When I was a grub, we traded in forbidden knowledge: “If you unscrew the receiver on a pay phone and short the screws on the back of the speaker by touching them to the chrome on the side of the phone, you get an open dial tone.”
Or: “Here is how you fold an origami crane.” Or: “Thus and so and thus and so, and now you’ve taken the motor out of your old tape recorder and attached it to your Meccano set.” Or: “If you POKE this address on your Commodore PET, you’ll shut the machine down.” The knowledge diffused slowly, and each newly discovered crumb was an excitement and cause for celebration.
Today, as a nearly senescent 39-year-old, I look back on that period with a kind of wonder and dismay. I knew ten interesting things I could do with the gadgets, devices, and materials around me, and I thought myself rich. I knew that the Whole Earth Catalog, the Amok catalog, Paladin Press, and other purveyors of big secrets could send me dozens of new interesting things in mere weeks.
Thinking on my collection of hacks in those dim, pre-internet days, I’m reminded of the book fanciers of the Middle Ages who might, in a lifetimes, amass five or ten books and think themselves well-read.
Because, of course, today I have millions of hacks and tips and tricks and ideas at my fingertips, thanks to the internet and the tools that run on top of it. When I invent or discover something, I immediately put it on the net. And when I find myself in a corner of the world that is not to my liking, I Google up some hack that someone else has put on the net and apply it or adapt it to my needs.
Making, in short, is not about making. Making is about sharing. The reason we can make so much today is because the basic knowledge, skills, and tools to make anything and do anything are already on the ground, forming a loam in which our inspiration can germinate.
Consider the iPad for a moment. It’s true that Apple’s iTunes Store has inspired hundreds of thousands of apps, but every one of those apps is contingent on Apple’s approval. If you want to make something for the iPad, you pay $99 to join the Developer Program, make it, then send it to Apple and pray. If Apple smiles on you, you can send your hack to the world. If Apple frowns on you, you cannot.
What’s more, Apple uses code signing to restrict which apps can run on the iPad (and iPhone): if your app isn’t blessed by Apple, iPads will refuse to run it. Not that it’s technically challenging to defeat this code signing, but doing so is illegal, thanks to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it a crime to circumvent a copyright-protection technology. So the only app store — or free repository — that can legally exist for Apple’s devices is the one that Apple runs for itself.
Some people say the iPad is a new kind of device: an appliance instead of a computer. But because Apple chose to add a thin veneer of DRM to the iPad, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act applies here, something that’s not true of any “appliance” you’ve ever seen. It’s as if Apple built a toaster that you can only use Apple’s bread in (or face a lawsuit), or a dishwasher that will only load Apple’s plates.
Apple fans will tell you that this doesn’t matter. Hackers can simply hack their iPads or shell out $99 to get the developer license. But without a means of distributing (and receiving) hacks from all parties, we’re back in the forbidden-knowledge Dark Ages — the poverty-stricken era in which a mere handful of ideas was counted as a fortune.
Cory Doctorow’s latest novel is Makers (Tor Books U.S., HarperVoyager U.K.). He lives in London and co-edits the website Boing Boing.
This column first appeared in MAKE Volume 23 (July 2010), on page 16.
From the pages of MAKE Volume 23:
MAKE Volume 23, Gadgets
This special issue is devoted to machines that do delightful and surprising things. In it, we show you how to make a miniature electronic Whac-a-Mole arcade game, a tiny but mighty see-through audio amp, a magic mirror that contains an animated soothsayer, a self-balancing one-wheeled Gyrocar, and the Most Useless Machine (as seen on The Colbert Report!). Plus we go behind the scenes and show you how Intellectual Ventures made their incredible laser targeting mosquito zapper — yes, it’s real, and you wish you had one for your patio barbecue. All this and much, much more.
I’m also 39. I grew up with the same gadgets and magazines that Doctorow did. But he is describing a world that simply isn’t happening.
In the last car I owned – there wasn’t a single user serviceable part in it. Even oil changes had to be done by a specialist. But every morning I went out, turned it on, and it worked. That is what most people want. And yet it hasn’t killed off the car culture. People still buy old and new cars and hack them to death.
The computer industry is evolving – its time Cory evolved with it.
What car was that? There is no such car, just manuals and dealer service departments that might suggest that’s the case.
