Cellular Repo Man 253
LateNiteTV sends in news of a "kill pill" from LM Ericsson AB that a wireless carrier could use to remotely disable a subsidized netbook if the customer doesn't pay the monthly bill or cancels their credit card. "...the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with [the nonpayment] issue by including a feature that's virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on. ... Laptop makers that use Ericsson modules include LG Electronics Inc., Dell Inc., Toshiba Corp., and Lenovo." The feature could also be used to lock thieves out of the data on a stolen laptop.
Used car salesmen use the same thing (Score:5, Insightful)
We have had several used car lots around here that will basically do the same thing: if you don't make your weekly or monthly payments, they send a signal to a device attached to the starter and the car won't start.
At least with the car, eventually you pay it off so that little cloud is no longer hanging over your head unless some idiot at the lot mistakes you for being in non-payment and kills your starter. With one of these notebooks, you'll always have that threat looming that your notebook will shut down if someone steals your only CC and you have to cancel it or what not at the wrong time in the billing cycle.
One would hope nobody involved would be so draconian but you never know.
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I would assume that there would be a grace period, and that they'd try to contact you fist. That's just good business sense. Even the mafia won't off-you if you're 5 minutes late on your payments - they'll send someone around to have a chat with you, first.
Re:Used car salesmen use the same thing (Score:5, Funny)
that's just good business sense. Even the mafia won't off-you if you're 5 minutes late on your payments
As someone who just became five minutes late on my 'protection' money, I can attest to th
Re:Used car salesmen use the same thing (Score:5, Funny)
Well, at least the goons were nice enough to hit the "preview" and "submit" button for you, in addition to all the other bits that they were hitting ...
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Much like the car starter, this "kill chip" can and will be circumvented.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the kind of people who default on small payment are often the same kind of people who hang out with shady people. What? Did you think deadbeats lived in caves ?
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123794137545832713.html
It's real.
I stand corrected (Score:5, Insightful)
Never underestimate the depths of motherfuckertude people will sink to in order to get that dollar.
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Re:I stand corrected (Score:5, Insightful)
Devil's advocate here:
Usually I see cars outfitted with these devices (either remotely disabled, or requiring the car's driver to enter a PIN every week to month until payments are done) sold by used car dealers who are dealing with people with frighteningly bad credit histories.
I do not like the devices either, but if it means someone is able to purchase a vehicle to drive to work and back (who otherwise would be turned away due to poor credit) to keep a job, that is one less indigent off the tax rolls.
Re:I stand corrected (Score:4, Interesting)
"Usually I see cars outfitted with these devices (either remotely disabled, or requiring the car's driver to enter a PIN every week to month until payments are done) sold by used car dealers who are dealing with people with frighteningly bad credit histories."
The lot I help out at buys cheap cars at auctions, some of which had been repo'ed with the help of these little gizmos.
Dealers who deal with people with no credit often have a down payment that covers what they have in the car, so if the customer smashes it they still win. The guy I help out doesn't even check history or require full coverage insurance! He makes a very nice profit, sells vehicles at reasonable prices, and while he repos some he doesn't get excited about it because it isn't required for him to do well. The downturn may have hurt NEW car sales, but he does fine.
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what's wrong with people selling a car wanting to get paid? it's not like the people getting one of those units have a good repayment history. these are people who would otherwise not get a loan at all.
Because cars want to be free, like music, movies and software. Car dealers are the worst sort of scum, they have all those cars and they want you to PAY for them!!! Outrageous!!!!
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Re:Can't pay for your car? Ride a bicycle! (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny that. I live in rural Sweden, hilly country studded with trees and frosty in wintertime. I do my shopping in a village about 15 km to the south of here. I have a daughter I bring to 'dagis' (playschool) every day. On a bike. The shopping goes in the trailer, the daughter in the seat on the back. To blindly state that 'you would not last a day on a bike in that scenario' just shows that you are so blindsided by having access to a car that for you that car is the ONLY means of transport. No matter that elsewhere on this planet billions of people get by without having access to cars.
Try it for a change. I realise that the US is not the best country for cyclists but then again neither is Sweden. Still, it is possible, and by using that bike instead of a car you not only save a lot of money and birds and bees and trees and lives but you also get that workout which you now have to pay the fitness center or sports school for. Not to mention the good example you'll give your two kids. Raise them on cars and they'll become just like you - car-dependent. Raise them on bikes and they'll become aware themselves.
