EULAs should just be prohibited entirely. A sale is a sale is a sale: you execute a contract with the retailer to exchange money for a good, and then you own that good no matter what some bullshit adhesion-contract EULA claims when the manufacturer tries to spring it on you after the fact. The manufacturer was never a party to the sale; they don’t get to have a say in its terms!
The argument is they’re selling you a service. So you’d have to ban Eula on services and that’s just not feasible. Instead, limits on what they can and can’t do are needed.
But that’s not the same thing as having an EULA for the entire device as a whole, including its local functions that don’t rely on a connection to Roku servers!
The EULA is for the OS, not the physical hardware. So all it takes is them updating the OS for “security reasons” and they can sneak a new EULA into the deal, locking you out of using that OS on new versions if that’s what they want to do. Unless you flash a new OS to your TV you’re stuck using their software and following the rules of that software.
And there’s really no way around that without really hurting legitimate software licensing situations other than maybe making it literally illegal to have devices ship with Auto-Updates enabled, forcing user consent to update anything, which sounds like a great way to piss off the general public.
Hmmm… Maybe legally all devices must be flashable easily without removing or modifying physical bits of the device? That way if an OS Update goes a way you don’t like then you can flash an old version or DIFFERENT OS entirely onto the device you own, regardless of if it’s a TV, phone, microwave, whatever
grue@lemmy.world 3 months ago
EULAs should just be prohibited entirely. A sale is a sale is a sale: you execute a contract with the retailer to exchange money for a good, and then you own that good no matter what some bullshit adhesion-contract EULA claims when the manufacturer tries to spring it on you after the fact. The manufacturer was never a party to the sale; they don’t get to have a say in its terms!
Sneptaur@pawb.social 3 months ago
The argument is they’re selling you a service. So you’d have to ban Eula on services and that’s just not feasible. Instead, limits on what they can and can’t do are needed.
grue@lemmy.world 3 months ago
So what? Their argument is wrong.
gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
The EULA is for the OS, not the physical hardware. So all it takes is them updating the OS for “security reasons” and they can sneak a new EULA into the deal, locking you out of using that OS on new versions if that’s what they want to do. Unless you flash a new OS to your TV you’re stuck using their software and following the rules of that software.
And there’s really no way around that without really hurting legitimate software licensing situations other than maybe making it literally illegal to have devices ship with Auto-Updates enabled, forcing user consent to update anything, which sounds like a great way to piss off the general public.
Hmmm… Maybe legally all devices must be flashable easily without removing or modifying physical bits of the device? That way if an OS Update goes a way you don’t like then you can flash an old version or DIFFERENT OS entirely onto the device you own, regardless of if it’s a TV, phone, microwave, whatever
Sneptaur@pawb.social 3 months ago
Hey I’m not saying I agree with it, just pointing out how you would have to attack it