ThoughtsThoughts23 February 2022
CAVEAT EMPTOR: What does that actually mean?
I am a volunteer in a forum that helps people with an open source software product. The people who download and use this product own it, entirely, for their own use. There are only a few licence caveats in place regarding sharing and inclusion of this product in other software. Transparency is upfront and easy to understand.
When people assume they own something that they buy this is usually not the case. Products often come with lengthy "Terms of Service", archane language, and other gate-keeping mechanisms that make most people's heads swirl. Sadly the outcome of this common dark pattern practise is that the end-user blindly clicks the "Accept" button and believes they're well on their way to a future of happy usage. The truth behind submission to the rules and regulations of product use in 2022 means an end-user has submitted to, essentially, ransomware.
Ransomware is an old term regarding software that locks out a user's ability to continue use of either the specific software or even an entire operating system until a fee is paid to mysterious entities on the other end of a mysterious pipeline. Ransomware is also a kind of gate-keeping.
Ransomware includes normalised practises such as these:
The forum where I volunteer often has questions asked about a popular cutter where the cutter company inserted a gate-keeping software which makes the product unusable unless a monthly fee is paid. It is a ransom fee.
An interesting, anecdotal read can be found here: Reddit: Is it possible to use a Cricut without Design Space?
Caveat emptor, i.e. buyer beware, doesn't simply mean "Go out and kick the tyres", it is also a warning to use due dilligence and find out if you will be held to ransom through a life-time of fees and possible confiscation of the product. Ransomware, in all its forms, exists because end-users allowed it. Remember: spam, whether postal or via e-mail, only exists because people respond to it and continue to make it viable; the same goes for ransomware.
Decades of willingly abdicating our responsiblities for ease and comfort have resulted in ransomware and other abuses we endure, today. We can blame the mysterious entities for their dodgy practises but that only serves to remove the responsibility from where it actually lies: with all of us supporting those practises through our actions.