Doctorow’s piece sounds a bit entitled. Don’t like how the iPad works? Buy an Android or Windows tablet and do with it as you wish. When someone makes a product that’s not to your liking, the proper answer is to vote with your consumer dollars (i.e. purchase elsewhere), not demand that Apple succumb to your esoteric needs. Or, as others suggest, toughen up and just get your hack on.
Voting with our dollars is fine, but sometimes it only goes so far. I don’t see why voting with our voices (or our *votes*) needs to be taken off the table from the start.
As for entitled, well I’ve got an Android handset sitting right here that’s locked down pretty hard. All I want to do is be “allowed” to run a different kernel on it. On the hardware that I bought and paid for. How is that entitled exactly?
Voting with our dollars is fine, but sometimes it only goes so far. I don’t see why voting with our voices (or our *votes*) needs to be taken off the table from the start.
As for entitled, well I’ve got an Android handset sitting right here that’s locked down pretty hard. All I want to do is be “allowed” to run a different kernel on it. On the hardware that I bought and paid for. How is that entitled exactly?
Voting with our dollars is fine, but sometimes it only goes so far. I don’t see why voting with our voices (or our *votes*) needs to be taken off the table from the start.
As for entitled, well I’ve got an Android handset sitting right here that’s locked down pretty hard. All I want to do is be “allowed” to run a different kernel on it. On the hardware that I bought and paid for. How is that entitled exactly?
The problem here isn’t the vast majority of users who just want stuff that works (or reflects the status they want to project, as the case may be…). It’s certainly the case that people who want to brew their own beer or take 555 timer circuits to strange new places are never going to be in majorities compared to the people that just want to quench their thirst or play a video game, and that’s fine.
The problem is that lawmakers, at the behest of large incumbent rights holders, network operators and so forth, want to use Orwellian measures to take large bites out a lot of the implicit rights and capabilities that hobbyists and hackers have relied on to both make the most out of their own property, and to produce a lot of innovations that have rippled back into the tech industry itself. It’s a major threat to both makers and to a lot of robust innovation itself. (I doubt it’s entirely coincidental that these restrictions tend to make it harder for someone working in a garage to come up with yet another radical new idea that will threaten an incumbent industry.)
And while it’s certainly true that most of the measures so far have been relatively non-Draconian and easily circumvented, both laws and technical restrictions are advancing rapidly. There’s no guarantee that that situation will last forever. Even if it does, there’s no reason we need to take these abuses lying down.
The problem here isn’t the vast majority of users who just want stuff that works (or reflects the status they want to project, as the case may be…). It’s certainly the case that people who want to brew their own beer or take 555 timer circuits to strange new places are never going to be in majorities compared to the people that just want to quench their thirst or play a video game, and that’s fine.
The problem is that lawmakers, at the behest of large incumbent rights holders, network operators and so forth, want to use Orwellian measures to take large bites out a lot of the implicit rights and capabilities that hobbyists and hackers have relied on to both make the most out of their own property, and to produce a lot of innovations that have rippled back into the tech industry itself. It’s a major threat to both makers and to a lot of robust innovation itself. (I doubt it’s entirely coincidental that these restrictions tend to make it harder for someone working in a garage to come up with yet another radical new idea that will threaten an incumbent industry.)
And while it’s certainly true that most of the measures so far have been relatively non-Draconian and easily circumvented, both laws and technical restrictions are advancing rapidly. There’s no guarantee that that situation will last forever. Even if it does, there’s no reason we need to take these abuses lying down.
That’s not the point of this article. That’s your beef. You guys want government to have control over our finances, our health care and the rest of our lives to the Nth degree, and you bitch about them passing BS laws to help the RIAA? Hey, I’m all for getting the government out of my hair.
Why don’t you start by advocating that the constitution be enforced and the FBI, and %95 of the rest of the government be shut down?
Thats a whole lot of assumptions right there. I for one want smaller government and prettier devices. I love apple and hate taxes (mostly on both accounts). I would still like to see less unnecessary impediments (mostly laws) against hacking stuff I bought.
You are not just making a straw man here, your having a fight with it besides.
Thats a whole lot of assumptions right there. I for one want smaller government and prettier devices. I love apple and hate taxes (mostly on both accounts). I would still like to see less unnecessary impediments (mostly laws) against hacking stuff I bought.
You are not just making a straw man here, your having a fight with it besides.
