3 ms·

What good was served here? The products are still stolen and are still going on the books as a loss. Since they can't be used, they're likely going in a dump

What good was served here? The products are still stolen and are still going on the books as a loss. Since they can't be used, they're likely going in a dumpster. And none of this apparently led the arrest of any perpetrators. Hard to imagine what purpose was served here, other than Samsung broadcasting what kind of power they have over devices you own.

rodgerd 5y ago
For a long time Subaru held the unenviable position of being the most stolen car in the country that I live in. They started spraying microdots in the undercoat of their cars, which meant that every single part of the car was traceable. Models from that point on were almost never stolen; earlier ones stayed at the top of the charts. Wrecker's yards were no longer prepared to take the risk of parting out stolen vehicles, and garages weren't prepared to use second-hand parts from stolen vehicles, when it could be traced easily, so criminals stopped stealing those model years.
q-rews 5y ago
I struggle to believe you don’t understand how “stolen goods don’t work” affects society.
josephcsible 5y ago
It reduced the criminals' ability to profit from their crimes.
YinLuck- 5y ago
It makes the theft of TVs less likely in the future. All those looters paid an opportunity cost by stealing those large TVs rather than other items. Next time they loot, they won't go for the TVs.
golergka 5y ago
Game theory. This is not an isolated interaction; actors who might repeat it hear these news and take notes.
pcurve 5y ago
I think it's more about prevention going forward, and devaluing its worth in secondary market. Sure, it might still be worth something, but only in parts. Given how rapidly TV models change, parts = basically worthless.
- userbinator 5y ago
  Look at the various online stores selling parts, and the poorer regions of the world (this includes South Africa), and you'll see that is not true. Especially if they are only killing the "smart" part, the panel is still worth quite a bit. You can get a "universal scaler" board to turn them into dumb but working TVs.
x0x0 5y ago
Same good as phone kill switches -- they reduce the incentive for future thefts. https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/apples-activation-lock-leads-to-big-drops-in-smartphone-theft-worldwide/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/apples-activation-lock-lea...
smoldesu 5y ago
Apple has done this fairly successfully for years. The simple answer is, they'd rather deprive someone else of a good than have it themselves. Same goes for Samsung, and pretty much any other company that weighs their bottom line over general benevolence.
- SilverRed 5y ago
  A similar situation I heard about; a local pizza shop used to have a policy that if an order is messed up, the staff would be allowed to eat it for free. They then changed it so that all messed up orders would have to be thrown directly in to the trash. A waste of that pizza, but they found that order messups reduced dramatically when the staff were not allowed to eat the "mistake". It's the same situation here. You brick a few stolen items and it prevents future theft since there is no longer a reward for it.
lelanthran 5y ago
> Since they can't be used, they're likely going in a dumpster. And thus can't be sold by the looters for a profit.

rodgerd 5y ago

For a long time Subaru held the unenviable position of being the most stolen car in the country that I live in. They started spraying microdots in the undercoat of their cars, which meant that every single part of the car was traceable. Models from that point on were almost never stolen; earlier ones stayed at the top of the charts. Wrecker's yards were no longer prepared to take the risk of parting out stolen vehicles, and garages weren't prepared to use second-hand parts from stolen vehicles, when it could be traced easily, so criminals stopped stealing those model years.

q-rews 5y ago

I struggle to believe you don’t understand how “stolen goods don’t work” affects society.

josephcsible 5y ago

It reduced the criminals' ability to profit from their crimes.

YinLuck- 5y ago

It makes the theft of TVs less likely in the future. All those looters paid an opportunity cost by stealing those large TVs rather than other items. Next time they loot, they won't go for the TVs.

golergka 5y ago

Game theory. This is not an isolated interaction; actors who might repeat it hear these news and take notes.

pcurve 5y ago

I think it's more about prevention going forward, and devaluing its worth in secondary market. Sure, it might still be worth something, but only in parts. Given how rapidly TV models change, parts = basically worthless.

userbinator 5y ago
Look at the various online stores selling parts, and the poorer regions of the world (this includes South Africa), and you'll see that is not true. Especially if they are only killing the "smart" part, the panel is still worth quite a bit. You can get a "universal scaler" board to turn them into dumb but working TVs.

x0x0 5y ago

Same good as phone kill switches -- they reduce the incentive for future thefts. https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/apples-activation-lock-leads-to-big-drops-in-smartphone-theft-worldwide/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/02/11/apples-activation-lock-lea...

smoldesu 5y ago

Apple has done this fairly successfully for years. The simple answer is, they'd rather deprive someone else of a good than have it themselves. Same goes for Samsung, and pretty much any other company that weighs their bottom line over general benevolence.

SilverRed 5y ago
A similar situation I heard about; a local pizza shop used to have a policy that if an order is messed up, the staff would be allowed to eat it for free. They then changed it so that all messed up orders would have to be thrown directly in to the trash. A waste of that pizza, but they found that order messups reduced dramatically when the staff were not allowed to eat the "mistake". It's the same situation here. You brick a few stolen items and it prevents future theft since there is no longer a reward for it.

lelanthran 5y ago

> Since they can't be used, they're likely going in a dumpster. And thus can't be sold by the looters for a profit.