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Here in Texas a 20 mile bike ride is not the way to start out the work day, unless you are in the shower business.
All you need is a place to shower at work and a locker room. If you're planning on a 20 mile bike ride to work, then those five minutes for taking a shower and changing into your work clothes shouldn't be a problem.
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Ding. Correct. Pay up, slacker!
Compare to LoJack (Score:2)
Apart from the questionable legality, there's the expense (that'd take a cell connection with a monthly charge, or a big ol' broadcast tower)
I'd imagine that insurance companies pay for a chunk of it. Some major auto insurance companies already give a discount to the owner of a car equipped with a LoJack device [lojack.com].
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What a great business plan... hand out free DF'ing gear to cops, and get people to pay to have the transmitters installed in their cars... kick back and watch the cash roll in, and do NOTHING to actually find stolen vehicles. Awesome.
The cops get to play anytime their free in-car unit starts freaking out that someone's car is transmitting nearby (I've listened to three different jurisdictions chase the same car around the city for hours before on the scanner) and the owner eventually gets their car back, p
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I don't know which satet that is, but I'm guessing that until a large proportion (if not all) of it has been paid off it is "legally owned" indeed - by the finance company.
Re:Used car salesmen use the same thing (Score:5, Informative)
Sure the bank or lender makes you sign a contract guaranteeing them the right to repossess the object if you fail to honor the payment agreement, but pretty key in that sentence is the word REpossess. They pass possession to you. Now it may also be that the property is the security on the loan, but again, security is a pretty specific concept in law. If the lender owns your property, they can sell it or dispose of it at any time, apropos of anything else. They don't. They retain the contractual right to reposess, claim or lien the security until you satisfy your debt. That is not the same thing.
Stolen Laptop, yes. Data, No. (Score:5, Insightful)
A theif could easily take out the hard drive and read it using another device, no? you are locking a theif out of a laptop, not the data within.
Re:Stolen Laptop, yes. Data, No. (Score:5, Insightful)
semtex (Score:3, Funny)
Presumably, these new netbooks also have a strangely oily layer of orange material inside attached to the remote kill switch.
So whatever you do, don't cut the red wire.
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So whatever you do, don't cut the red wire.
RED wire? no don't cut it.
shunt it to ground with a 2k resistor.
Re:Stolen Laptop, yes. Data, No. (Score:4, Informative)
Most thefts aren't data thefts or other espionage related thefts. I would wager most notebook (and other electronic gadget) thefts are for profit thefts. A thief will swipe you laptop and try to hock it at a pawn shop or other crooked store that fronts stolen goods. Too many people start thinking "James Bond" without thinking in a more real world sense. Sure there are espionage related thefts but most electronic gadgetry thefts are by desperate individuals looking for fast cash. And those thieves are often junkies looking for a fix and will steal anything of value to get it.
Besides the article is talking about disabling notebooks that are subsidized by wireless broadband plans in which the customer stops paying for. Not stolen notebooks.
Re:Stolen Laptop, yes. Data, No. (Score:5, Insightful)
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A theif could easily take out the hard drive and read it using another device, no? you are locking a theif out of a laptop, not the data within.
You could design a proprietary drive that only functions within that laptop and should anyone remove the drive there would be a fail safe that erases the data or locks the data until it is reattached to the original laptop.
Not sure if the technology is possible for something like this (I'm a comedy writer for a living, no technical experience) but I'm sure you could prevent people from accessing a drive somehow.
Re:Stolen Laptop, yes. Data, No. (Score:4, Insightful)
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You could design a proprietary drive that only functions within that laptop
That's a lot of R&D to put into proprietary interfaces when whole-disk encryption with off-the-shelf components is a lot easier to deploy.
Compare to Xbox 360 hard drives (Score:3, Interesting)
That's a lot of R&D to put into proprietary interfaces when whole-disk encryption with off-the-shelf components is a lot easier to deploy.
Yet Microsoft put the R&D into the Xbox 360 game console's proprietary hard drive interface.
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Yet Microsoft put the R&D into the Xbox 360 game console's proprietary hard drive interface.
Microsoft is Microsoft. A rent-to-own company is not Microsoft.