Thats a whole lot of assumptions right there. I for one want smaller government and prettier devices. I love apple and hate taxes (mostly on both accounts). I would still like to see less unnecessary impediments (mostly laws) against hacking stuff I bought.
You are not just making a straw man here, your having a fight with it besides.
Thats a whole lot of assumptions right there. I for one want smaller government and prettier devices. I love apple and hate taxes (mostly on both accounts). I would still like to see less unnecessary impediments (mostly laws) against hacking stuff I bought.
You are not just making a straw man here, your having a fight with it besides.
The problem here isn’t the vast majority of users who just want stuff that works (or reflects the status they want to project, as the case may be…). It’s certainly the case that people who want to brew their own beer or take 555 timer circuits to strange new places are never going to be in majorities compared to the people that just want to quench their thirst or play a video game, and that’s fine.
The problem is that lawmakers, at the behest of large incumbent rights holders, network operators and so forth, want to use Orwellian measures to take large bites out a lot of the implicit rights and capabilities that hobbyists and hackers have relied on to both make the most out of their own property, and to produce a lot of innovations that have rippled back into the tech industry itself. It’s a major threat to both makers and to a lot of robust innovation itself. (I doubt it’s entirely coincidental that these restrictions tend to make it harder for someone working in a garage to come up with yet another radical new idea that will threaten an incumbent industry.)
And while it’s certainly true that most of the measures so far have been relatively non-Draconian and easily circumvented, both laws and technical restrictions are advancing rapidly. There’s no guarantee that that situation will last forever. Even if it does, there’s no reason we need to take these abuses lying down.
That is a great example, if you want to put a new exhaust system on your Honda to make it run faster, you can. You can add tinted windows, you can even put an entirely different engine in. This is all perfectly legal. Someone can tell you how to replace you engine without fear of being arrested or sued by Honda. Someone can create aftermarket parts without asking Honda for permission.
Most people don’t care about exhaust, they will just drive around all day in a reliable car and they will be happy as a peach.
Honda has lost no money, hackers have improved their car to their own specs, new jobs were created making aftermarket upgrades, and most consumers never notice.
Now apply that same logic to the PS3 hacking (I think apple has been explored enough in this thread). Someone tinkers with their very own legally bought gaming system because they wish it could do more. They tell others how they did it. They get arrested, SONY wants to eliminate all traces of the hack. Sony gets a bad rep with makers and hackers (very small portion of their consumers I am sure).
Sony has lost money by finding and trying to prosecute the hackers, hackers still hack but now its under the table, Sony loses consumers and reputation, most people have no idea any of that just happened.
Tell me, what does SONY really gain be putting a wall around their garden? What does HONDA lose by not?
All this said, I am seriously considering buying a PS3 because I think it is cool (and I don’t believe in voting with my wallet because it doesn’t work). I have ownded a civic and never modded it.
But why would anyone support laws which take away your right to take apart things that you have legally paid for and make them better?
I’m also 39. I grew up with the same gadgets and magazines that Doctorow did. But he is describing a world that simply isn’t happening.
In the last car I owned – there wasn’t a single user serviceable part in it. Even oil changes had to be done by a specialist. But every morning I went out, turned it on, and it worked. That is what most people want. And yet it hasn’t killed off the car culture. People still buy old and new cars and hack them to death.
The computer industry is evolving – its time Cory evolved with it.
The iPad isn’t as restrictive as many people say. We’ve just become weak as makers, somehow we expect the same convenience in the distribution of our hacks as we do in the walled garden version of everything.
You can install any application you want on your iPad, WITHOUT JAILBREAKING IT, but no-one has capitalized on this. You simply download XCode (which costs five bucks but thats the only expense) and then take any source code package compile it and install it to your iPad, iPod or iPhone. It really is that easy, why no-one has setup source code exchanges is beyond me.
You don’t have to purchase the $99 developer license unless you intend to distribute your application in the app store.
What about developers not on OS X?
They can use HTML5 CSS and javascript and distribute online.
Or are you saying Apple’s violating fundamental human rights by shipping its FREE development tools just on OS X?
I at least am saying that it’s 1) kind of absurd and annoying that Apple goes out of it’s way to make it difficult to hack or run alternative software and 2) alarming that, while jailbreaking and certain kinds of reverse engineering is currently legal, there’s no guarantee that those exemptions will last in the current political climate. (Though while I’m here: no, html and javascript are no replacement for native code.)
