Live data from Hacker News

Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

en-us.support.motorola.com

61–70 of 93 posts

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#61
post #51

Any devs here create these types of things? Or other systems that make it hard to repair devices? Why do you do it? Do you see this as enshitification? Just need to pay the bills? (can't find a different job?) Think "someone else will do it if I don't?" (and don't think they'll have to pay more for the other person or that the other person will be of lesser quality or people turning down the jobs/not applying puts pr…

I don't make that stuff, I'm not making any assumptions. But considering the state of discussion on the internet, I wonder how many takers you might get. Do / say something unpopular and you're just signing up for abuse online, heck even if you don't do anything. HN is better places than most but recently (not on HN) I got down-voted in a discussion where I said I didn't mind the neighbor kids running through my yard…

Well, now I wanna know what you mean by "e-yell." If you say you don't mind and someone replies with dissension saying you should mind, is that not having the conversation?

Not the point at all but I also think you should mind :P

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#62
post #42
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can downvoters explain why they are doing so? I agree with both of these points (first sale doctrine and that a license is not a contract) and would like to hear explanation of why they are mistaken here. In particular, there is no consideration offered by either party, and so this cannot be contractual on its face.

If I've understood the Motorola page correctly, they do not give you the unlock code for your device if you do not agree to the terms. That would be consideration.

Which as mentioned would be a pretty novel argument. In all other circumstances in the industry, it's just an EULA you have to click through to download software. Those have repeatedly been found unenforceable any time someone tries to do something tricky or weird with one. Clicking away your right to sell your own property is awfully weird.

Contracts that do complicated things involve negotiation and signatures, generally. The more you rely on caveat emptor and the assumption that the License Clicker read through all the fine print, the more likely you are to get your contract tossed.

And of course there's a wikipedia page on this too, in parciular the "contracts of adhesion" paragraph under the US law section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_form_contract

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#63

Any devs here create these types of things? Or other systems that make it hard to repair devices? Why do you do it? Do you see this as enshitification? Just need to pay the bills? (can't find a different job?) Think "someone else will do it if I don't?" (and don't think they'll have to pay more for the other person or that the other person will be of lesser quality or people turning down the jobs/not applying puts pr…

>Why do you do it?

Because I enjoy the process of making software.

>Do you see this as enshitification?

No, I see this as needing to make a trade off where the result ends up with one party gaining something and consumers losing something.

>Just need to pay the bills?

No, money is not a motivating factor.

>can't find a different job?

I have no reason to switch job, but finding a different job wouldn't be an issue.

>Think "someone else will do it if I don't?"

These companies are not masochists trying to exclusively hurt consumers. There are a lot of trade offs that happen between multiple different parties. A company is not going to be able to make the best possible product if in every single tradeoff they give priority to the consumers (you also can't make every single subgroup of consumers all happy with some things). Sure someone could execute on the tradeoff being made, but I don't need any kind of justification for me to stay at my job. I want to see all the relevant parties benefit from the existence of the product. If I disagree with a tradeoff being made I can raise that. What tradeoff to make is a hard decision that people don't always get right, sometimes they were missing available information and some information they may only be able to speculate on. In the future these tradeoffs can be reevaluated.

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#64
post #53

The no sale requirements in the "contract" is interesting. However, is the following actually legal in the US? > You have only yourself to blame. Once you get the unlock code, your device is no longer covered by the Motorola warranty; in other words, please don't blame us if things go wrong, even if they appear unrelated to unlocking the bootloader. In Australia they can revoke the "Motorola warranty" all they want.…

> In Australia they can revoke the "Motorola warranty" all they want. However, everything sold comes with a warranty that can't be revoked which entitles you to repair, replacement or refund for a reasonable time frame (yes it's intentionally open ended). Can you sell your warranty rights? For example let's say I've sold you something and later I offer you 150 AU$ to buy back your warranty rights. You decide that is…

> Can you sell your warranty rights?

