On 2 October 2011 18:57, Nick Holland <n...@holland-consulting.net> wrote: > If they got your money and you are complaining about something > you KNEW was the case at the time of purchase (or you didn't return the > machine when you found out the "limitation")
That's why manufacturers of restrictive, DRM-ridden hardware try their darnedest to keep it fairly *quiet* about what it is they're doing. Just as with Monsanto's unlabelled GM foods, if you *don't* know at the time of purchase, you *can't* make an informed decision. That's why it's a *secret*, and that's why end users and people who aren't sworn to secrecy with NDAs, etc. are kept largely in the dark. And if you, the end user, are kept in the dark until after the end of the warranty period, then good luck returning that clunker. I may have posted this before, but: http://www.the-fifth-hope.org/mp3/drm.mp3 (NB: There are a few silent secs at the start.) http://ompldr.org/vOXVrNw/Michael-Sims-speech.pdf http://ompldr.org/vOXVrOA/Michael-Sims-speech.discussion.pdf > A lot of us in the open source world do a lot with "recycled" computers > -- computers that have lived out their first life cycle, and now being > used for less demanding applications (i.e., non-windows). This requires > a little work on our part -- we need to make sure that decision makers > know that any machine locked into the Windows world (or even a > particular version of Windows) are of near zero value to reusers. When > they point out that they already hand the old machines over to recyclers > for free, point out the recyclers expect to make some money off their > action -- if they can't, your purchasers will need to PAY (or pay more) > for system disposal. This may be a harder change than not personally > buying a new machine from a restrictive vendor, but make it clear that > you see their talk about "green" computers complete bullshit if they are > not going to make it possible to recycle-into-production older computers > (another example: the manufacturers who now prevent you from using disks > they didn't provide in their machines, or prevent you from buying their > proprietary disk carriers without their over-priced, under-performing > disks. Value of machine after warranty expiration: Near zero). > > Nick. This is such an excellent, excellent point; I'd like to quote and repost that all over the place. May I? regards, --ropers
