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by Terretta 5281 days ago
I think you may have misunderstood either who ASUS's customers are, or what those customers want.

You are not a normal ASUS customer. If you were, you wouldn't be here discussing this. "Normal" customers want Netflix, Hulu+, Kindle, and the like, not hackable boot roms.

Open source boxes that are not locked down generally do not get to have an official Netflix client, Hulu+ client, etc. Users won't buy things that don't have the content they want, and Hollywood won't let things have that content if users can easily compromise the digital path.

Btw, it's not ASUS's issue, it's that users want movies and Netflix has them. It's not Netflix's issue, it's in their contracts with DRM providers and studios, contracts they have to sign to have the movies users want. To carry the movies, lock things down. Users want movies, ergo, things are locked down.

For all the Apple hate, Jobs stared down the record labels, and unlocked music. To solve the "open" business, Google should put money behind open business models for movies, enough money that Hollywood capitulates and all these contracts up the chain can get redone in the consumer's interest.
2 comments
_ea1k 5281 days ago
> For all the Apple hate, Jobs stared down the record labels, and unlocked music.

Amazon is responsible for getting the record labels to release music as DRM-free MP3.

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wwweston 5281 days ago
> "Normal" customers > want Netflix, Hulu+, Kindle, and > the like, not hackable boot roms.

Which is precisely why this level of lockdown is completely ridiculous.

As you say, locking a boot loader has no effect on whether "Normal" customers can steal content -- they're not going to mod their device, they want something that just works, and if it provides an easy way to get the content they want affordably, they won't even care enough to pirate. Where's the win for the studios? And there's certainly no win for the customer.

In the meanwhile, such a lock down does reduce the value of devices for the hacker news audience. Loss for at least some ASUS customers, possibly even a loss for ASUS.

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