No

> Does this work?

No

What you are referring to is not a warranty, they are statutory rights. [1][2]

* Consumer guarantees are automatic and can't be negotiated away. * Warranties are voluntary and are additional to consumer guarantees.

Here is the required text in Australia for goods:

# Mandatory text for goods and services supplied after 9 June 2019

The mandatory text for the supply of goods and services after 9 June 2019 is:

Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled:

    to cancel your service contract with us; and
    to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value.
You are also entitled to choose a refund or replacement for major failures with goods.

If a failure with the goods or a service does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have the failure rectified in a reasonable time. If this is not done you are entitled to a refund for the goods and to cancel the contract for the service and obtain a refund of any unused portion.

You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage from a failure in the goods or service.

[1] https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/buying-products-and-servic... [2] https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/caca2...

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#65
post #53

The no sale requirements in the "contract" is interesting. However, is the following actually legal in the US? > You have only yourself to blame. Once you get the unlock code, your device is no longer covered by the Motorola warranty; in other words, please don't blame us if things go wrong, even if they appear unrelated to unlocking the bootloader. In Australia they can revoke the "Motorola warranty" all they want.…

> In Australia they can revoke the "Motorola warranty" all they want. However, everything sold comes with a warranty that can't be revoked which entitles you to repair, replacement or refund for a reasonable time frame (yes it's intentionally open ended). Can you sell your warranty rights? For example let's say I've sold you something and later I offer you 150 AU$ to buy back your warranty rights. You decide that is…

No, it is consumer law that you can not contact out of.

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#66
post #51

Any devs here create these types of things? Or other systems that make it hard to repair devices? Why do you do it? Do you see this as enshitification? Just need to pay the bills? (can't find a different job?) Think "someone else will do it if I don't?" (and don't think they'll have to pay more for the other person or that the other person will be of lesser quality or people turning down the jobs/not applying puts pr…

I don't make that stuff, I'm not making any assumptions. But considering the state of discussion on the internet, I wonder how many takers you might get. Do / say something unpopular and you're just signing up for abuse online, heck even if you don't do anything. HN is better places than most but recently (not on HN) I got down-voted in a discussion where I said I didn't mind the neighbor kids running through my yard…

> But considering the state of discussion on the internet,

Yeah it is a tough problem. I specifically gave the advice of how to be anonymous in case someone was worried about that. That way at least they wouldn't be concerned with defacing their profile or other type of image. But I suspect that would bias it towards people who feel morally uncertain or are questioning their own actions.

And I fully agree. We need to stop being reactionary. It doesn't solve problems, it creates them. We all got egos here and to address this I typically go after the ego (including to myself). If we're so smart and rational then we can promote smart and rational discussions right?

I don't think many realize that they are often being used as pawns in a game of informational warfare. That our emotions play into the hands of others. Because they are quite easy to exploit, especially when we believe we are difficult to exploit (there's that ego again :) But I am trying to push for this type of behavior. Given your concern, I'd encourage you to take an active approach in this as well. I downvote any lazy comment I see (even if I agree with it, or even if it makes me laugh) in an effort to actively push up more meaningful comments. I also will try to openly question the interpretation of someone's comment as a means to quench any flames (an example is here[0] but clearly ineffective. Can be hit or miss). On the other hand, I will often upvote comments I disagree with if they are promoting discussions or if the replies to them are valuable. What I often see is a reply be great and highly informative but then because people agree with the reply they downvote the parent but this then pushes down the entire conversation. I'm not sure how to address this mechanism but this feels like the best I can do given the tools at hand.