Anyway, forget about precious, precious Apple for a minute. It’s a red herring. What is your actual objection to having solid legal guarantees for hackers and makers who want to fiddle with their OWN hardware?
I at least am saying that it’s 1) kind of absurd and annoying that Apple goes out of it’s way to make it difficult to hack or run alternative software and 2) alarming that, while jailbreaking and certain kinds of reverse engineering is currently legal, there’s no guarantee that those exemptions will last in the current political climate. (Though while I’m here: no, html and javascript are no replacement for native code.)
Anyway, forget about precious, precious Apple for a minute. It’s a red herring. What is your actual objection to having solid legal guarantees for hackers and makers who want to fiddle with their OWN hardware?
I at least am saying that it’s 1) kind of absurd and annoying that Apple goes out of it’s way to make it difficult to hack or run alternative software and 2) alarming that, while jailbreaking and certain kinds of reverse engineering is currently legal, there’s no guarantee that those exemptions will last in the current political climate. (Though while I’m here: no, html and javascript are no replacement for native code.)
Anyway, forget about precious, precious Apple for a minute. It’s a red herring. What is your actual objection to having solid legal guarantees for hackers and makers who want to fiddle with their OWN hardware?
They can use HTML5 CSS and javascript and distribute online.
Or are you saying Apple’s violating fundamental human rights by shipping its FREE development tools just on OS X?
This isn’t true, at least on iPods and iPhones (pads may be different – don’t have one). While you can certainly download the Xcode and the iOS SDK, write your app and run it on the simulator, you CANNOT run it on an actual device – no, not even the iPhone in your pocket – without forking over the $99 to join the developer program or jailbreaking the device. This is one of the main reasons Cydia exists.
As
Tim Vaughan remarked, this comment is factually mistaken. All iOS
devices require that programs be validly signed before they can be run.
In order to get a signing key, you must join Apple’s developer program,
which costs $99 annually.
– Brett Smith, FSF License Compliance Engineer
This whole article doesn’t make much sense to me. The wonder of childhood discovery is made clear, but then is compared to the Dark Ages. The joy of having those few “secrets” is mocked compared to having everything handed to you on the internet. Jail breaking an iPad is bemoaned as illegal, but that wasn’t much of an issue when bringing up making free calls from a pay phone. Which is it?
The last paragraph really makes no sense, though. Jail breaking an iPad cuts you off from all sources of information? Huh?
Cory has never heard of the internet, he thinks the only way to distribute information is the AppStore.
Cory has never heard of the internet, he thinks the only way to distribute information is the AppStore.
So, without jailbreaking, exactly how do I install a native app from the internet?
So, without jailbreaking, exactly how do I install a native app from the internet?
“What’s more, Apple uses code signing to restrict which apps can run on the iPad (and iPhone): if your app isn’t blessed by Apple, iPads will refuse to run it. Not that it’s technically challenging to defeat this code signing, but doing so is illegal, thanks to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it a crime to circumvent a copyright-protection technology. So the only app store — or free repository — that can legally exist for Apple’s devices is the one that Apple runs for itself.”
There are so many things that are wrong with this paragraph. Defeating the code signing is not illegal–you can sign your own apps and run them on any jailbroken iOS device perfectly legally. Jailbreaking IS legal (for now). Cydia (an app repository) is also legal. The DMCA only applies to those that pirate applications by getting them to run on devices without checking who’s account the app was bought on. THAT is circumventing the copy-protection technology put in place by Apple.
I suggest you change it before more people start whining
This was written for the Make from July 2010 issue. The Library of Congress exemption was made on July 26, 2010. It was a grey area at best at the time of writing.
Its a grey area at best now; IIRC its still illegal to distribute tools that defeat code signing or root devices – so its not really acceptable as a common practice.
Its a grey area at best now; IIRC its still illegal to distribute tools that defeat code signing or root devices – so its not really acceptable as a common practice.
This was written for the Make from July 2010 issue. The Library of Congress exemption was made on July 26, 2010. It was a grey area at best at the time of writing.
This was written for the Make from July 2010 issue. The Library of Congress exemption was made on July 26, 2010. It was a grey area at best at the time of writing.
We get it Mr. Doctorow, you dislike Apple. I don’t know how many of these rants I’ve seen over the years, but they’re numerous…and tedious.