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No, they're a "buy it and use it the way we tell you, you own nothing" company. Otherwise they wouldn't have EULAs on all their software and hardware.
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Name a single piece of software that doesn't have an EULA.
GNU Emacs. The use of free software is governed by copyright statute, including 17 USC 117 and foreign counterparts that authorize the owner of a lawfully made copy of a computer program to load it into RAM. Licenses affect only the distribution of free software.
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Yet Microsoft put the R&D into the Xbox 360 game console's proprietary hard drive interface.
Their hard drive interface is strictly SATA. The drive has the drive model and serial numbers written to sectors 16-22 signed by MS. If those sectors don't match what the drive firmware reports, the Xbox doesn't report the drive as attached. You can pull the drive out of the MS casing and use it just like any other 2.5" SATA drive, but unless you make a backup of sectors 16-22 on the drive, you're not going to get the Xbox to recognize it again.
I'm guessing it took MS about 10 minutes to come up wi
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Bitlocker does exactly this, assuming the laptop has a TPM chip. Once enabled and the recovery key saved somewhere secure, the laptop boots, grabs the volume key from the TPM and goes about its business without needing a password. Should the drive be yanked and read from another machine, it will be encrypted and useless without the recovery key.
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it is data will be encrypted?
I think that in actual fact you fucked it for him.
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Just make sure you provide a copy of the crypto key to the legitimate owner in case the motherboard fails outright.... That would really suck to lose all your data merely because your motherboard blew a couple of filter caps.
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Which is why you should use Truecrypt on your laptop if you possess sensitive data.
B.t.w. Since it was a reference to LM Ericsson AB, it has a April's fools taste of the whole thing.
Data Thief? ... More likely after the laptop part. (Score:3, Informative)
This feature won't help protect your data really, just make laptop itself a paperweight.
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imbecuntcile
This almost passes as German...
Here's a better idea (Score:5, Insightful)
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Just curious... why? It seems to be what the market demands.
Don't get me wrong - I would jump at the chance to get a non-subsidized phone/data plan, but I am more angry at the ignorant masses than at the companies fulfilling their desires.
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Morality always trumps "what the market demands" for me.
I can't control other people, but I wouldn't run a business like this simply because it seems wrong.
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Morality always trumps "what the market demands" for me.
That's an interesting perspective - I never would have considered cell phone pricing to be a moral issue. If I thought that they were taking advantage of people, I'd probably agree with you... but if you look at the huge number of companies out there who offer some kind of financing as part of their pricing, it's clear that most people look at monthly payment rather than total cost. Even cars are advertised by their monthly payment, and they are a whole order of magnitude more expensive than cell phone plan
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Financing is different. As I understand it, this is a rental tied to a contract binding the user to continue to pay for an unrelated service.
In the former case, you own something. In the latter, you do not.
Re:Here's a better idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Just curious... why? It seems to be what the market demands.
Don't get me wrong - I would jump at the chance to get a non-subsidized phone/data plan, but I am more angry at the ignorant masses than at the companies fulfilling their desires.
In markets like mobile telecoms there are only a few big players, so the market gets offered what the players want to offer, not necessarily what the customers want. Obviously collusion is illegal, but "singing from the same hymn sheet" isn't.
The utter cluelessness of most customers when it comes to computers and tech in general doesn't help much either. I guess this could be viewed as "what the market demands" though.
I'm sure it's a bit of both, plus some more.
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In markets like mobile telecoms there are only a few big players
I'd agree except that - unless my memory is playing tricks on me - the subsidized phones started way back when there were dozens of carriers serving various regions of the US. It took off not because of carrier greed, but because consumers were more willing to sign up with little initial outlay.
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It was a bit of both, actually. The rural carriers especially were interested in grabbing fat roaming fees ($5-6 a minute was not uncommon!), which is why the lawyers had a field day doing cookie cutter cellular a
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On the other hand, asking customers what new features they wanted was an exercise in futility. First, more than half didn't kno
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What do you think I've been wanting here in the USA? A SIM-only cell phone plan. Like Vodafone.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "SIM-only cell phone plan", but there are pay-as-you-go plans from major wireless carriers, like T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon (although Verizon's "pay-as-you-go" is just subscription on daily installment, since you pay daily "access fee" even on days you don't use your phone).
