The Dark Side of Digital Distribution 270
An anonymous reader writes "Game journalist Stuart Campbell has written an incisive piece on how the digital distribution model users have grown to know and love over the past several years still has some major problems that go beyond even the DRM dilemma. He provides an example of an app developer using very shady update techniques to screw over people who have legitimately purchased their app. Touch Racing Nitro, a retro racing game, launched to moderate success. After tinkering with price points to get the game to show up on the top download charts, the developers finally made it free for a period of four months. 'Then the sting came along. About a week ago (at time of writing), the game received an "update," which came with just four words of description – "Now Touch Racing Free!" As the game was already free, users could have been forgiven for thinking this wasn't much of a change. But in fact, the app thousands of them had paid up to £5 for had effectively just been stolen. Two of the game's three racing modes were now locked away behind IAP paywalls, and the entire game was disfigured with ruinous in-game advertising, which required yet another payment to remove.'"
Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Funny)
So what s the DRM dilemma? Whether to just not buy DRM products or whether to burn down the houses of those who make them?
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Neither of these is a dilemma. Any righteous person should feel the moral obligation to boycott DRM-inflicted products and inflict physical violence on the people who make them, their loved ones and their property.
I certainly hope you are only joking about inflicting physical violence, etc. It is a vexing new model of business, which the best possible means of making displeasure known is the age-old Voting With Your Feet (or dollars) by walking away from anyone practicing such things. I'm a slow adopter on quite a few things, largely because of my elevating level of disappointment with the way people are deciding is appropriate for doing business - by wrecking something you have already paid for and are using.
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:4, Insightful)
which the best possible means of making displeasure known is the age-old Voting With Your Feet (or dollars) by walking away from anyone practicing such things. I'm a slow adopter on quite a few things, largely because of my elevating level of disappointment with the way people are deciding is appropriate for doing business - by wrecking something you have already paid for and are using.
You're right about "age-old". In fact I'm wondering what the news is here. That digital distribution is not abuse-proof or fraud-proof just like brick-and-mortar sales? That there are dishonest people with exploitative business practices? This has been going on in one form or another ever since the origin of barter and the later invention of currency.
How is this not another "... with a computer!" story?
The solution to this is to make such people notorious, so that potential customers think twice before doing business with them, same as any business that causes legitimate grievances and dissatisfied customers. Make them more famous for their terrible business practices than for any software they have created. Let them be the ones who fail while honest people with good business practices thrive. That's how you create an environment hostile to this sort of thing and select against it. It's just an iteration of that old saying, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
Here is how it is different.
I sell you a book, car, TV, shirt, power drill. You pay a fair price for it.
Then with an update, I remove your book from your reader, limit your car to driving 30mph, your TV to only working with bluray content so you can't use your DVD's any more, remove the pocket from your shirt, and limit your power drill to using phillips head bits so you have to buy a nother drill for star, hex, and flat head bits.
You can't do those things. But with digitial updates, not only can you do it, it is happening already.
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
Aaaannnnd welcome to the licensing model, which allows for legal theft.
Everything you mentioned above is an actual product, not a license to use the product....which nobody in their right mind would buy if they had a real alternative.
The problem is all of our new devices are being treated as if they are still ideas that need licensing, as if they never made it though a production line(ereaders, cell phones, etc), and somehow are different from any other tool you can buy. I realize they are more complicated tools, but tools nonetheless.
This isn't a problem with digital distribution, this is a problem with a lack of integrity, and a willingness to force others to suffer your bad ideas for your own profit. In any REAL free market, this shit would never fly. But we live in America, where an actual free market is as elusive as the Dodo.
It's a sad day for justice and equality when a guy who steals a small ticket item will see jail time, meanwhile these asshats who steal en masse will go without so much as a visit to the local police station.
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:4, Informative)
please provide an example of software that no longer works
Uh... the game from TFS?
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Because DRM means you do not get sold an item, you are only rented that item. You do not own any games you buy this way and the company can take it all back at a moment's notice. And many of the customers don't care, they have voluntarily and in many cases gladly given up their rights in exchange for digital downloads or access to certain games not available elsewhere.
