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Comment by zogrodea | Hacker News Reader

"During the height of the pandemic, I wrote an article about how a Polish hacker had developed a dongle that was being used by American repair professionals to bypass DRM on ventilators needed to keep COVID-19 patients alive."

That's extremely evil. I'm not emotionally invested in right-to-repair like many others here are, but it's corrupt that DRM is causing/has caused difficulty in operating things necessary for people's survival. Shame on these companies.

Those who want to convince others of right-to-repair should point to cases like this because it's the #1 thing that makes me want to rally behind it too.

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Am I correctly reading your implication that, although this is a strong point in favor of the right-to-repair movement, you remain personally unconvinced in it as a whole? If so, what's holding you back from being fully convinced?

I think it would be good for society if right-to-repair laws were passed but I just feel indifferent towards the topic and would rather spand time and energy caring about something that I feel (to me personally) is more important.

Why does progress on one goal need be mutually exclusive towards progressing others?

I didn't say that. I'm just saying it's not a goal I feel motivated to fight for.

That's fair.

I feel the opposite of him. I don't like DRM, I do like DRM circumvention--I like tech in genral--but if we have DRM to protect intellectual property and enforce licenses and contracts, I have no problem with ventilators also being DRMed.

If a person who decides to make pop music can DRM their work, why shouldn't a person who goes into life saving tech DRM theirs? "think of the children!" Hey, if you care so much about the children, pay your bills. Covid caused unforseen problems? you know what? they were unforeseen.

The person who created the life saving tech already saved a bunch of lives, those lives are still saved, and it seems a little ungrateful to claim they haven't done enough for you.

Maybe there are more important things than a bottom line.

so, if I go into a frivolous profession, fashion say, I can work as little or as hard as I want? but if I go into a serious life-saving profession which you ostensibly value, my work product must belong to you as if I'm your slave? Maybe principles of individualism and autonomy are more important than the greed lust of the collectivist mob.

and btw, what you said is completely obvious to the point of dreary cliche, "things more important than the bottom line", like Phoebe's realization on Friends that she and her mother had a lot in common because turns out they both love pizza and puppies.

What I said was food for thought and unexpectedly (in an inside out sort of way) explanatory toward the question asked by the comment I was replying to.

maybe you could stop stopping and smelling the flowers on the road less taken for a minute and consider ideas with depth, it might make all the difference.

I don't know why your tone is so combative in the second paragraph, and in your further reply to another user down below. No one said anything here to warrant it.

I think you point to a real conflict of interests though where some may feel less motivated to work on life-saving tech if they aren't compensated for it. Here in the UK, the government launched a scheme called "Eat Out to Help Out" to help support businesses like takeaways which had understandably had low revenue during COVID. I would have been happy to see a subsidy (and pay a tax towards it) for companies manufacturing life-saving tech if it was the only sustainable solution.

>they haven't done enough for you.

We live forward in time, not backward.

Also, people know about IP rights. Either it's the law of the land or a treaty obligation. Clearly documented, as are the available remedies in case of dispute. Available to everybody, in theory.

This "DRM" was unilateral. Surreptitious. Why do this if not to remove agency from the client at some later date? Why bypass the legal system? Silently?

Altruism? Maybe, but that's just as bad, idealists and coercion go hand in hand throughout human history.

Pragmatism? Seems more likely. The trains can be fixed, except they get turned off from the mothership whenever they seem to be in the shop. They don't fix them for free, presumably.

Either way, that is some snake ass shit, since it's undocumented. Poor.

In that spirit of horrendous stories that make you want to support laws on your right to own the physical hardware you bought: have you heard about the airbag for bikers that is subscription only and doesn't activate if your subscription is not up to date.

https://jalopnik.com/this-dystopian-biker-airbag-crash-vest-...

This is probably the thing https://hackaday.com/2020/07/15/diy-dongle-breathes-life-int...

It's not quite as bad as it sounds - the hack allowed people to buy second hand ventilators and fix them up which I guess is handy in an emergency but could create safety risks if the thing then fails when a patient is relying on it.

A opposed to it failing immediately, and the patient never being able to rely on it...

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