This argument is as old as computers and the people who have hated anything but Linux because you can’t ‘write your own device driver’. Shockingly, 99.9% of the population have no interest whatsoever in writing a device driver.
The same way they don’t want to mill their own fuel injector for their car. They want to drive it and maintain it on a basic level.
The same way I don’t want to wind the copper wire for the motor inside my Bluray player. I, like most people, want to put the disc in and enjoy the movie/program. I’ll hack the things I’m interested in.
But just like the iPad, if you desire such things, it is *possible* with a bit of effort. Not everything in the world needs to be completely open or need deep servicing. Like it or not, Apple’s ‘blessing’ of apps have led to fairly secure platform and reasonably uniform experience for all user levels…from children to the elderly. I’ve yet to read a story about significant malware or viruses for iOS devices, but have read plenty about Android devices. And sure, one can go on for hours about how to prevent them on any platform, but for what reason? To preserve the perceived openness that most of the population doesn’t even desire?
I’ll continue to use my iPad with my PDF books and magazines that slide right on the device, watch movies and TV I converted myself, and listen to my music that I ripped from my own CDs…content that Apple hasn’t had anything to do with stopping me from using. My newest iPad is not jailbroken.
We get it Mr. Doctorow, you dislike Apple. I don’t know how many of these rants I’ve seen over the years, but they’re numerous…and tedious.
This argument is as old as computers and the people who have hated anything but Linux because you can’t ‘write your own device driver’. Shockingly, 99.9% of the population have no interest whatsoever in writing a device driver.
The same way they don’t want to mill their own fuel injector for their car. They want to drive it and maintain it on a basic level.
The same way I don’t want to wind the copper wire for the motor inside my Bluray player. I, like most people, want to put the disc in and enjoy the movie/program. I’ll hack the things I’m interested in.
But just like the iPad, if you desire such things, it is *possible* with a bit of effort. Not everything in the world needs to be completely open or need deep servicing. Like it or not, Apple’s ‘blessing’ of apps have led to fairly secure platform and reasonably uniform experience for all user levels…from children to the elderly. I’ve yet to read a story about significant malware or viruses for iOS devices, but have read plenty about Android devices. And sure, one can go on for hours about how to prevent them on any platform, but for what reason? To preserve the perceived openness that most of the population doesn’t even desire?
I’ll continue to use my iPad with my PDF books and magazines that slide right on the device, watch movies and TV I converted myself, and listen to my music that I ripped from my own CDs…content that Apple hasn’t had anything to do with stopping me from using. My newest iPad is not jailbroken.
Like it or not, Apple’s ‘blessing’ of apps have led to fairly secure platform and reasonably uniform experience for all user levels…from children to the elderly. I’ve yet to read a story about significant malware or viruses for iOS devices, but have read plenty about Android devices.
That has to do with Apple policing it’s app store rather more strictly (which has it’s upsides and downsides) but little or nothing to do with the kinds of os lockdowns or other intrusive measures (e.g., “purchased” books or media disappearing) that I think Cory is really objecting to here. It’s actually really easy to maintain a nice secure walled garden for granny without also creating a prison – it’s as simple as remembering to leave in a clearly labeled exit door for those who want one (or at least stop bricking them over when other people find them).
Again, it’s true that the majority of consumers want safe, easy and reliable. But that’s a very thin excuse indeed for manufacturers to be declaring war on modders and hackers. If anything, those battles are *hurting* ordinary consumers by both pulling resources away from where they should be (user experience and actual security threats, for example) and of very questionable public good – they are often just attempts to clamp down on what are widely perceived as superior products (e.g., the cyanogenmod flavor Android, which is, AFAICT, widely viewed as both more powerful and more reliable than the manufacturers own dolled up offerings).
Believing that manufacturers have declared war on hackers & modders is fantastic, conceited self-flattery. That makers, modders and hackers go around whining “I can’t open my iPad without damaging it! Everyone should make things so they are easy for me to open so I can do my little hacks!” – is disgusting. I got news for you, the real world isn’t here (and shouldn’t be built for) just for your tinkering amusement. Grown-ups have real work to do and need real tools and don’t have the luxury of time for all this hobbyist bullshit.
Read the news. Just to take the example at hand: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
Is that the reaction of a company that’s indifferent to jailbreaking? No. They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels. Hackers and jailbreakers – at least anyone who publishes their results – are very inconvenient to their business plan. They are stymied legally – for now – but they are certainly actively locking down everything else that they can.