And you don't have to get a new cell phone when you get the SIM cards for these services, so if you have an unlocked cell phone or one that works with the carrier, you just go to the dealership
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Just how much do you think you should have to pay for such a device? Cellphones are far from the only "subscription" service with a "registration fee" or equivalent.
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Why should they stop trying to convince people that $60/mo makes sense? Fact is that after the computer is paid, people will still be paying $60 a month. After owning the computer and internet access for 4 years, not only have they recouped the price of the system, but they've recouped it twice over.
Computer: $400
Internet Access $30/mo (normally)
At $60/mo, the phone company needs 14 months to repay the price of the computer (which, by the way, is probably tax deductible as a business expense anyway since
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Computer: $400
Internet Access $30/mo (normally)
Where? In Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States, a normal data-only plan from Centennial or AT&T or Verizon without a ridiculously low cap (e.g. 0.1 GB/mo) costs $60 per month.
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Wow, sucks to be you...
It's not nearly that bad in Canada. [www.shaw.ca]
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In Ohio Verizon only sticks it to you for $30/month on an "unlimited"(really 5GB) plan.
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Pay as you go plans are the price leaders in Germany. You get the cheapest per minute prices with plans that have no minimum contract term. Upfront costs are typically less than $10 for the SIM card and often count towards your balance. You can still get subsidized phones with pre- and post-payment plans, but the minutes are considerably more expensive and the phone is almost always locked to the SIM card.
It shouldn't come as a surprise: Customers will more easily switch to a cheaper competitor if they're n
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The guarenteed revenue stream that a contract has helps reduce the cost of doing business (the customer aquisition cost can be defrayed over more payments).
This is why when your contract runs out you get offers for free phones in the mail from your carrier. They WANT you to get a free phone, rather that risk you leaving at any point. And this while you are paying "too much" monthly. Look at how expensive pay as you go plans are. Contracts reduce rates.
I have an alternative view on what would reduce rates. It's simple, too.
Make all mobile phones able to interoperate with all of the national cellular networks. Make the cellular companies' FCC licenses depend on fully publishing their protocols/etc. as open standards if necessary. The idea here is that you can independently buy any phone you like from the vendor of your choice and then use it on any network you like. Then get rid of all contracts and make the carriers adopt month-to-month plans. You
Rogue Wireless Carrier SysAdmin (Score:5, Funny)
When HR comes around to fire Stu, he leaves his timebomb in place. The one that fires out the kill message to hundreds - nay - thousands of customers - and disables their leased laptops all at once.
What a day that will be.
Re:Rogue Wireless Carrier SysAdmin (Score:5, Insightful)
How much fun will it be when the wireless carrier fires Crazy Stu, the wacky UNIX sysadmin with the penchant for conspiracy theories and bad dental health. When HR comes around to fire Stu, he leaves his timebomb in place. The one that fires out the kill message to hundreds - nay - thousands of customers - and disables their leased laptops all at once. What a day that will be.
I hope it does not come to that, but should that happen anyway, in a way I would be grateful. It is unfortunate that things like that often have to happen before people are willing to question whether what they were doing was a good idea. My opinion is that anything which is needlessly centralized and open to this sort of vulnerability is a bad idea, especially when there are already established ways to deal with the problem this intends to solve. I consider the likelihood of such an exploit occurring to be irrelevant; there would be no such possibility at all if this were the correct solution.
We are talking about financers and lenders, or those who do something similar by using long-term contracts to subsidize what would otherwise be an up-front cost. It's a form of credit because it takes time to become profitable and it depends on the other party not defaulting. If such people want to extend credit to those who are bad risks, that is the original problem and an improved "repo man" does nothing to solve it. It only addresses the symptoms of the original problem.
For people who default on a loan or a contract, this pseudo-solution is essentially an alternative to taking them to court. It means that the lender can just remotely disable the equipment that was not paid for without having to use any sort of due process. It is thus an extra-legal power that did not previously exist, and is rightfully called a power grab. The entire point of the court system is that both sides can make their case. If the money required to bring a lawsuit against a large corporation already makes this difficult for the average person to pursue, taking the courts entirely out of the equation makes it impossible. This is not a good precedent. If this catches on, it will become increasingly difficult to buy a cell phone or perhaps a laptop without agreeing to allow it.