And if someone is renting something it make sense for them to actually get some sort of agreement or contract spelling out the terms of the
Bullcrap: This isn't different for TVs, etc. (Score:3)
Here is how it is different.
I sell you a book, car, TV, shirt, power drill. You pay a fair price for it.
Then with an update, I remove your book from your reader, limit your car to driving 30mph, your TV to only working with bluray content so you can't use your DVD's any more, remove the pocket from your shirt, and limit your power drill to using phillips head bits so you have to buy a nother drill for star, hex, and flat head bits.
You can't do those things. But with digitial updates, not only can you do it, it is happening already.
Sure you can, at least with TVs. Remember the Broadcast Flag? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_flag [wikipedia.org] -- It's already been used to remove value from devices purchased like that, by NBC on 18 May 2008.
Similarly, HDCP, which is pretty much in all new televisions, DVD players, BLU-Ray players and so on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection [wikipedia.org] -- has a revocation feature which would permit rendering those devices useless as well.
Game systems with modchips and pay-per-view syst
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
The solution to this is to make such people notorious, so that potential customers think twice before doing business with them, same as any business that causes legitimate grievances and dissatisfied customers.
In the non-digital world, this is a feasible approach. Opening a store and stocking merchandise are both expensive acts- a shopkeeper can't keep reopening his or her store repeatedly. Changing your name or moving doesn't help with this.
In the digital world, this is far harder. You have no stock. You have no manufacturing costs. Changing your name / the location of your store is a trivial matter ranging from completely free to taking back a few loads of bottles for deposit and buying a new dev license.
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:4, Insightful)
Boycotting will not actually do anything useful in this context. Bitching loudly about it, now that actually does something. Take a look at what happened to Spore.
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Once word got out that they were only going to allow 3 unlocks, then you'd have to call them to get a code, over thousand ppl went to Amazon and gave it a 1 star review. EA relaxed the rules a bit, expanding it to 5 unlocks plus another concession or two that I cannot recall at the moment.
I'll concede that they didn't get as far as teaching EA a lesson about bad DRM, but only a thousand people got them to take notice and quickly react. It'll certainly be on their mind for the next game. The thousands o
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
Voting with your dollars doesn't communicate WHY you made the decision not to buy, just that you made the decision. Burning their houses down and explaining why you did it on the news and in court makes that clear.
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Well then they're just dilettantes.
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Your sermon doesn't make his point any less correct.
On an objective level men (generally) behaved like gentlemen a century ago, because not doing so ran the risk of injury or death by the offended party and/or that party's spouse. Even as late as 50 years ago? If you mouthed off to someone or screwed them over in some way, they could break your nose with near-impunity, and odds were good that no jury would convict them for doing so - because quite frankly you 'had it coming'.
Today, things are a whole lot di
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I certainly don't advise violence upon family, but what you call 'voting with your feet' is also known as tucking tail and slinking away. If you have been ripped off and have a chance, spit in the crooks face and tell him why.
Rip-off artists LOVE when you vote with your feet. It means they suffered no real consequence and the field is clear so they can see their next mark more clearly. Meanwhile, their continued existence slowly degrades life for everyone. They damage the bonds of trust that are so necessar
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I agree that physical violence is appropriate in the case. If an update locks up an application that I have legally paid for and then demands yet more money to unlock it, I'd have to say that the developers need to be publically flogged and run out of town.
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Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
You need to look up the definition of mediocre and consider how it relates to the statistical mode of the people you meet.
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A boycott in a digital space is far easier to organize than for physical businesses. The problem is that people are not principled. Far too many people, especially in the gaming and tech world, feign indignation but hand over their money anyway. For every one person who commits to a boycott there are probably 10 who complain but buy it anyway and another 50 who don't care. And the extreme convenience of the web makes it so that people are even less likely to care. But it's fundamentally no different than wh
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Wait isn't this the PS3 dual boot bait-and-switch model????
