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   Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jun-2023 19:06:33 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

   Don't you love proprietary software and trillion $ proprietary software corporations that really owns & controls 'yours'? 🤣 https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/15/amazon_echo_disabled_allegation/

   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jun-2023 19:06:24 JST 翠星石

     in reply to

     • Simon 🐮
     @lightweight @Firesphere The proprietary plan just writes itself...
     
     >orig source (behind paywall)
     I'd like to note that the .onion version of the site is actually usable and has no paywall: https://www.nytimesn7cgmftshazwhfgzm37qxb44r64ytbb2dj3x62d2lljsciiyd.onion/2017/05/10/technology/techs-frightful-five-theyve-got-us.html
     
     >but maybe it already has, and we just don't realise it yet
     Proprietary software by default is screwing you, simply because it's proprietary.
     
     Of course the developer and other parties will eventually getting around to screwing you harder.
   • Embed this notice
     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jun-2023 19:06:26 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     • Simon 🐮

     @Firesphere yes, it does so implicitly, if it's proprietary. If it hasn't screwed us yet, there's still time. (but maybe it already has, and we just don't realise it yet).

   • Embed this notice
     Simon 🐮 (firesphere@cloudisland.nz)'s status on Saturday, 17-Jun-2023 19:06:31 JST Simon 🐮

     in reply to

     @lightweight I am so pissed my digital power meter means my data is now in a probably public aws bucket.

     And no way for me to read this data...

     Corporate shit sucks

   • Embed this notice
     翠星石 (suiseiseki@freesoftwareextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jun-2023 11:32:40 JST 翠星石

     in reply to
     @lightweight Decent article, but I have a few interjections :3
     
     A more correct statement would be: "Proprietary software, is inherently unethical, as it results in undesirable incentives, a fundamental power imbalance and exploits the users" - but I guess the target audience will flatly refuse to realize that all proprietary software is malware by design (I've looked long and hard for unicorn proprietary software that I can say doesn't have malicious features, but unicorns don't seem to exist), so I guess a statement that's close, but leaves the final realization part to the reader is better.
     
     >At best, they accept a Copyright License (an End User License Agreement or EULA) which defines the terms under which the user may use the proprietary software.
     Copyright law thankfully does not apply to the usage of software.
     
     It only applies to the copying of such software - as a result, you don't need permission to run an authorized copy of any software however you would like to.
     
     As a result, these companies typically sabotage the functionality of the software via timebombs, phoning home, simultaneous execution limits etc and then try to use contract law in the form of "EULAs" (although the "EULAs" typically include copyright lines, that's not even necessary to include) to give themselves permission to implement such artificial restrictions and try to forbid the removal of such artificial restrictions.
     
     The legal validity of most "EULAs" is questionable as I haven't read an "EULA" that wasn't an unfair contract (but sadly courts are on the side of businesses).
     
     >more correctly called GNU+Linux, given that Linux is only the central kernel while the rest of the operating system owes its viability to the inclusion of the suite of GNU tools, among others
     I would write "more correctly called GNU+Linux, given that Linux is only a central kernel while the rest of the operating system is only viable thanks to the work GNU and other projects have done", considering that GNU is not merely a collection of tools, but it's currently not too bad really.
   • Embed this notice
     Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿 (lightweight@mastodon.nzoss.nz)'s status on Sunday, 18-Jun-2023 11:32:42 JST Dave Lane :flag_tino: 🇳🇿

     in reply to

     • 翠星石
     • Simon 🐮

     @Suiseiseki yup. (I wrote up how/why here: https://davelane.nz/proprietary) @Firesphere