Did they sell any of these things in the EU, especially the UK? If so the EULA probably isn’t enforceable, in the EU, unless you were able to read it before purchasing the goods and even then some contract terms are legally defined as non-binding.
I thought I read somewhere some years ago that shrink wrap contracts were declared null and void by a court in the US too, perhaps someone with more certain knowledge can comment.
Makes one really enthusiastic about buying a Google self-driving car, right?
There IS a solution to having manufacturers wield increasingly draconian control over the components that make our increasingly technology dependant lifestyles vulnerable to manipulation:
Open Source Hardware.
The hitch is that making hardware locally or on a small scale is “cost prohibitive” although having a “Brazil” type future seems to be the alternative…
Making all the stuff you need from open digital templates might become possible in the not-too-distant future: you may wish to take a look at this open source project:
Cubespawn
Here is a photo of our latest progress
CubeSpawn Modules
The comment about android isn’t really fair. Android is open source, so there’s really no risk of it magically no longer being supported. Even if google kills it tomorrow, there will still be support. Someone else will pick up the mantle. Hell, look at all the branches we currently have, (cyanogen or aokp for example), that are not at all managed by google, that people can run on their phones.
On top of which, using services like google docs (or telling people not to) because they may be discontinued in the future is also silly in my opinion. Docs are docs, they’re pretty damn easy to move things around to another service if necessary, unless it’s something that depends heavily on formatting, in which case yes, you should probably be paying a bunch of money for word or something where you will always have access to that copy.
Similarly, when I set the alarm on my Fitbit the Fitbit needs to be connected to my phone via Bluetooth… but if the phone doesn’t have internet access it won’t work.
My question there is - will your home insurance company hold you or google responsible in that scenario, maybe, for not using the alarm as its manufacturer intended?
Well I don’t consider Android for a number of other reasons, so maybe open source will step in when Google turns its attention to the other shiny objects.
Google docs as you describe is fine for personal use. I deal with and make recommendations for organizations of 100-25,000 users. Movings those millions of documents and revisions and ensuring they are all gone from Google is far from an easy task.
Gmail and google docs are fine for personal use, I guess, (although I don’t use either). But Google have shown themselves not to be a serious or trusted player in the enterprise market. I can only imagine Samsung and other android licensees must feel the same way. Google does not appear to be run by professional adults.
Perhaps if having an alarm is a requirement for your insurance - I don’t know. My experience has been that alarms generally get you a small discount, but its not like they won’t pay (and then drop you) if you get burgled because Google had shut off your alarm.
If your IoT door lock had malfunctioned and left all the doors unlocked, though, I guess you’d have a harder time making a claim.
Considering that open source already does step in, that the entire android project is open source, this seems very likely.
The context of your google docs issue makes more sense now, i’d never recommend anything cloud for a big company like that. Give them something installed where they don’t need to worry about servers other than their own, makes sense.
Samsung has been talking about making their own OS for their phones.. but so far it’s come to nothing. None of these companies however is locked to android, except those working with google on the nexus line. I don’t particularly appreciate google’s willingness to “kill” things the way they do, but I also don’t like the walled garden that is apple either, so i’d rather take the open source option, thanks.
And when you discover that the entire android project isn’t open source, you can install CyanogenMod open source fork instead. If your phone allows it; carriers like Verizon and AT&T blocked OEMs from releasing retail devices with unlocked bootloaders.
And when you discover that CyanogenMod requires proprietary software and drivers to work with your phone regardless, you can install the Replicant CyanogenMod fork instead. If it works with your phone. And you don’t need GPS, 3D graphics or other features.
Assuming you’re an expert on this stuff and have a lot of spare time.
I would point out that cyanogen runs on pretty much all the popular phones, and most of said popular phones are fully supported. I would also point out that I meant this as a last resort, that it will be picked up and supported all the more if google dropped android, using the fact that people are already supporting it as evidence. Also, on top of the project being (okay if not fully nearly fully) open source, if google’s servers were to stop hosting android your device would not be rendered useless overnight, the os would not magically disappear, you’d just stop getting updates.
But this is completely off the original topic so i’m going to stop before this completely de-rails. It’s a shitty situation, and i really do hate google’s love of dropping things (I still miss google reader =( ).
So now that the things are bricked, not supported and the warranty has expired - is it still covered by the DRM or is it just a dead object waiting for someone to bring it back to life?
It’s still covered by the DRM. That’s the problem. There are still locks in place that we’re not allowed to break (legally). Someone may break them anyway… but that’s technically illegal.
Google apparently may offer ‘compensation’.
This reaffirms my opinion of lifetime subscriptions and things that run through the cloud for no good reason. I’m not buying your hardware unless the pricing is nominal (I’d rather just rent it as part of the subscription, to be honest), and I’ll pay monthly.
I don’t particularly want my home ‘automated’ anyway. But why would I trust Nest instead? What stops exactly the same thing happening when the next shiny thing comes along and Google gets bored?
Google kills again. Here’s a page in memory to google’s victims.
I think “Don’t be evil” was meant as ironic
And crank up the silent jambox!
Tech companies are treading on dangerous ground. They once they enjoyed the protection of DRM laws, but when they venture into consumer products that people depend upon then they are opening themselves up to product liability lawsuits and even consumer fraud investigations if they deliberately take away functionality expected of a consumer product. End User Agreements aren’t worth the paper they are written on when someone suffers physical harm from home automation being bricked so you have to buy a different brand of product. Homes are not smart phones that have short product life cycles. I expect lawsuits over this.
Google, welcome to the world car makers and airplane manufacturers have to live in. You are liable for your products as long as they exist.
Makes me worry about being able to play current Gen games in just a few years.
Wat
I say wat.
Did no one read their motto and think, “Hey, is this evil?”
Two other options:
Why not break the DRM and enforce said break through the democratic process?
