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It's true, under our current legal framework, the free market is supposed to allow customers to choose to buy more user-friendly alternatives sold by competitor
by Hydraulix989 3y ago
It's true, under our current legal framework, the free market is supposed to allow customers to choose to buy more user-friendly alternatives sold by competitors if they aren't happy that one offering is DRMed to hell and back. In practice, how well does that work?
- ShadowBanThis01 3y agoIt doesn't in the USA, because antitrust laws are seldom enforced. Hence "inflation" and shit like this.
- TeMPOraL 3y agoAntitrust law doesn't help when "fucking over the customer" is a local minimum for the whole market. Everyone will independently arrive at the "solution", and outcompete those who won't.
- lazide 3y agoAnd unfortunately, that is the local minima for most markets.
- michaelmior 3y agoAntitrust is also difficult to enforce. I would rather see laws that require manufactures to provide a reasonable amount of local control for devices. Aside from avoiding situations like this, it also avoids bricking devices when services are shut down. It also seems perhaps easier to enforce although defining what constitutes a reasonable level of local control could prove difficult.
- michaelmior 3y agoOften not well of course. I don't think it's reasonable to force manufacturers to allow certain third parties access to their servers. However, I would love to see legislation that requires smart home products to have some reasonable level of local access independent of any servers operated by the manufacturer. This is even better since then you don't get bricked if they decide to shut down the service later.