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Re: Do we really own our digital possessions?

Cross-posted to 4 groups.

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On 16/04/2019 7:31 pm, Filip454 wrote:
> W dniu 2019-04-16 o 08:12, Sylvia Else pisze:
>> On 16/04/2019 7:11 am, Alasdair Allan wrote:
>>> <https://phys.org/news/2019-04-digital.html>
>>>
>>> Microsoft has announced that it will close the books category of its 
>>> digital store. While other software and apps will still be available 
>>> via the virtual shop front, and on purchasers' consoles and devices, 
>>> the closure of the eBook store takes with it customers' eBook 
>>> libraries. Any digital books bought through the service – even those 
>>> bought many years ago – will no longer be readable after July 2019. 
>>> While the company has promised to provide a full refund for all eBook 
>>> purchases, this decision raises important questions of ownership.
>>
>> It goes beyond purely the purely digital realm.
>>
>> There are physical products on the market that cannot function 
>> properly without access to a network server that could conceivably 
>> cease to exist at some time in the future, either because the vendor 
>> doesn't want to support the product any more, or because they've gone 
>> into liquidation.
>>
>> While the person clearly owns the physical device, that's not much 
>> consolation if it can not be used any more.
>>
>> Sylvia.
> 
> Well, for me, the biggest problem is with all those physical copies of 
> games and software which still demand the connection to the main server.
> 
> Nowadays it is a plague - more and more applications cannot function 
> offline properly.
> 
> So you are right. For me it is sick.
> 
> For example: games like Hexen II (1997) or Jane's Combat Simulations 
> (1996) still work without any problems (even on Windows 10), while some 
> games from 2007 will not work because the Games For Windows LIVE service 
> is already down.
> 

The Tesla Powerwall's only documented (by Tesla) way of controlling it 
is via an ap, that depends on a server. There are however some 
undocumented ways of controlling it even if the server goes away.

But it allows remote updates to its firmware, and the only way to 
prevent them is to block its access to the servers it uses for those, 
which compromises the warranty.

The transactions are encrypted, and use a certificate issued by an 
internal Tesla certificate authority. It seems likely that that's the 
only CA that the firmware will accept. It certainly didn't accept the CA 
I created.

So if Tesla Motors went down the tubes, taking the Powerwall business 
with it, a disgruntled employee could distribute a non-functioning 
firmware, and leave owners with Powerwalls that no longer work, with 
nothing they can do about it, and no one to sue.

Sylvia.

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Do we really own our digital possessions? "Alasdair Allan" <posthamster@x-static.demon.co.uk> - 2019-04-15 21:11 +0000
  Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Filip454 <filip454.newsgroups@gmail.com> - 2019-04-16 00:01 +0200
    Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2019-04-16 17:20 -0500
  Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-16 16:12 +1000
    Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Filip454 <filip454.newsgroups@gmail.com> - 2019-04-16 11:31 +0200
      Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) - 2019-04-16 17:22 -0500
      Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-17 12:39 +1000
    Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> - 2019-04-16 20:29 +0000
      Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2019-04-17 06:26 +0000
        Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2019-04-17 12:32 +0000
        Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Jerry Peters <jerry@example.invalid> - 2019-04-18 20:20 +0000
          Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2019-04-18 22:42 +0000
            Re: Do we really own our digital possessions? Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> - 2019-04-19 09:59 +1000

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