That’s not to single out Apple. Many Android handset makers are trying to play similar games (they driven by a terrible fear of becoming commodity hardware manufacturers – like PC mfrs. – although that would be an ideal outcome for consumers). And many other hardware manufacturers would also love to have more control – going back to cars, for example, what if Honda could decide that aftermarket engine parts violated some DMCA-alike law? You think they’d pass that over? Where does it stop?
I get it. An attitude of “bring it on, we’ll hack it anyway, even if we’re outlaws” is definitely admirable. It might become a necessary attitude, and I’ll be right there with you.
But it’s not really a replacement or an excuse not to have some political awareness as well.
Read the news. Just to take the example at hand: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
Is that the reaction of a company that’s indifferent to jailbreaking? No. They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels. Hackers and jailbreakers – at least anyone who publishes their results – are very inconvenient to their business plan. They are stymied legally – for now – but they are certainly actively locking down everything else that they can.
That’s not to single out Apple. Many Android handset makers are trying to play similar games (they driven by a terrible fear of becoming commodity hardware manufacturers – like PC mfrs. – although that would be an ideal outcome for consumers). And many other hardware manufacturers would also love to have more control – going back to cars, for example, what if Honda could decide that aftermarket engine parts violated some DMCA-alike law? You think they’d pass that over? Where does it stop?
I get it. An attitude of “bring it on, we’ll hack it anyway, even if we’re outlaws” is definitely admirable. It might become a necessary attitude, and I’ll be right there with you.
But it’s not really a replacement or an excuse not to have some political awareness as well.
Read the news. Just to take the example at hand: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
Is that the reaction of a company that’s indifferent to jailbreaking? No. They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels. Hackers and jailbreakers – at least anyone who publishes their results – are very inconvenient to their business plan. They are stymied legally – for now – but they are certainly actively locking down everything else that they can.
That’s not to single out Apple. Many Android handset makers are trying to play similar games (they driven by a terrible fear of becoming commodity hardware manufacturers – like PC mfrs. – although that would be an ideal outcome for consumers). And many other hardware manufacturers would also love to have more control – going back to cars, for example, what if Honda could decide that aftermarket engine parts violated some DMCA-alike law? You think they’d pass that over? Where does it stop?
I get it. An attitude of “bring it on, we’ll hack it anyway, even if we’re outlaws” is definitely admirable. It might become a necessary attitude, and I’ll be right there with you.
But it’s not really a replacement or an excuse not to have some political awareness as well.
Read the news. Just to take the example at hand: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
Is that the reaction of a company that’s indifferent to jailbreaking? No. They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels. Hackers and jailbreakers – at least anyone who publishes their results – are very inconvenient to their business plan. They are stymied legally – for now – but they are certainly actively locking down everything else that they can.
That’s not to single out Apple. Many Android handset makers are trying to play similar games (they driven by a terrible fear of becoming commodity hardware manufacturers – like PC mfrs. – although that would be an ideal outcome for consumers). And many other hardware manufacturers would also love to have more control – going back to cars, for example, what if Honda could decide that aftermarket engine parts violated some DMCA-alike law? You think they’d pass that over? Where does it stop?
I get it. An attitude of “bring it on, we’ll hack it anyway, even if we’re outlaws” is definitely admirable. It might become a necessary attitude, and I’ll be right there with you.
But it’s not really a replacement or an excuse not to have some political awareness as well.
“They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels.”
The most concise response to this is, SO WHAT? The last time I checked, this still is America (you know, capitalist free enterprise, market economy, etc.) and has also been pointed out many times, you are free to take your business elsewhere. What dream world do you live in if you believe Apple or any other company has any obligation to give you the keys to their real or metaphorical stores and say, “here, hackers, take whatever you want.”? Where does this incredible, conceited sense of entitlement come from? “Locked down” and “monopoly”… how ridiculous.And whenever I read “political awareness” in this context, I smell a rat… a big, fat, leftist-collective-let’s all share everything-open source-what is yours is mine because I want everything I consume to be free socialist rat.
The DMCA (and whatever its successors might be) has nothing to do with free enterprise and everything to do with government capture.
But obviously being aware of something political like that would be…gasp…leftist or something.
Good luck with that.