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Insightful)
In the old days if an upgrade removed functionality it was annoying but you could always reinstall from your original media and not install the updates (or install an older update since in the old days most devs made standalone update installers available) but with online activation and/or digital distribution systems that may no longer be an option.
Re:Beyond the DRM dilemma (Score:5, Informative)
Remember folks, Fair Use includes being able to make backups of software you buy. Exercise that right. The only time a company should be able to pull a bait and switch like this is if they're selling you a service for an annual or monthly fee. And there you can simply stop subscribing (in the case of cell phone contracts, you can quit before your contract is up without penalty).
I also run firewalls (DroidWall or LBE Privacy Guard) which let me turn off an app's network access. If the free version of a single-player game requires network access to run, that's a big red flag that I don't want to buy the pay version.
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Here's how to navigate this new DRM world. Have an app that you like? Do not update it. Be aware that if you update, you may lose everything.
On the iPhone, if you must update, find the physical copy of the app in your iTunes folder. Copy it somewhere safe. THEN update the app. If you don't like the upgraded version, delete it, drag the physical copy back to iTunes, and restore it. You're good to go again.
I'm sure there's an analogue of this on Android.
Point being, if you've got an app, it's up to YOU to mai
that's the magic of auto updates (Score:5, Insightful)
come to the cloud, updates are free, automatic and easy
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You mean like that update to the NYT in the cloud...
Or the Gannett one. Yup, free all right.
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Re:that's the magic of auto updates (Score:4, Interesting)
But ... but ... without corporate profit seeking, the Earth would stop spinning and the universe would collapse.
We need for this to be legal, it drives the entire economy. /sarcasm
Re:that's the magic of auto updates (Score:4, Interesting)
Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess there might be a case for misrepresentation, though I'll wager the licensing agreement allows the company to do whatever they like.
The real solution here is, of course, not to pay these guys. Don't play their stupid game. If their stunt loses them customers, they're not likely to try it again.
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
I don't understand how they've been able to pull something like this. On a free game on iOS we added some stuff which required us to block some content of one of the levels for old ipods, as they didn't had the required power to play it. We were denied the update as apple said that nothing could be taken away from the users in an update (!), and we had to build 2 different code path & levels so that both could exists together. In a free game... I would expect them to prevent such a thing even more on a paid game!
sony all over again.. (Score:2)
What the developer did in this case seems illegal to me from a consumerlaw standpoint.. But these things are stuff why I rather just have the old physical discs/carts..
Re:sony all over again.. (Score:5, Informative)
On December 8, 2011, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg dismissed the last remaining count of the class action lawsuit, stating: "As a legal matter, [..] plaintiffs have failed to allege facts or articulate a theory on which Sony may be held liable." He then removed massive amounts of wax from his ears after the trial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OtherOS [wikipedia.org]
Once again, I am in the wrong damn business.
Reminds me of an old scam (Score:5, Insightful)
There was something on Slashdot a few years ago about people buying a service, then having to pay more to disable advertising.
I'd dump them without a second through. Cut your losses and move one.
I'd probably warn others as well as prospective future clients, by going to /. and other sites and writing about the craptivation of the game.
Re:Reminds me of an old scam (Score:4, Interesting)
There was something on Slashdot a few years ago about people buying a service,
Cable/DSS television.
then having to pay more to disable advertising
Premium channels.
Re:Reminds me of an old scam (Score:5, Insightful)
The trick is to do it gradually. You don't make people pay to remove advertising immediately. You give them a useful product, then a bit later you introduce a small, easy to ignore, amount of advertising. Then you give them the option of paying to turn it off. It's easy to ignore, so most people won't bother. You also add some new (minor, easy-to-implement) features or, better yet, a security fix, at the same time, so people will want to get the update. Then you increase the number of ads. Now people are locked into your app or, at the very least, used to using it. Now they'll pay to remove the ads. Repeat and you've got a revenue stream.
This is a small variation of the business model of a lot of proprietary software where you pay for 'major updates' which include features like 'not crashing on launch when you run it on the new version of the OS' or 'not corrupting your documents'.