It's amazing to me that we will do almost anything, come up with nearly any clever solution, go to any effort, to avoid directly addressing the actual cause of our problems. It's as though we feel threatened by the prospect, or inadequate at having failed to realize its simplicity. This is why we live in a superficial society. This is also why there are so many bad precedents which seem inevitable although they did not need to be that way at all.
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If people shoot at students and teachers in a campus and kill themselves in the end, it would be nicer if they kills thousands of computers and the owners can spend some time with their families.
I seem to have missed your point. If that relates to what I was discussing, may I ask you to explain how?
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Oops. I am simply trying to think positively for any pitfalls you tried (worried) to address.
There are no worries here, for I consider that to be a weakness, a way to suffer before anything bad has even happened. No one can see the folly of that and still want to do it. Besides, worry implies an element of uncertainty. There is no uncertainty about the fact that we have this nasty habit of concerning ourselves with outward symptoms and not the underlying problems that cause them. There is no uncertainty about the fact that there are better ways to live that don't require a person to feel like a
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When HR comes around to fire Stu, he leaves his timebomb in place. The one that fires out the kill message to hundreds - nay - thousands of customers - and disables their leased laptops all at once.
Later that day, the company sues Stu for malicious destruction of property, lost business revenue, failure to fulfill a duty of care (remember, employees are actually expect to work for their employer, not against them). A few hours later, an injunction will issue requiring Stu to return the computer network to the state before he left pending further hearings. Stu will either comply or face escalating sanctions and then jail time until he complies with the court order (which the company is entitled to as a
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Unfortunately, by the time Stu has run his timebomb, Stu has also had fractions of a cent transferred to a bank account in the Caymans and is now living somewhere in the Bahamas under the pseudonym Leonard Stumonias, Esquire.
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When HR comes around to fire Stu, he leaves his timebomb in place. The one that fires out the kill message to hundreds - nay - thousands of customers - and disables their leased laptops all at once.
Later that day, the company sues Stu for malicious destruction of property, lost business revenue, failure to fulfill a duty of care (remember, employees are actually expect to work for their employer, not against them).
Or Stu never gets caught, because he adequetely covered his tracks. Either way, Stu doesn't even have enough money to pay the company for damages.
The company will apologize profusely, give everyone a free week of service (maybe a month, depending on how the PR department sees this)
Yeah right. The customers would be lucky if the service provider gave you a number you could call to get a refund credited to your bill for the 2 days you were out of service. The phone waiting time will be 45 mins, the refund will be $3, and less than 10% of all customers will go through the hassle.
I like your idea of giving customers a free week, and it would pr
He won't bother to write or phone you... (Score:2, Funny)
He'll just rip the still beating heart from your chest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMP2dvGFUlk&fmt=18 [youtube.com]
Great malware target (Score:2)
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I predict (Score:5, Insightful)
that within 5 minutes of the sale of the first such laptop, there will be 1,080,456 web sites with detailed, step by step instructions (with screen shots) on how to disable the feature, and at least ten times as many with instructions on how to physically remove the wireless moden.
And ten seconds after that, every single one of them will be slashdotted.
Re:I predict (Score:4, Interesting)
And another 5 minutes later there will be instructions on how to send the kill signal to any laptop. Have fun bricking the laptops of anyone you don't like.
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"Have fun bricking the laptops of anyone you don't like."
It's the only thing I thought about when I read the summary. The target isn't "bricking the laptops", it's permanently destroying that company's reputation. Their competitors are as motivated to crack this as anybody else.
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And people offering that service for a fee, as they did with PS1/2 chips.
how precsiely will it work? (Score:2, Interesting)
Great. ANOTHER list... (Score:2)
The list of companies to NOT do business with continues to grow.
Speak with your dollars, refuse to purchase devices from companies that have these modems installed, and these companies will no longer install them. Simple as that.
The next step is legislation that PRECLUDES companies from disabling purchased products, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. Simply put, command-destruct/self-destruct functions should be illegal in ANY product. Legislation wouldn't be needed if everyone KNEW what these asshole companies do,
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"Simply put, command-destruct/self-destruct functions should be illegal in ANY product."
Future NASA launch safety officers will be equipped with a Really Large Catchers Mitt.
