http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,35156,00.html
This from Wired. The article makes it clear that your are in violation of
an agreement if you alter the I-Opener in ANY way. It is pretty outrageous
that you buy something and can't modify it without breaking the law. As I
said, I DO understand the business case for wanting to force the use of the
service, but once you buy something, you should be able to use it for
whatever you want, or not at all. Why can't you modify it at your own
expense if you still use it to access the Netpliance ISP? There is dial-up
access available. If you use it for six months per the agreement, and
switch to something else, you have fulfilled your obligation to them. What
is it to them if you add a hard drive and a 10/100 card? It's your decision
to use the equipment the way you want, similar to adding RAM or a DVD drive
to a typical desktop. Thats what I meant about technology shoved down my
throat, not that they care about what a bunch of geeks and hackers think
...pj
-----Original Message-----
From: Glenn C. Lasher, Jr. [mailto:">glasher@dtassoc.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2000 1:21 PM
To: Venkat Swaminathan
Cc: '">ale@ale.org'
Subject: Re: [ale] Yahoo - Netpliance Comments on Unauthorized
Reconfiguration of th e i-opener Int
I think that NetPliance are fully within their rights. Sure, I wanted to
do this hack too, but that's life. They put these boxen out there to make
money. They know that the money is not in flashlights, but in batteries.
Now, the fact that they referred to it as an unauthorised modification,
that burns my ass. Unless there is a licence in the package indicating
that they own the device, you own it. You bought it and paid for it
yourself, they set the price. If they set the price too low, that's their
problem.
I will give NetPliance kudos for not using WindBlows.
On Thu, 23 Mar 2000, Venkat Swaminathan wrote:
> <<Yahoo - Netpliance Comments on Unauthorized Reconfiguration of the
> i-opener Internet Appliance.url>>
>
> http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/000323/tx_netplia_2.html
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Glenn C. Lasher, Jr - Senior Engineer, Telecommunications/UNIX/Windows NT
Data Tech Associates, Ltd, 883 Broadway, Albany NY, 518.465.1190
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