS appliances often run linux and NFS without people needing to poke into it. But it needs to not be written by a FAANG company and needs to piggyback on open standards. Maybe DNS isn't the exact right tool, but it needs to look something very much like that with a hierarchy of open registrars. OpenID is kind of close to the start of that, but I don't like the way it piggybacks on e-mail addresses and I think it needs to be its own thing and simpler to manage.
Black101 6y ago
That is one reason why I don't want to buy an Oculus for my child...
- veidr 6y ago
  Me too. I find the business model disgusting, even if it wasn’t Facebook. But it _is_ Facebook, one of the most profoundly unethical companies of consequence, which has caused harm across the world at immense scale. I don’t like Apple’s App Store or Nintendo’s region locking or other things like that, but I don’t have literal _moral_ qualms about buying their devices. I really do, with Facebook. But the Oculus Quest 2 hardware is so incredibly good — so far ahead of anything else available — that I do buy it so my kids (and I) can use it (with my own FB account, which I have specifically for this perfect). Depriving my kids of the insanely rad tech while it is contemporary and so superior to other competitors, for me presents its own moral dilemma. So I strike this uneasy balance. But it does make me feel very uncomfortable.
  - Karsteski 6y ago
    Just a heads-up, the Valve Index is significantly better in terms of tracking and overall performance compared to the Quest 2. I've had both. Unfortunately the Quest 2 really is a much better value for your money, because of course it is subsidized by Facebook's extremely invasive data collection as well as their attempts to dominate the VR market. I'm not trying to make any moral judgements for you, but I did for myself. I sold my Quest 2 within weeks of buying it, for a Valve Index instead. I wasn't even using my own Facebook account as I don't have one, but I was literally waking up out of guilt for owning a product I have serious ethical problems with. You could even buy a used Valve Index to save money if that's a priority!

by veidr 6y ago

nicbou 6y ago

I think that many people are now realising the cost of putting all of your eggs in the same basket, particularly when the company that owns the account offers no recourse that involves human intervention.

mark_l_watson 6y ago
I split purchases for books, movies, and audiobooks across Apple, Kindle, Audible (also Amazon), and Google Play. This is a nuisance, but I am spreading the risk of loss due to no fault of my own.
- eindiran 6y ago
  The golden age of "I don't bother pirating anything anymore" is rapidly coming to a close, and tech companies have killed it. Ever-worsening DRM, paying creators amounts asymptotically approaching zero, nuking accounts with thousands of dollars invested into the ecosystem (because the algorithmic gods saw a pattern in clouds), balkanizing content until streaming services just become cable, increasing prices while decreasing quality of service, triple-dipping their customers (why just have them pay for your service when you can get them to pay for your service, serve them ads, and sell profiles of their browsing habits!).
  - fckthisguy 6y ago
    Exactly this! I used to pirate everything because it wasn't available easily. We're rapidly approaching the same scenario. It's not "thieves" not wanting to pay; it's normal folks not wanting to desks with the growing consumer hostility.
- carlmr 6y ago
  I try to buy as many books as possible as paperback.
- boojums 6y ago
  For archiving ebooks you have purchased, you might want to check out Kobo's book store instead of Amazon. Some publishers chose not to use DRM at all or use Adobe's. Depending on the jurisdiction you live in, downloading the file with Adobe Digital Editions and stripping DRM with Calibre and the DeDRM plugin[0] can be an option as well. It take a bit more effort, but prevents the store from pulling an Amazon on your purchased ebooks like they did with 1984 a while back. [0] https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/ https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  When it comes to buying content, I think I'd rather have a 1x chance of losing all of it (and going on a torrent spree) rather than a 3x chance of losing a third of it (and going on a torrent spree).
granshaw 6y ago
It’s a tradeoff - you’re starting a business. It’s risky and time consuming enough as it is. You go with what’s quickest and where the users are. Thinking of vendor lock in is low on your list of priorities and rightly so. When you grow big enough then it takes higher precedence but till then there’s bigger fish to fry
jukabo 6y ago
This is a great use case of the ethereum block chain and NFTs. Anyone that says NFTs are a solution looking for a problem, here you go.

canadianfella 6y ago

> Whether it's Facebook nuking all your Oculus Quest content because you were at a pro-democracy Hong Kong protest Did this actually happen?

ksec 6y ago

We need to swing back from Cloud Storage and Services hosting our Data as hostage. ( Time Capsule for iOS ) Or may be we could go back to the simplest form. Physical Media. I think there is something to be learn from the Japanese on how they value something physical.

redwall_hp 6y ago
Imagine if Time Capsule was brought back more as a NAS: it's your home router, so they can automatically deal with port forwarding and dynamic DNS. iCloud could transparently connect you to your home storage wherever you happen to be, and your files could be stored locally instead of on servers Apple has.
- ksec 6y ago
  That is exactly what I have been crying for all along close to 10 years. And I am willing to pay. But Apple doesn't like this because it offers no recurring revenue. ( They could still offer Off Site backup as services which i will also pay. )
- lamontcg 6y ago
  This is exactly how I wanted federated auth to work. Everyone would have their own DNS domain (this was in a science fiction reality where DNSSec was very secure). That DNS domain would be exposed by their firewall, it would serve a single static domain. Something like MX records would be setup for simple auth services and one-time payment transactions. So when I needed to login to a site instead of talking to facebook, the site would talk to the root servers which would hook them up with my domain on my router. The for a credit card transaction I could authz a transaction between the remote website, my router with my information and the credit card payment provider, so that the website never saw any details. This would be wrapped with a service so that the home user never hand managed their DNS zone similarly to the way NAS appliances often run linux and NFS without people needing to poke into it. But it needs to not be written by a FAANG company and needs to piggyback on open standards. Maybe DNS isn't the exact right tool, but it needs to look something very much like that with a hierarchy of open registrars. OpenID is kind of close to the start of that, but I don't like the way it piggybacks on e-mail addresses and I think it needs to be its own thing and simpler to manage.

Black101 6y ago

That is one reason why I don't want to buy an Oculus for my child...

veidr 6y ago
Me too. I find the business model disgusting, even if it wasn’t Facebook. But it _is_ Facebook, one of the most profoundly unethical companies of consequence, which has caused harm across the world at immense scale. I don’t like Apple’s App Store or Nintendo’s region locking or other things like that, but I don’t have literal _moral_ qualms about buying their devices. I really do, with Facebook. But the Oculus Quest 2 hardware is so incredibly good — so far ahead of anything else available — that I do buy it so my kids (and I) can use it (with my own FB account, which I have specifically for this perfect). Depriving my kids of the insanely rad tech while it is contemporary and so superior to other competitors, for me presents its own moral dilemma. So I strike this uneasy balance. But it does make me feel very uncomfortable.
- Karsteski 6y ago
  Just a heads-up, the Valve Index is significantly better in terms of tracking and overall performance compared to the Quest 2. I've had both. Unfortunately the Quest 2 really is a much better value for your money, because of course it is subsidized by Facebook's extremely invasive data collection as well as their attempts to dominate the VR market. I'm not trying to make any moral judgements for you, but I did for myself. I sold my Quest 2 within weeks of buying it, for a Valve Index instead. I wasn't even using my own Facebook account as I don't have one, but I was literally waking up out of guilt for owning a product I have serious ethical problems with. You could even buy a used Valve Index to save money if that's a priority!