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The next step is legislation that PRECLUDES companies from disabling purchased products, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. Simply put, command-destruct/self-destruct functions should be illegal in ANY product. Legislation wouldn't be needed if everyone KNEW what these asshole companies do, but that is not going to happen since they(the manufacturers/sellers) will ALWAYS try to hide the fact of "limited ownership" until after purchase(and even after)
Yes, let's support the nanny state! Why should it be illegal for me to purchase this, or for me to produce this, because you may personally disagree with it? If the remote disable is one way to lower the cost of my next laptop (and one with cellular Internet to boot), I might go for it. If one of us doesn't hold to our end of the contract (if they cut off my service), that is what the government is there to protect.
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And what happens after the required "lease" runs out?
If you read the article, you would have noticed that after 2 years, the purchaser is FREE of any obligation to anyone(subsidizers), but the company with the kill switch STILL has the ability to push it.
"Once again, an undeserved sense of entitlement from a Slashdotter! It's yours when the contract is over. That's what you signed. Deal with it."
It isn't YOURS if someone can take it from you on a whim.
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And what happens after the required "lease" runs out?
New contracts eliminate the purchase portion of the lease-purchase agreement, stating that the hardware is not the customer's when the contract runs out. Instead, the customer returns the hardware to the cell phone company for a refund on his deposit.
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That's what "they" told us about cell phones, yet when I go to another company for service, I am informed that the phone I purchased from my previous provider is UNUSABLE on other networks...YEARS after I purchased it.
So, I call bullshit.
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when I go to another company for service, I am informed that the phone I purchased from my previous provider is UNUSABLE on other networks...YEARS after I purchased it.
In the United States, this might be true because Verizon and Sprint use a Qualcomm CDMA stack, while AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. Besides, contracts in the United States seldom guarantee the customer's right to remove the subsidy lock from the phone once the contract is over.
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"In the United States, this might be true because Verizon and Sprint use a Qualcomm CDMA stack, while AT&T and T-Mobile use GSM. Besides, contracts in the United States seldom guarantee the customer's right to remove the subsidy lock from the phone once the contract is over."
That's all fine and dandy, had I been told such a "lock" was in place, permanently. Only problem was that I wasn't told(and yes, I looked at the contract I signed...tried for 2 years to get out of it). As a matter of fact, the clerk
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Nonsense. Neither of the GSM carriers in Canada will give you the MSL to unlock your phone, even after the contract has run out. It's their policy not to. We already know how this will play out.
I have zero problem with carriers locking the phones they're subsidizing. I have a big problem when they refuse to give you the keys to the lock when you've paid your dues.
A Slam-Dunk Prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
The RIAA/MPAA will be requiring such a capability as part of any "three-strikes" legislation. That will include felony charges for tampering with the hardware that makes the kill switch possible.
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And then requiring it of all computers sold. Trusted Computing 2.0
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911? (Score:5, Informative)
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VoIP 911 (Score:2)
These are NOT cell phones, they are netbooks with cellular data connections.
Then wouldn't all low-cost subnotebooks with cellular data connections be required to be able to make 911 calls over SIP?
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Doesn't apply to a laptop.
MiniPCI (Score:2)
On the Dell Mini 9 I opened the other day to add RAM, the 3G modem was a miniPCI card.
1. Buy subsidized netbook.
2. Remove miniPCI card modem
3. Cancel credit card
4. Resell netbook at markup.
5. Profit!
A few more steps than the Gnomes, but it works.
abused (Score:2)
This is an early April Fools day joke right ?
How about just unhooking the cellular antenna / ca (Score:2)
How about just unhooking the cellular antenna / card so the system can't get the shut off code it's no loss as you are not paying for the data link and getting no data over it anyways.
Hope it's not used by a professional... (Score:3, Insightful)
Not that I'd buy one of these, but suppose, for example, that I do. And suppose, furthermore, that because of some screwup with my bank, or human error (oops, transposed two CC digits!), my bill doesn't get paid.
I'm charging clients $100 an *hour*. If you disable my laptop for even a single 8 hour day, you owe *me* money.
Did they think of that? Did it occur to them that if this functionality *accidentally* gets tripped, the lawsuit could easily erase not just the profit on the modem and the service, but the laptop as well?
Or, to put it another way: why would someone sell a laptop (on contract) to someone who can't afford a cellphone?
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It sounds almost as wonderful as allowing websites to take control of and install software on your computer with Active X, with or without the user's knowledge or consent! Wonderful innovation coming from the minds of our mercantile masters!
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
That bei