I've come across this behaviour so many times that I now have a standard reaction: find the open source program that's closest to the proprietary one and give them a donation equal to the cost of the upgrade. The problem is that other people are willing to continue to pay companies that have screwed them over in the past.
Users respond with poor ratings (Score:5, Insightful)
In response to the underhanded update, users take to the ratings system with a vengeance and downmod the developer into oblivion. Thus, the app ecosystem sees shady behavior as 'damage' and 'routes' around it.
Re:Users respond with poor ratings (Score:5, Insightful)
Poor ratings do not help those who have already paid for the shadily-updated app.
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Once again the pirates are not bothered by this one bit.
Checking the standard iOS warez site, I can download versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4. All kracked and fully unlocked.
v1.5 is the current broken one, which ironically I see an entry for and the comment "You don't want this version, use 1.4 instead"
And people wonder why I always try the pirated version first, and only purchase after!
I can honestly say not a single app on any of my devices is pirated. However I can guarantee that nearly all of them
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Ah I see it is possible if you catch it in time, and then just never update the app again:
http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-hacking/60623-cydia-fix-reinstall-older-version-app.html [ipadforums.net]
http://ismashphone.com/2011/01/how-to-revert-to-old-app-versions.html [ismashphone.com]
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And your comment is also kind of selfish, letting others know the developer is a cheat is a good thing even if it doesn't have some immediate personal payoff it certainly helps others avoid getting cheated. But oh well eff them.
You're attributing to me words I never typed. Did I say they shouldn't give the app a bad review? No, I simply said that it doesn't solve the unfortunate user's main problem (the irreversible reduction in value of the app for which they paid), as the GP seemed to be attempting to say it did.
Thus, the app ecosystem sees shady behavior as 'damage' and 'routes' around it.
Not really. It only prevents new people from downloading that app (or at best, that developer's apps). They or another developer could absolutely repeat the whole scenario with a new app, make a buttload more money,
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Actually, calling out the miscreants doesn't necessarily help future potential customers at all. An Android dev account is $25 bucks. For $25 bucks, I can publish a passingly interesting app or two, crank down the screws when the suckers are caught up by their short-n-curlies, and then walk away from that particular identity... and register a new one for another $25. Now I'm fresh and my reputation is righteous, and the suckas are just lined up waiting to be fleeced by the new me. Meanwhile the former sucka
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In response to the underhanded update, users take to the ratings system with a vengeance and downmod the developer into oblivion. Thus, the app ecosystem sees shady behavior as 'damage' and 'routes' around it.
And thus customers become wiser. Slightly poorer, by five quid, but wiser.
Re:Users respond with poor ratings (Score:5, Insightful)
And then the company rebrands, rinses and repeats with the next app.
iOS store price points were too low (Score:5, Insightful)
i noticed it a while ago that the price points were way to low to be sustainable. Not only were they low, but users expected unlimited updates for their $.99 game. and not just bug fixes, but new functionality. it worked for a while as the iOS installed base exploded but as growth slows down expect the return to version numbers.
it already started with "HD" versions of games and apps. separate iphone and ipad versions. sure you can run the iphone version on the ipad but it looks like crap.
next is the return to version numbers
cool racing game
next year is version 2 with new features and new IAP
and a new version every year and dropping compatibility with new iOS versions after a year or so
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Versioning is oldschool back during the boxed days of software. The downside of such versioning is the buyer has to wonder if it's the "right time" to buy said software or if they should hold off, not unlike hardware itself.
Most software should just do away with that, and offer updates for a set period of time from purchase, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, etc. That eliminates best time to purchase, gives everyone the same fair deal, and provides the developer with steady income too.
If I were Apple, I would of
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HD was Steve Jobs fault. He was afraid that nobody would design an app for his 1024x768 screen when they had just redesigned the app for the iPhone's 960x640 screen. So what does he do? He locks out the 960x640 versions on the iPad, forcing a pixel doubled 480x320 screen even when the higher resolution version existed.
I wanted to throw a chair at him for that bit of assholishness.
