• Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Literally every company is doing this. There was a time when, for example, Apple could reverse engineer the Word document format and make their own word processor that uses them. This was very common and resulted in things like IBM PC clones that sped up innovation.

    Now companies use litigation and corporate buyouts to reduce their competition, then set up ways to extract rents on customers rather than providing a service. Business folks love this because it means a consistent stream of revenue that won’t go away. And now you’ve got carmakers looking to charge by the month for features.

    For more details, read Chokepoint Capitalism.

    • tuxrandom@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      And now you’ve got carmakers looking to charge by the month for features.

      When I reach the point at which I am forced to buy a car like that, I’d just find out from where the feature gets controlled and hack in my own controller and a good 'ol switch.

      • ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Right now it’s your right to do what you want to your car as long as it still passes vehicle inspection, but it appears that car makers want new laws that prevent you from modifying your own car.

        If we just sit on our hands now, well likely move into a future where we will be forced to either pay subscription or take public transit, which requires subscriptions.