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Smart devices are turning out to be a poor investment
(www.androidpolice.com)
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this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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I'm literally buying new smart plugs today because the manufacturer discontinued the firmware. They're still in perfect condition, and the exact same set up that I've always had. It's extremely frustrating.
To reduce e-waste, a law should be passed that if hardware is abandoned, it should be open sourced.
I wonder how you'd enforce that though. Sure, for companies that just discontinue a line of products you could force them to open up their code. But what about companies that go under and just fold? Unless someone takes the time to open it up as the company goes under, there is no forcing function that I could think of?
Maybe an escrow of sorts but that seems like a hackers wet dream for proprietary software.
If a law is passed, part of the bankruptcy process is releasing the code or selling off that division to another company.