Re:iOS store price points were too low (Score:5, Informative)
Also, the store supports and encourages "universal" apps- a single purchase/single binary that works natively on both devices, and has done so since the iPad launched.
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If only there was some way to avoid this! (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh yeah. Delete the app. If you don't like it post change, don't use it. I mean I think it's a foolish move but it's their game. You are just buying a license to it.
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You're buying a license to a particular feature set and level of functionality. I have no doubt that the people who actually paid money have a legal case if the update took away substantial features and functionality.
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Nope. You really should spend some time reading EULAs you effectively sign away most of those rights.
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You're buying a license to a particular feature set and level of functionality. I have no doubt that the people who actually paid money have a legal case if the update took away substantial features and functionality.
Sony already won that in court when some people sued over the removal of the ability to boot linux.
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If you don't see the moral and ethical problem here, you are part of the increasing number of ethically stunted and morally retarded people with whom the rest of us have to share the world. Please don't hesitate to refrain from reproducing.
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The key difference is you don't own the house. You rent with a rental agreement that says the landlord can take the house away, change the locks at any time. Read the EULA some time.
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Yeah, great solution.
"Hey, I just got robbed!"
"So? Don't live in that house any more if you don't like people robbing it."
Since a license generally give you the right to use an application. A more appropriate analogy would be:
"Hey, I just got robbed!"
"So? Don't live in that apartment any more if you don't like people robbing it."
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It's not people, it's the landlord.
"Hey, I just got robbed"
"So? Don't live in that apartment any more if you don't like your landlord removing all your stuff, drinking your wine and emptying your wallet."
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"Hey, I just got robbed"
"So? Don't live in that apartment anymore if you don't like the plumber stealing your copper pipes for recycling money."
Similar things have happened before... (Score:5, Interesting)
A couple years back (or maybe just a year), an "update" came out for WipEout HD on the PS3. The game cost $15 to buy, but the update added video advertisements to the loading screens of each race. Aside from being annoying, they drastically increased load times in order to force you to actually watch the ad. While not as bad as actually crippling the game as in this case, that event really soured me to the concept of digital distribution.
Really, the only company I trust with digital distribution these days is GOG, who don't use DRM in any of their games. Yeah, they pulled that weird "shutdown" stunt a while back, but to my mind it only proved their value--nobody was unable to play their games during the outage (except for those few people who hadn't gotten around to downloading them yet).
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Really, the only company I trust with digital distribution these days is GOG, who don't use DRM in any of their games
While looking at the details of some of the recent sales and additions, I found out that at least some of the games do [gog.com]
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I found out that at least some of the games do
This looks like a technical issue in how the game functions, not necessarily a DRM limitation.
It seems like a lot more work to rewrite a game-server protocol than to just hand out free keys to everyone and use the existing system. I guess that isn't the idea solution, but look how good the DVD DRM was after DeCSS came out. If we all have the keys, is it really that restrictive of a DRM system?
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It's still dependent on them.
The real fix, without rewriting the protocol, would be to bundle the keygen with the main download. No master ship for key requests.
Re:Similar things have happened before... (Score:4, Informative)
GOG.com provides such good value, I have even repurchased games from them that I already own, because I know they have been properly updated, configured or bundled with DOSBox so that they run on modern Windows versions (and often Linux too) with absolutely zero hassle.
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I've done the same. Finding this (first in NWN in the sale, then the America Conquest release, I don't know where else) has destroyed some of my good will towards them.
I wish they either said no to the original publisher or bundled the keygen with the downloads.
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Servers for games that have direct connections between players?
How long have you been PC gaming?
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But there is a digital distribution company that is trustworthy! Here [thepiratebay.se]; don't forget to donate for their noble work.
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Re:Similar things have happened before... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Similar things have happened before... (Score:5, Insightful)
Piracy is the reason DRM exists.
You'd have to be pretty foolish to actually believe that. Piracy is the red herring that provides the excuse for them to force DRM on legitimate consumers, but preventing piracy is not what DRM exists for. It's not even very useful for preventing it.
No Refund Terms of Sale (Score:5, Informative)
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When apple removed the google voice apps from itunes I was able to get full refunds for those apps. So they will do refunds.
