3 ms·

> greatly inconvenience people who bought the TV from the bandits It’s stolen property. The subsequent buyers cannot legally own it.

superice 5y ago
Under Dutch law: sure they can. As long as you had no reason to suspect it was a stolen TV (super low price, no receipt even though it was basically new, stuff like that) a party that bought the TV second hand is now the legal owner even if the initial owner gets ahold of the current owner. Under Dutch law the most common thing this applies to is second hand bicycles. If you bought it off a junkie at the train station for 10 bucks, it's probably not yours to keep. Showing up to a house through a Facebook-group and paying something like 100 bucks for a second hand bike would totally qualify though, even if that bike turned out to be stolen.
- msh 5y ago
  I think that varies a lot around the world. Under Danish law even if you were in good faith you will still loose the merchandise. If you were in bad faith you can be punished with a fine or even prison in the most severe cases.
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
The illegality is also inconvenient, but how likely are the cops or whoever are going to inconvenience them about that? For the bandits the disabled TVs is no big deal because they'll probably manage to sell them to "bargain hunters" anyway.
- gruez 5y ago
  The point is to make it harder for the bandits to offload their goods, by ruining their resale value. If someone's selling cheap TVs off the back of a truck, and you know that you'll get to keep it (as in netherlands, see sibling comments), then there's no real incentive for you not to buy it. Who wouldn't want a 75" OLED TV for $1000, no strings attached? On the other hand, if the law was that stolen property was liable to be bricked/seized, then you'd be much more hesitant in buying the TV. Sure, $1000 is still cheaper than paying retail, but if the cops find out you could be out the $1000 and the TV. In response you might not want to buy the TV at all, or are willing to pay less for it ($500 perhaps). The reduced demand/price hurts the bandits.
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    Yeah yeah yeah, but this is S. Africa, a place where laws aren't automatically obeyed, unlike e.g. Singapore. If there is your law, my guess is getting caught "buying stolen goods" is probably not something many people there worry about. Sure there will be straight and narrow citizens, but my guess is, without the disable-tech, the bandits wouldn't really have a problem getting rid of their stolen goods. Even with this tech, my hunch is those TVs will still sell, but at least now the crippling will be a lesson for their bargain-hunting buyers.

superice 5y ago

Under Dutch law: sure they can. As long as you had no reason to suspect it was a stolen TV (super low price, no receipt even though it was basically new, stuff like that) a party that bought the TV second hand is now the legal owner even if the initial owner gets ahold of the current owner. Under Dutch law the most common thing this applies to is second hand bicycles. If you bought it off a junkie at the train station for 10 bucks, it's probably not yours to keep. Showing up to a house through a Facebook-group and paying something like 100 bucks for a second hand bike would totally qualify though, even if that bike turned out to be stolen.

msh 5y ago
I think that varies a lot around the world. Under Danish law even if you were in good faith you will still loose the merchandise. If you were in bad faith you can be punished with a fine or even prison in the most severe cases.

bellyfullofbac 5y ago

The illegality is also inconvenient, but how likely are the cops or whoever are going to inconvenience them about that? For the bandits the disabled TVs is no big deal because they'll probably manage to sell them to "bargain hunters" anyway.

gruez 5y ago
The point is to make it harder for the bandits to offload their goods, by ruining their resale value. If someone's selling cheap TVs off the back of a truck, and you know that you'll get to keep it (as in netherlands, see sibling comments), then there's no real incentive for you not to buy it. Who wouldn't want a 75" OLED TV for $1000, no strings attached? On the other hand, if the law was that stolen property was liable to be bricked/seized, then you'd be much more hesitant in buying the TV. Sure, $1000 is still cheaper than paying retail, but if the cops find out you could be out the $1000 and the TV. In response you might not want to buy the TV at all, or are willing to pay less for it ($500 perhaps). The reduced demand/price hurts the bandits.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Yeah yeah yeah, but this is S. Africa, a place where laws aren't automatically obeyed, unlike e.g. Singapore. If there is your law, my guess is getting caught "buying stolen goods" is probably not something many people there worry about. Sure there will be straight and narrow citizens, but my guess is, without the disable-tech, the bandits wouldn't really have a problem getting rid of their stolen goods. Even with this tech, my hunch is those TVs will still sell, but at least now the crippling will be a lesson for their bargain-hunting buyers.