4 ms·
Devices that rely on cloud infrastructure should be required to carry an expiration date right on the box. "This item guaranteed to receive support until XX/XX/
by causi 3y ago
Devices that rely on cloud infrastructure should be required to carry an expiration date right on the box. "This item guaranteed to receive support until XX/XX/XX"
- denysvitali 3y agoI prefer to have an e-waste law that says that if you stop maintaining the service, you have to open-source it :)
- theK 3y agoAlso a very good option. Ideally it should trigger immediately once a regression happens and at least 12 months prior to service eol (give users time to migrate)
- kubik369 3y agoUnfortunately, this is just wishful thinking. Take an example where a company is going under. If such a law existed, it would be unenforceable as the company does not have the resources and know-how how to do such a thing. After they file for bankrupcy, there is no point in punishing them.
- sokoloff 3y agoSoftware escrow processes could (partially) solve this, at an upfront cost for every company developing and selling such a device (meaning, at a price that will ultimately be paid by consumers).
- malermeister 3y agoSome government agency could be doing the escrow, at no charge to the company.
- sokoloff 3y agoThere is still a process cost to participate in any escrow process, both on an initial and on-going basis. (That's before the blindingly obvious observation that even something provided by the government at no cost at point of use has a cost which is ultimately borne by the people.)
- malermeister 3y agoI don't disagree with either statement, but I think both of those are a price worth paying to avoid having hardware become e-waste because software support was stopped.
- sokoloff 3y agoI agree with that conclusion. I think we'd also need to figure out some durable and stable way to reach a conclusion on "when should the software be published out of escrow?" that handles a bunch of the various edge cases. "What happens to devices that are one-time programmable? What devices are in-scope/out-of-scope? Does this apply to radio firmware as well as general CPU firmware? Is the software license changed alongside the release of code from escrow? Are signing keys also released? Is code released from escrow just because some individual use case is no longer supported by the mainline firmware? [Is a disagreement with a product decision enough to release the old code?]"
- joelfried 3y agoI agree as well, though I don't think we need to figure out all edge cases before the legislation is viable. All we need to do is allow any person who purchased said software a private cause of action in which they can petition a court to release the code. Then a judge could decide based on the merits of the person's need whether the code should be released or not.
- sokoloff 3y agoI think that situation exists now, which is the essential root of the problem. It's too expensive and too unlikely to succeed, but I could sue Chamberlain now arguing that they have breached an implied contract and that the remedy I seek is for them to open-source their code.
- thereddaikon 3y agoYeah open sourcing code sounds nice but that's the pipe dream of the tech literate. A real workable solution would be regulation defining and banning ewaste creation and consumer protection from vendors rug pulling product support. Penalizing deviant practices and incentivizing open industry standards.
- goydefense 3y ago[dead]
- PurpleRamen 3y agoThat will only work for the code the company owns herself. But they can't open source code they licensed themselves, which means they can easily cheat the law by outsourcing their code.
- pmontra 3y agoYes, but if there is a law like that there will be demand for open source components, like drivers, and if there is demand there will be offer.
- PurpleRamen 3y agoBecause that works so well with other laws...
- mindslight 3y agoI'd prefer to have antitrust regulation that stops this bundling of software with hardware from day 1 - ideally applying to both app software, and the embedded software on the device itself. When a product is going end of life, it seems awkward to enforce a requirement on companies and difficult to get traction for a libre development community.
- baq 3y agoonce the company goes bankrupt there might be no one left to open source the leftovers if that's even legally possible due to NDAs, 3rd party licenses, etc.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 3y agoThen it should be anticipated. Just like a company is required to pay employees what it owes them before it eventual shutdown, even in case of bankruptcy.
- marcosdumay 3y agoSo they publish the crypto certificate that allows opening anybody's door?
- cferry 3y agoUnless it's security by obscurity, releasing the source code of the entire infrastructure should never result in all systems becoming compromised. So, assuming the API is run over HTTPS with authentication tokens, Chamberlain wouldn't need to (and should under no circumstances) release its SSL certificates' private keys. Instead, the firmware and server infrastructure should be easily modified by the user to point to their own servers (or get rid of intermediate servers and directly be usable on the local network, which is the only good solution anyway).
- simbolit 3y agoIf that exists, the company should be shut down for gross negligence, even before they go bankrupt.
- j45 3y agoThe cloud is some one else’s computers and internet. That internet connection for cloud services for smart gear always costs someone. Smart home devices that can’t be locally hosted or easily made to be locally hosted should be avoided. There’s no reason a light switch that normally works for 10-20 years will only work for 2-5 due to cloud connectivity. Luckily for the time being a lot of the providers can be reflashed with Tuyo based firmwares.
- PinguTS 3y agoThere are lots of devices these days that rely on cloud infrastructure, like Apple devices, Teslas. Its becoming more devices. The same for software. Even Microsoft is going fully Cloud. Just had problems to activate my MS Office for Mac Business 2019, which I bought in physical. They now require on @outlook.com email address to be able to activate. Otherwise I can't use my "box" software.
- causi 3y agoThe same pirated copy of Office 2007 has been doing me fine for well over a decade at this point.
- theGeatZhopa 3y agoI updated it to version 2010. Much much better. Jack Sparrow ahead:) Just do it. You won't regret it. I also bought office 2016 cheap at some point in time. That's even better. Faster, nicer UI.. just to give you feedback xD
- PinguTS 3y agoWe are a small company. I don't use pirated software. I like on-premise software over cloud solutions. Adobe and Zoom ae the only cloud solutions we use. Zoom is obviously. But I look on how to get rid of Adobe, while Adobe Stock has no real competition as the bought Fotolia, which we used before.
- simbolit 3y agoSerious question: did you try pexels? for most of my stock photo needs they are okay (not great but okay), and all pictures are public domain and free of charge. They don't have stock video tho. :(
- dormento 3y agoOnce again, the paying customer has a worse experience. The Gaben has spoke: "piracy is more about convenience than price"
- 3y ago
- rhplus 3y agoThe date should at least match the expiration date of any root CA public certificates installed on the device.
- dormento 3y agoI remember reading about someone who could not brew coffee anymore because the cert on their "smart coffee maker" had expired and the business had gone under.. they discovered that by attempting to use wireshark, of all things, to take a peek. I thought "this moment right here is where people will catch up to it, no way we can go even further". This was like 7+ years ago. https://twitter.com/internetofshit https://twitter.com/internetofshit