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Comment by School-Cotton | Hacker News Reader

> Motor companies should not be able to gate physical features (seat heaters) behind software.

Why not? If you don’t want a car with this property, don’t buy one — how are you being harmed?

It would be fine if companies were extremely clear about it, saying “the car is $30k, but the average customer ends up paying an additional $2k in subscriptions for basic features”. Or “the phone is $1000, but most software will be more expensive due to our 30% tax”. Of course they’re not that clear, and I would argue these business models only make sense when there’s deception involved.

Just because you aren’t being harmed doesn’t mean you can’t think it’s wrong or try to prevent it. There are lots of things people fight against that doesn’t directly impact them (yet).

One good reason in this particular examples is I don’t want subscription based heated seats to become popular, because then I won’t have a choice anymore.

No, the part that's really bad is that they lock up features behind software locks, but these aren't that hard to break for hackers. But then they get laws passed which make it illegal to change these features on your car, or even to tell other people how to do so.

How the DMCA hasn't been struck down by the Supreme Court as an abridgment of the 1st Amendment, I really don't know.

Because its stupid and annoying

Then don’t buy one.

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