Comment by DigitallyFidget | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DigitallyFidget | Hacker News Reader

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DigitallyFidget

Because if I can rewrite my printer to not intentionally be a total piece of shit, the company gets less money by intentionally expiring or wasting ink, DRM locking ink cartridge brands, or "service needed" bricking the device after a period of time.

There's also the matter of lawsuits. If you get a device, they're not supporting updates, so you go get a 3rd party update and it ruins the device, the RMA costs the manufacture, but worse, the customer(s) may file a (class action) lawsuit against the company over the problem of being unable to find the official firmware/driver updates, causing people to ruin their hardware, get RMA rejections, or not even being aware of an RMA process and simply buying another one.

Personally, I'd rather there be open source drivers/firmware for everything from day one, but to look at both sides, I fully understand the liability and why that's something that only exists in the hobbiest world.

>> Why is it not compulsory to release the source code from day 1? If you're making a driver it's because you're selling hardware, that's where your profit and value is. Commingling the two leads to perverse incentives and conflicts of interest.

> Because if I can rewrite my printer to not intentionally be a total piece of shit, the company gets less money by intentionally expiring or wasting ink, DRM locking ink cartridge brands, or "service needed" bricking the device after a period of time.

That sounds exactly like the "perverse incentives and conflicts of interest" that the parent comment mentioned. I don't think they're asking why it isn't required now, but why it _shouldn't_ be required. What you're saying sounds more compelling as an argument in favor of what they propose, not in favor of the status quo.

The company can create a way to void the warranty or not take responsibility and leave it to you if 3rd party modifications or drivers are used, but not outright prevent them and make them a pain to the users. Something like how Android ROMs and rooting used to be.

> Because if I can rewrite my printer to not intentionally be a total piece of shit, the company gets less money by intentionally expiring or wasting ink, DRM locking ink cartridge brands, or "service needed" bricking the device after a period of time.

This is exactly the kind of perverse incentives that I'm talking about though. And this kind of misbehavior happens way more than someone installing a 3rd party update that bricks someone's device.

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