I do fully believe we need to have these types of questions. Liberal or conservative, enabling these discussions is perfectly in line with your political beliefs, and in fact I would say is critical to it. We shouldn't be afraid of asking questions and we should be able to ask things in good faith (which that part is key). I think you're right about the environment and so this is why I'm trying to be the environment I want to see and try to encourage others to do the same. One thing I personally find hard is that it is easy to react to someone who reacts in bad faith to you. But I try to apologize when I recognize it. I think this is an important habit to build. The other is to be explicit about gratitude because I think part of the issue is that we let things that are good or that we're grateful for go unsaid. It makes sense, but clearly puts a bias on our perception. It also puts bias on incentives for people doing the right thing. Like when a company that has been doing bad things in the past does something good for once you can totally say "This is great! I don't condone x,y,z but I hope they continue to push towards being not evil" or whatever. There needs to be positive reinforcement signals too.

If I've learned anything in my own little domain that I'm an expert in it is that there's rabbit holes everywhere and nuances rule the domain. So I try to keep that in mind when thinking about other domains. I don't always succeed, but my process is set up to have multiple chances to correct course (but I'm still an idiot emotional human lol)

And of course, I'm open for suggestions about how to better cultivate an environment where we can have better discussions. If you have any advice I'd love to hear it.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39644752

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#67
post #2

> And now a word from our lawyers. Finally, in order to unlock your device, you need to agree to important legal terms[1], which can be found on the next page. Agreeing creates a binding legal agreement, so be sure to read them carefully. From linked terms: > Devices that have been unlocked are for your personal use only. Once you unlock the device, you can only use it for our personal use, and may not sell or otherw…

Unfair contract terms are illegal and carry a fine of up to $50,000,000 in Australia. [1]

[1] https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/businesses-urged-to-re...

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#68
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, though that certainly _feels_ orthogonal to unlocking the bootloader? If I modify the hardware some other way (a la a modchip) and achieve the same thing, it'd be illegal for the same reasons.

>Agreed, though that certainly _feels_ orthogonal to unlocking the bootloader? Unlocking the bootloader is what makes it possible. The security model protects against hackers installing malware on the device otherwise. >If I modify the hardware some other way (a la a modchip) and achieve the same thing Good luck opening up the SoC and trying to modify it that way. This is not a concern as the security is good enough…

I’ve been an embedded security engineer for the past two decades, have worked on a dozen secure silicon projects, have broken several secure boot chains (albeit only one publicly, in 2014: https://fail0verflow.com/blog/2014/hubcap-chromecast-root-pt...). I’ve also worked on some of the early Wii modchips when I was with Team Twiizers. These days I spend time (though not as much as I’d like) in cleanrooms playing with SEMs, plasma etchers and other fun toys.

I can fairly safely say your assumptions are incorrect.

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#69
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Agreed, though that certainly _feels_ orthogonal to unlocking the bootloader? Unlocking the bootloader is what makes it possible. The security model protects against hackers installing malware on the device otherwise. >If I modify the hardware some other way (a la a modchip) and achieve the same thing Good luck opening up the SoC and trying to modify it that way. This is not a concern as the security is good enough…

I’ve been an embedded security engineer for the past two decades, have worked on a dozen secure silicon projects, have broken several secure boot chains (albeit only one publicly, in 2014: https://fail0verflow.com/blog/2014/hubcap-chromecast-root-pt... ). I’ve also worked on some of the early Wii modchips when I was with Team Twiizers. These days I spend time (though not as much as I’d like) in cleanrooms playing wit…

>I can fairly safely say your assumptions are incorrect.

Tell me what assumption is wrong so I can learn (unless your point was that software (and hardware :)) can have security bugs which I'm already aware of), else I will continue to repeat this.

Re: Motorola's legal terms claim to strip owners of their right to sell their device

#70

The no sale requirements in the "contract" is interesting. However, is the following actually legal in the US? > You have only yourself to blame. Once you get the unlock code, your device is no longer covered by the Motorola warranty; in other words, please don't blame us if things go wrong, even if they appear unrelated to unlocking the bootloader. In Australia they can revoke the "Motorola warranty" all they want.…

Canada is the same. In fact, some provinces in Canada require the retailer to honor the warranty if the manufacturer refuses and the warranty was advertised.
Post reply on HN