The DMCA (and whatever its successors might be) has nothing to do with free enterprise and everything to do with government capture.
But obviously being aware of something political like that would be…gasp…leftist or something.
Good luck with that.
Read the news. Just to take the example at hand: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
Is that the reaction of a company that’s indifferent to jailbreaking? No. They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels. Hackers and jailbreakers – at least anyone who publishes their results – are very inconvenient to their business plan. They are stymied legally – for now – but they are certainly actively locking down everything else that they can.
That’s not to single out Apple. Many Android handset makers are trying to play similar games (they driven by a terrible fear of becoming commodity hardware manufacturers – like PC mfrs. – although that would be an ideal outcome for consumers). And many other hardware manufacturers would also love to have more control – going back to cars, for example, what if Honda could decide that aftermarket engine parts violated some DMCA-alike law? You think they’d pass that over? Where does it stop?
I get it. An attitude of “bring it on, we’ll hack it anyway, even if we’re outlaws” is definitely admirable. It might become a necessary attitude, and I’ll be right there with you.
But it’s not really a replacement or an excuse not to have some political awareness as well.
Read the news. Just to take the example at hand: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/feds-ok-iphone-jailbreaking/
Is that the reaction of a company that’s indifferent to jailbreaking? No. They are willing and eager to take every step they legally can to lock down their monopoly on software distribution, and to make sure customers have no way to install apps on their own hardware except through approved channels. Hackers and jailbreakers – at least anyone who publishes their results – are very inconvenient to their business plan. They are stymied legally – for now – but they are certainly actively locking down everything else that they can.
That’s not to single out Apple. Many Android handset makers are trying to play similar games (they driven by a terrible fear of becoming commodity hardware manufacturers – like PC mfrs. – although that would be an ideal outcome for consumers). And many other hardware manufacturers would also love to have more control – going back to cars, for example, what if Honda could decide that aftermarket engine parts violated some DMCA-alike law? You think they’d pass that over? Where does it stop?
I get it. An attitude of “bring it on, we’ll hack it anyway, even if we’re outlaws” is definitely admirable. It might become a necessary attitude, and I’ll be right there with you.
But it’s not really a replacement or an excuse not to have some political awareness as well.
Believing that manufacturers have declared war on hackers & modders is fantastic, conceited self-flattery. That makers, modders and hackers go around whining “I can’t open my iPad without damaging it! Everyone should make things so they are easy for me to open so I can do my little hacks!” – is disgusting. I got news for you, the real world isn’t here (and shouldn’t be built for) just for your tinkering amusement. Grown-ups have real work to do and need real tools and don’t have the luxury of time for all this hobbyist bullshit.
Like it or not, Apple’s ‘blessing’ of apps have led to fairly secure platform and reasonably uniform experience for all user levels…from children to the elderly. I’ve yet to read a story about significant malware or viruses for iOS devices, but have read plenty about Android devices.
That has to do with Apple policing it’s app store rather more strictly (which has it’s upsides and downsides) but little or nothing to do with the kinds of os lockdowns or other intrusive measures (e.g., “purchased” books or media disappearing) that I think Cory is really objecting to here. It’s actually really easy to maintain a nice secure walled garden for granny without also creating a prison – it’s as simple as remembering to leave in a clearly labeled exit door for those who want one (or at least stop bricking them over when other people find them).
Again, it’s true that the majority of consumers want safe, easy and reliable. But that’s a very thin excuse indeed for manufacturers to be declaring war on modders and hackers. If anything, those battles are *hurting* ordinary consumers by both pulling resources away from where they should be (user experience and actual security threats, for example) and of very questionable public good – they are often just attempts to clamp down on what are widely perceived as superior products (e.g., the cyanogenmod flavor Android, which is, AFAICT, widely viewed as both more powerful and more reliable than the manufacturers own dolled up offerings).
I’ll continue to use my iPad with my PDF books and magazines that slide right on the device, watch movies and TV I converted myself, and listen to my music that I ripped from my own CDs…content that Apple hasn’t had anything to do with stopping me from using.
As for this. Well, I’m glad it’s working for you, but the way things are going, I think I would just say enjoy it while it lasts…
FUD. Apple is a more trustworthy company than any other in the tech space. Google? Pretends to “do no evil” and then sells you out. Facebook? Offers private social networking, then exposes your data.
