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Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

arstechnica.com

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Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#151

Post by goodluckchuck »

lupire wrote: post #99
goodluckchuck wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don’t need more laws. We need to repeal the arbitration act, and let things like this get resolved in court, where we can establish a precedent against this kind of stuff.

Arbitration costs Spotify more than the refund. What's wrong with mass arbitration?

Arbitration doesn’t really create precedent. When one person wins a lawsuit, it reduces the cost for all who follow (on the same facts). The evidence gathered in one case can be re-used in another.

A million arbitrations means a million arbitrary results, where one claimant doesn’t know what evidence was uncovered in the other cases.

Most importantly punitive damages. Arbitrators almost never impose real punishments, which means more companies commit fraud / act maliciously towards customers.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#152

Post by Rinzler89 »

tzs wrote: post #149
Rinzler89 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>My (texas) city comes and picks them up at no charge, and I don't feel that's an unusual situation. That IS pretty unusual, and in a positive way. I live in one of EU's richest socialist countries (Austria) and here YOU have bare the cost of transporting your old fridge or washing machine to the city's recycling depot, which is a huge expense for your average joe as that means owning or renting a car plus renting a…

I'd have thought that most people getting rid of a an old fridge or washing machine are replacing it with a new fridge or washing machine. The same vehicle and trailer and gym-bro that is bringing the new machine can then be used to haul away the old one. That's how it typically works in the US. The appliance dealer offers delivery and for an extra charge will haul away the old unit.

Not all retailers here offer e-waste takeaway with their delivery though. Online ones like Amazon or small discounters do not AFAIk. Only the big brick and mortar ones do since they have their own delivery vehicles and employees.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#154

Post by SkyPuncher »

kuschku wrote: post #146
djc6 wrote: post #3

I reached out to them to get a refund for my Car Thing - and they actually sent me an email asking for my checking account number and routing number to be sent to them VIA EMAIL. And presumably into their ticket system where future hackers will find a nice collection of financial info. I wonder if their CISO or security team is aware of this, I reached out to address found in https://www.spotify.com/.well-known/secur…

> they actually sent me an email asking for my checking account number and routing number to be sent to them VIA EMAIL Is that an actual issue with US accounts? Over in EU it's common to publish your account number (IBAN) and routing code (BIC) on your website, letterhead, and obviously on bills you send to customers so they can pay you. They should only be able to send you money, not use it to request money, right?

In the US, it goes both ways with just a routing and account number.

It's a terribly outdated system.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#155

Post by AzzyHN »

djc6 wrote: post #3

I reached out to them to get a refund for my Car Thing - and they actually sent me an email asking for my checking account number and routing number to be sent to them VIA EMAIL. And presumably into their ticket system where future hackers will find a nice collection of financial info. I wonder if their CISO or security team is aware of this, I reached out to address found in https://www.spotify.com/.well-known/secur…

That's insane. If anybody told me to send them my bank account number and routing number, I'd assume they're a scammer.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#156

Post by goodluckchuck »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #58
goodluckchuck wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don’t need more laws. We need to repeal the arbitration act, and let things like this get resolved in court, where we can establish a precedent against this kind of stuff.

Do you have any reason to believe that "open unsupported hardware" would be a bad law? Resolving this in court every time a company decides to drop support seems worse.

Courts are pretty good at not stirring up unnecessary trouble. So they are currently “resolving” all the many cases where a company dropped support and the customer doesn’t really mind because the device is old. They’re doing a great job resolving this Spotify case where Spotify is offering refunds and people are getting their money back. The vast majority of the time, there’s no need for a lawsuit and everyone works it out… that’s better than statutes which often stir up unnecessary disputes.

“Open” “unsupported” hardware would be hard because frankly I don’t know what that means. People who have the Spotify thing are pretty much free to do what they want with it. There are some DRM and anti-circumvention laws… but those are bad laws regardless of whether the device is supported or not. Again, just repeal those statutes as well.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#157

Post by jjice »

kuschku wrote: post #146
djc6 wrote: post #3

I reached out to them to get a refund for my Car Thing - and they actually sent me an email asking for my checking account number and routing number to be sent to them VIA EMAIL. And presumably into their ticket system where future hackers will find a nice collection of financial info. I wonder if their CISO or security team is aware of this, I reached out to address found in https://www.spotify.com/.well-known/secur…

> they actually sent me an email asking for my checking account number and routing number to be sent to them VIA EMAIL Is that an actual issue with US accounts? Over in EU it's common to publish your account number (IBAN) and routing code (BIC) on your website, letterhead, and obviously on bills you send to customers so they can pay you. They should only be able to send you money, not use it to request money, right?

Oh man this would fix the most annoying and terrifying part of bank transactions in the US (IMO). Instead, we have a million third parties that help ease the situation, but all take a cut, so some services make you use the original method.

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#158

Post by einsteinx2 »

tra3 wrote: post #143
jonah wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I missed buying one for $30 when they were clearing them out a while ago and recently decided I wanted one for my car so started looking on eBay - they're going for at or more than the full, original price! Maybe with this EOL announcement, the prices will drop and I can pick one up cheap to repurpose for something else.

well I was going to use it for Spotify, but without official support it's going to be a pain. Unless someone's already hacked it.

It’s already rooted. Here’s the GitHub repo if you’re interested in rooting yours: “frederic/superbird-bulkcmd”

It looks like it might be difficult to write custom applications for it though based on this info in the GitHub readme:

“At this point we had full u-boot access, as well as persistent ADB (root) access, we initially wanted to try to bring-up Android Automotive on the device, but 500 MB of RAM made Android near-impossible to port.

We also tried to get other GUI applications cough maybe doom cough running, but this device utilizes a QT feature called EGLFS, which doesn't have a window management system like X11 or Wayland, so it is hard to get additional applications running on the device, but hey, maybe someone in the community can get it working using the access we're providing!”

Re: Spotify won't open-source Car Thing, but starts refund process

#160

Post by semi-extrinsic »

Anthony-G wrote: post #126

When I read stories about companies like Spotify creating e-waste like this, I think it’s worth pointing out that commercial companies don’t have to behave this way. As a counter-point, back around 2008, I purchased two Squeezebox music players from Logitech (digital music players that Logitech had acquired from Slim Devices: high quality DACs that supported every audio format, gap-less playback, synchronised playing…

Logitech seem to be crazy about user support somehow. I had one of their old Harmony IR remote controls, and when they discontinued the software used for programming the older generations of remotes, they sent me a brand new remote free of charge.
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