> without having to have a computer involved
I shudder to think of a future where musical instruments require you to download an app to use them; where not only are your stove and washing machine phoning home, but your piano as well. No thanks.
I shudder to think of a future where musical instruments require you to download an app to use them; where not only are your stove and washing machine phoning home, but your piano as well. No thanks.
This isn't a proprietary lock-in thing, it's just an unfortunate limitation of USB. Though I suppose a hardware manufacturer could release a product that only works with some special app if they wanted to go that route. (Some devices have settings that can only be accessed via a computer app.)
Attempting to even do the repair yourself will be a violation of the terms and conditions of your subscription and void your ability for you or anyone else to register and ergo use your Piano. If you know or suspect someone of violating these terms please turn them in for a free $100 gift card good for a fine assortment of musical instruments.
If we suspect you have violated these terms you have agreed to give us an opportunity to inspect and if needed disable your equipment. For an additional $200 we will haul off your now useless instrument.
Your comment could be applied to typewriters. Do you prefer the days when, if you wanted to write a book or article or something, you used a typewriter that was completely standalone? I kinda like having my "typewriter-style keyboard" connected to a computer... it opens up a ridiculous number of possibilities that you can't do with a standalone machine without a big display and a fast processor and a big hard drive. And maybe internet.... you can't exactly have Hacker News with a standalone typewriter, but you can with a keyboard that connects to a computer.
Same with a "piano-style keyboard."
And it's not practical for your average consumer (or musician) to try to block it, or even detect it. Also, there are less and less options to buy "dumb" devices and appliances that won't spend their operating lives trying to exfiltrate data about you back to their manufacturers and their corporate partners.
Those are getting fewer and farther between, the new trend is that you have to accept a 40-page license agreement to rent a bike, you get a Fancy pet feeder that doesn't feed your cat when their servers are offline, your Samsung TV adds ads that you cannot turn off, etc.
You own and control nothing despite paying thousands of dollars for it.
I think "Vote with your wallet" is just an excuse to sit around and do nothing. It did not stop companies spying on you, selling your data, electronics becoming unrepairable, schematics disappearing, etc. Vote with your actual vote, we are meant to be a democracy first, capitalism second.