
New technology is eroding your right to tinker with things you own - js2
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21723679-digital-technology-eroding-peoples-right-tinker-things-they-own-end-ownership
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moepstar
Name and shame the companies that use those techniques, then vote with your
wallets and never buy their products again.

This is a problem that will mostly solve itself, given enough time...

Oh and never get tired to tell this to others, less technical folks why they
shouldn't buy X from brand Y because Z, even if they don't fully understand
why - tell them to give you a call, if in doubt...

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raarts
Unfortunately this simplistic strategy doesn't work in many cases, that's why
these victories in court are important.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/08/17/432...](http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/08/17/432601480/diy-
tractor-repair-runs-afoul-of-copyright-law)

~~~
candiodari
Exactly. The most irritating thing to me these days is Apple's policies
regarding running your own code on my iPad, but it's not like any other
company is much better about it (even Microsoft is getting back into that game
with Win10S, despite the massive court loss it got them back then).

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throwaway2016a
Given the choice I always go with more open...

\- I have an Android because their app ecosystem is more open.

\- I have an Amazon Echo because you can write your own skills for it.

\- I have a Vera for home automation instead of those "Smart Hubs" because it
runs Linux and I can SSH into it.

\- My Firewall is a homebuilt box running pfSense

\- etc

But I have long given up on the idea of being able to open up any of my
consumer electronics and hack away at them.

~~~
gmiller123456
_I have an Amazon Echo because you can write your own skills for it._

Yea, I got Google Home as a gift. I'm totally baffled by how locked up it is.
You're not listening to/interacting with anything by anyone who doesn't have
some type of agreement with Google.

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westmeal
Wait does this mean I was committing a crime when fixing game consoles and
laptops? No way...

~~~
fenwick67
Depends on what you're doing.

If you had to, for example, re-flash the firmware on a PS3, you probably broke
the law. If you replaced the eject button, you didn't.

You only violate DMCA if you break some form of "copyright protection"
mechanism.

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edem
How to get past the paywall?

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Digit-Al
Open the link in a Private Browser window. This will prevent the site from
reading your cookies, so it will not know how many articles you have read.
Either that or find and delete the relevant cookie.

