Might affect you if you stream sports via YouTube:
The Amazon lead story is also an interesting one. Amazon is far from the only company where you don’t really buy something, you just get a license to use it for some unspecified period of time. A lot of software works the same way these days, assuming the company hasn’t gone to a monthly-rental-only business model.
Many Tesla owners have learned that they don’t own the software that enables their cars to run, so they can’t sell their cars without the buyer paying a hefty fee to Tesla.
I recall several stories a year or so ago about schools finding out that the computers they bought for students to use would no longer work because there was a sundown date on them. Not sure if this has been resolved or not.
Also, it isn’t often that I agree with California lawmakers, but I think they’re right to say you can’t call something a ‘purchase’ unless you own it.
What’s likely to happen with the Amazon suit is that it will be settled, the lawyers will get a mega-million dollar check, consumers might get a $1.50 off coupon from Amazon on their next video ‘purchase’, Amazon will add another 500 words to a 10,000 word disclaimer than nobody reads anyway, Jeff Bezos will buy another yacht, and his next marriage will occur in space because no city in the world will want to host it.
I felt bad for farmers who had to fight for their “right to repair”
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64206913
as the software would not “brick” the implement if you used a non-John Deere part or did the repair yourself.
Obviously the company should have some release in liability of the non-Deere part causes harm, but they shouldn’t just prohibit it.
Apple does that with non-Apple accessories, which I think they get away with because they made it clear at time of purchase.
Looks like YouTube and Fox have come to terms, though no specifics other than it being a multi-year deal. Might lead to another YouTube rate increase, sources speculate.
There are too many things that aren’t part of the appleverse. I can stream to my smart TV from my iPhone, but I can’t easily get the sound from the Hulu app on my smart TV to my Home Pods. (I can through an Apple TV unit, but it is more work than it needs to be to set it up each time, and I don’t always use the Apple TV unit, because it has other issues that make it more work to use, like having to use the TOTALLY BRAINDEAD Apple remote interface, and that’s considering that the new Apple remote and iPhone app are much better than the old one was.)
And HP put chips in their toner cartridges and firmware in their printers so you can’t use off-brand or after-market cartridges