Unlike other companies, when Apple makes a promise, it keeps it. And Apple has been actively working towards getting rid of DRM.
In fact, Apple has done more to get rid of DRM than Doctorow and the entire freetard movement ever has.
Apple got DRM off of music. MUSIC! Jesus, what have you guys EVER done?
Those are all excellent reasons not to interpret this as some kind of silly vendetta against Apple specifically.
Not really good reasons to just assume everything will turn out all right in the legislative sphere or elsewhere though.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. We get it! You’re an Apple fan girl. Chill, Apple was just an example.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. We get it! You’re an Apple fan girl. Chill, Apple was just an example.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. We get it! You’re an Apple fan girl. Chill, Apple was just an example.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. We get it! You’re an Apple fan girl. Chill, Apple was just an example.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. We get it! You’re an Apple fan girl. Chill, Apple was just an example.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks. We get it! You’re an Apple fan girl. Chill, Apple was just an example.
FUD. Apple is a more trustworthy company than any other in the tech space. Google? Pretends to “do no evil” and then sells you out. Facebook? Offers private social networking, then exposes your data.
Unlike other companies, when Apple makes a promise, it keeps it. And Apple has been actively working towards getting rid of DRM.
In fact, Apple has done more to get rid of DRM than Doctorow and the entire freetard movement ever has.
Apple got DRM off of music. MUSIC! Jesus, what have you guys EVER done?
It’s likely not a disliking of Apple, but rather the things the do or in some cases are/were forced to do. For example placing DRM on music (Thankfully now gone), videos, books, and applications and the closed nature of iOS (Pre-Jailbreaking).
It’s likely not a disliking of Apple, but rather the things the do or in some cases are/were forced to do. For example placing DRM on music (Thankfully now gone), videos, books, and applications and the closed nature of iOS (Pre-Jailbreaking).
No, this is part of a campaign of hate towards apple, and it is nothing more than the modern version of “macs are for stupid people” BS we’ve been hearing for 20 years.
The reason is, in reality, android is just as locked down. But android “runs linux” and is advertised as being “open” and these freetards cant’ be honest enough to admit Apple’s OS is open sourced as well, while android runs proprietary software on top of its open OS just as apple does….. or that android is simply a ripoff of apple to begin with and thus not actually innovative at all.
The only difference between now and the 1990s is that Apple is very successful. The opponents are just as much the trolls they always have been.
You want something different? MAKE IT!
This is much bigger than Apple. The ipad is only a convenient and popular example. Just look around, and think about all the things IP law run amok can do and destroy.
This is much bigger than Apple. The ipad is only a convenient and popular example. Just look around, and think about all the things IP law run amok can do and destroy.
This is much bigger than Apple. The ipad is only a convenient and popular example. Just look around, and think about all the things IP law run amok can do and destroy.
You’ve said that before, and it’s just as false today.
You’ve said that before, and it’s just as false today.
It’s likely not a disliking of Apple, but rather the things the do or in some cases are/were forced to do. For example placing DRM on music (Thankfully now gone), videos, books, and applications and the closed nature of iOS (Pre-Jailbreaking).
very good posting !
very good posting !
very good posting !
very good posting !
very good posting !
Cory has been peddling this crap for years. It is factually false.
XCode + $99 to Apple + GitHUB = Run any App, distribute to who you want, no Apple control
HTML5+CSS3 + Hosting = Run any App, distribute to who you want, no Apple control
The only reason Apple requires you get their “blessing” for the AppStore is to keep out Malware, and legally questionable stuff. That’s it.
It is true that, the hacker culture (which is what makers were back in the day of soldering irons and Apple //e) has evolved…. but it has never been easier to be a hacker than it was then. Then there were no IDEs and when IDEs came out they cost $600, now XCode is FREE. Then tech conferences were very expensive, Now, Apple ships you WWDC in HD for FREE.
Apple has done more to support hacker culture–starting with full schematics in the manuals for the Apple //e all the way thru to free development tools today— than any other company.
Frankly, I don’t see Cory doing a whole lot of hacking… and there’s not a whole lot that can’t be done for these devices using web tools. Not to mention, Macs are completely unrestricted, and still get free tools. But don’t talk about the Mac, cause, you know, its not a “walled garden”.
Yet, rather than making anything, Cory bitches and moans about them because they want to keep out malware.
Cory, this makes you a a douchebag!