When they do a refund, they also screw the developer. The developer eats the full cost of the refund and apple keeps the money they made.
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Why update? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is one reason why I rarely update anything on my Android tablet. I have a number of kids' games on there which never had many privileges when I installed them, so there's little security worry (plus it's only connected to my WLAN). What could "Draw by Numbers" possibly need to update to work better? The only "upgrade" I expect is them to remove pictures. My 3 year old is thrilled with the 10 or 20 different things she can draw on there, and that probably is limiting sales.
I only upgrade OS items now and disable the automatic upgrade checking for everything else. I'm sure I'll hear about why that's bad here. I think years of free and truly beneficial MS updates have confused a lot of us into thinking that an upgrade actually means what the word is defined to mean. Much like "gender" replaced "sex" I think the true meaning of the word "upgrade" is being replaced by something. Something not good.
Where's the Update : Never setting? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's New in Version 2.2.134
We noticed we had mistakenly enabled multiple computer support on a previous release.
This free version of PocketCloud has always been limited to 1 computer as documented on the app description.
We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your understanding.
We are discounting PocketCloud Pro 40% to ease the migration for our power users who need to access multiple computers.
Caveat Emptor (Score:4, Interesting)
A purchase is an investment in the credibility of the seller.
There are so many ways a seller can screw over a purchaser, that's why letters of credit were invented.
If you're purchasing something (effectively) that you have no idea how it works, from someone you don't know, and you give them (by update) the authority to make changes at will...well, to suggest that you are trusting is an understatement.
We've become so habituated to this model, we've forgotten that in the same way that Darwinism works by death, capitalism works by failure. For people to realize a seller can be identified as unscrupulous, a number of people have to get screwed.
What the market will bull (Score:2)
Customers dumping products and companies that do things like this is what traditionally kept them in check. The underlying problem seems to be not that merchants have started using these underhanded tactics - that's been something merchants have always tried for centuries - but rather that the customer base accepts it. Gripes perhaps, but predominantly accepts it.
When is the last time you heard the word "boycott"? Particularly when it comes to digital media, consumption has become so convenient that larg
This isn't a technical issue (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not a technical issue. This is an issue of unfair trade practices.
Always wait to upgrade (Score:2)
And whats the moral? (Score:2)
There will be always someone trying to screw you no matter what distribution or business model. Well, nothing new here.
PS This case is interesting in itself but I don't buy the hype, too much generalization.
no (Score:2)
Re:Or how about Android Marketplace? (Score:5, Insightful)
So how is it that your "paid-for phone is now becoming less and less useful"?
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Therefore, I can't use Marketplace again to update my phone.
Then don't use marketplace to update your phone. Download the update elsewhere (i.e. manufacturer's website) and install it that way. Easy.
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Re:Or how about Android Marketplace? (Score:5, Funny)
Open Source my ass.
You sure about that? :)
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I've experienced problems with the auto-update of Google products in the past, which is the reason I refuse to even allow them onto my computer now.
That was pretty much the last straw. Why does an image viewer need access to any files other then /Users/UserName/MyPictures? It d
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Why does an image viewer need access to any files other then /Users/UserName/MyPictures? It doesn't need to scan the entire system by default looking for pictures
It does if you keep pictures everywhere but /Users/UserName/MyPictures, like on another drive.
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Then it should give you the option of specifying directories, not take the liberty of indexing everything.
No! My data! Bad Google! [hits Larry Page on nose with rolled up newspaper]
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the vast majority had probably already received more than enough value from their dollar.
At what point is it OK for me to steal your car since you already received more than enough value from your dollar?
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Don't expect Apple to help the consumer on this issue. They practically started the practice.
I remember when Apple introduced QuickTime 3, which let you play back content for free but to edit audio and video you had to pay for the "Pro" version.
The editing features had previously been distributed for free with MoviePlayer 2.5, which still worked with QT3, so a lot of us users kept the old MoviePlayer to avoid having functionality taken away from us. Eventually it stopped working with QT after a few more "up