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1. Embed this notice
   Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:32:58 JST Cory Doctorow

   in reply to

   This is the root of all the #RightToRepair shenanigans. Sure, companies withhold access to diagnostic codes and parts, but codes can be extracted and parts can be cloned. The real teeth in blocking repair comes from the law, not the tech.

   8/

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:32:59 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     Now, this scam wouldn't work if you could just put things back the way they were before the "update," which is where the DRM comes in. A thicket of IP laws make reverse-engineering DRM-encumbered products into a *felony*. Combine always-on network access with indiscriminate criminalization of user modification, and the enshittification will follow, as surely as night follows day.

     7/

     HistoPol (#HP) 🥥 🌴 repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:33:00 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     But I was right. The ability to change features, prices, and availability of things you've *already paid for* is a powerful temptation to corporations. Inkjet printers were always a sleazy business, but once these printers got directly connected to the internet, companies like HP started pushing out "security updates" that modified your printer to make it reject the third-party ink you'd paid for:

     https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

     6/

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:33:03 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     > BE SURE TO FACTOR IN THE PRICE OF BUYING ALL YOUR MEDIA OVER AND OVER AGAIN. AT NO TIME IN HISTORY HAS ANY ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY GOTTEN A SWEET DEAL LIKE THIS FROM THE ELECTRONICS PEOPLE, BUT THIS TIME THEY’RE GETTING A TOTAL WALK. HERE, PUT THIS IN YOUR MOUTH, IT’LL MUFFLE YOUR WHIMPERS.

     *Wired* didn't take me up on this suggestion.

     5/

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:33:04 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     I proposed that all *Wired* endorsements for DRM-encumbered products should come with this disclaimer:

     > WARNING: THIS DEVICE’S FEATURES ARE SUBJECT TO REVOCATION WITHOUT NOTICE, ACCORDING TO TERMS SET OUT IN SECRET NEGOTIATIONS. YOUR INVESTMENT IS CONTINGENT ON THE GOODWILL OF THE WORLD’S MOST PARANOID, TECHNOPHOBIC ENTERTAINMENT EXECS. THIS DEVICE AND DEVICES LIKE IT ARE TYPICALLY USED TO CHARGE YOU FOR THINGS YOU USED TO GET FOR FREE.

     4/

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:33:06 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     I replied in public, telling him that he'd misunderstood. This wasn't an issue of ideological purity - it was about good reviewing practice. *Wired* was telling readers to buy a product because it had features x, y and z, but at any time in the future, without warning, without recourse, the vendor could switch off any of those features:

     https://memex.craphound.com/2004/12/29/cory-responds-to-wired-editor-on-drm/

     3/

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:33:07 JST Cory Doctorow

     in reply to

     If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

     https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/08/playstationed/#tyler-james-hill

     2/

   • Embed this notice
     Cory Doctorow (pluralistic@mamot.fr)'s status on Friday, 08-Dec-2023 23:33:08 JST Cory Doctorow

     • WIRED :press:

     20 years ago, I got in a (friendly) public spat with #ChrisAnderson, who was then the editor in chief of @WIRED. I'd publicly noted my disappointment with glowing *Wired* reviews of #DRM-encumbered digital devices, prompting Anderson to call me unrealistic for expecting the magazine to condemn gadgets for their DRM:

     https://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2004/12/is_drm_evil.html

     1/

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
     Free Software Foundation repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Normal for '24 😷🇪🇺🍸 (jbond@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 04:37:52 JST Normal for '24 😷🇪🇺🍸

     in reply to

     • WIRED :press:

     @pluralistic @WIRED

     17 years ago