273
Roku Issues a Mandatory Terms of Service Update That You Must Agree To or You Can't Use Your Roku
(cordcuttersnews.com)
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
273 points (98.2% liked)
Technology
1163 readers
359 users here now
Which posts fit here?
Anything that is at least tangentially connected to the technology, social media platforms, informational technologies and tech policy.
Rules
1. English only
Title and associated content has to be in English.
2. Use original link
Post URL should be the original link to the article (even if paywalled) and archived copies left in the body. It allows avoiding duplicate posts when cross-posting.
3. Respectful communication
All communication has to be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
4. Inclusivity
Everyone is welcome here regardless of age, body size, visible or invisible disability, ethnicity, sex characteristics, gender identity and expression, education, socio-economic status, nationality, personal appearance, race, caste, color, religion, or sexual identity and orientation.
5. Ad hominem attacks
Any kind of personal attacks are expressly forbidden. If you can't argue your position without attacking a person's character, you already lost the argument.
6. Off-topic tangents
Stay on topic. Keep it relevant.
7. Instance rules may apply
If something is not covered by community rules, but are against lemmy.zip instance rules, they will be enforced.
Companion communities
[email protected]
[email protected]
Icon attribution | Banner attribution
founded 9 months ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
So what? Their argument is wrong, end of.
Look, they could update the EULA on the Roku "channel" or even the Roku "channel store" if they want because those actually do rely on them continuing to maintain a server for it. 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!
Roku is selling a product that happens to be aggregated with some services. Disabling the whole product in order to coerce people into agreeing to new terms for the aggregated services is basically equivalent to a ransomware attack.
Hey I'm not saying I agree with it, just pointing out how you would have to attack it
Ah, right. Sorry!
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
That's pure sophistry*, because...
....they don't let you do that either!
When the hardware is DRM'd to only allow the use of an OS cryptographically signed by the manufacturer, denying the user use of the OS due to a poison-pill EULA is absolutely equivalent to denying them use of the hardware.
Exactly: the DMCA needs to be repealed and it needs to become illegal to DRM the device to prevent the user from loading a third-party OS on it.
(* on the part of the shysters trying to push that argument, not you explaining their position)