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AbouBenAdhem , (edited ) in Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice

TIL General Electric Appliances, Hoover, Fisher & Paykel, Aqua, Hotpoint, Leader, and Candy are all owned by the same company.

reddig33 ,

Sad, isn’t it? For fun, look up Whirlpool, Albertsons, and Kroger on Wikipedia to see all the brands they own. No wonder prices are high when so much competition has been eliminated.

nexusband ,
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

For the Europeans, look up AEG, Bauknecht, Electrolux, Liebherr...sad story as well. And one hell of a case for rampant capitalism running amok...

KyuubiNoKitsune ,

BuT ThE FrEe mArKeT!!

nexusband ,
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

There's a difference between rampant capitalism running amok and the free market...free always needs rules, or it would be anarchy...

eatfudd ,

Muh freedom

JustEnoughDucks ,
@JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl avatar

Please yell me bosch and Siemens are seperate companies...

nexusband ,
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

Nope, they are not, at least in terms of household appliances. BUT they still produce quality stuff in Germany and Europe. And they actually never have been separate. And HomeConnect is commited to HAOS, iirc they actually provide some code to the plugin.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSH_Hausger%C3%A4te

APassenger ,

Quick nofe: Albertsons and Kroger want to be one company. Soon.

Heir_Of_Isildur ,

Noted, thanks

deegeese , in Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice
@deegeese@sopuli.xyz avatar

Special shout-out to LiftMaster/Chamberlain who did the same rug-pull on their customers last year.

Never trust free cloud services attached to a paid product.

TimeSquirrel , (edited ) in Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice
@TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

You know what that means, soldiers. Clone, clone, clone the repo, far and wide, online and offline. Fuck 'em. Give them the PirateBay whackamole treatment.

For your convenience, from the article:

https://github.com/Andre0512/pyhOn
https://github.com/Andre0512/hon

Damage , in Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice

eh, another one for the blacklist... it's getting difficult.

sabreW4K3 ,
@sabreW4K3@lemmy.tf avatar

Who is on the allow list in terms of appliances like washing machines?

Damage ,

Honestly I don't know. I have a non-smart REX Electrolux washer-dryer combo that's been working well, but I have no idea what their approach to users is.

sabreW4K3 ,
@sabreW4K3@lemmy.tf avatar

No worries, just wanted to know who I should be recommending, because I definitely don't want to support brands that don't support open technologies.

echutaa , in HA compatible sensors for a terrarium?

I have some sensors on a hognose enclosure and I can say for sure stay away from INKBIRD stuff. It integrates poorly and fails on loss of internet connection.

I don’t have a good solution for the heatmats yet but I’m looking into integrating an aquarium controller I have laying around to manage that.

For hygrometers there are a ton, but you’re going to want to look for low power and probably zigbee. the majority of the sensors I’ve tried have been an annoyance to manage batteries but the zigbee ones seem better.

SharkAttak , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration
@SharkAttak@kbin.social avatar

When asked for a statement, the company answered "Yes we're idiots, and wanted everyone to know"

ottaross ,
@ottaross@mastodon.social avatar

@SharkAttak @Dehydrated way to ensure all internet searches on your brand deliver a "not compatible with stuff" impression to all prospective customers.

SharkAttak ,
@SharkAttak@kbin.social avatar

Sadly, I know them as one company that makes dirt cheap TVs, so they'll still keep making money.

Marsupial ,
@Marsupial@quokk.au avatar

Cheaper than TCL?

SharkAttak ,
@SharkAttak@kbin.social avatar

Eh, same tier, I think.

MigratingtoLemmy ,

How accessible are the WiFi and IR chips inside their TVs? I haven't tried TCL yet

SharkAttak ,
@SharkAttak@kbin.social avatar

Honestly I don't know, why do you ask?

MigratingtoLemmy ,

If I buy such a TV, those are the first things I will remove.

SharkAttak ,
@SharkAttak@kbin.social avatar

Mmh I understand since I activated Wifi only when I really needed it, but I think you need infrared for the remote.

MigratingtoLemmy ,

Isn't there a way to control a Kodi box, including TV controls like volume and brightness through it? If not, I'll have to consider keeping the IR sensor (which I wouldn't want to do in ideal circumstances).

StrawberryPigtails ,

I almost certain you’re being sarcastic, but please tell me I’m wrong. If that quote is actually true, that would be fucking hilarious!

SharkAttak ,
@SharkAttak@kbin.social avatar

I extrapolated and condensed based on the company actions.

dynamojoe , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration

My guess is someone saw what was being built and said "hey, we can build something similar and sell it", hence the C&D.

Dehydrated OP ,

Still a ridiculous move. If I buy an appliance, I pay for it and I own it. I am allowed to do with it whatever I want. If I want to use my own solution for controlling it, hosted on my own server, I should have every right to do so. Fuck corporations and their shitty cloud solutions.

HeartyBeast ,

To be clear, I think the company are idiotic in the way they handled this, but I guess the integration probably hooked into the company's cloud-based services - so their servers.

VisualBuilder4 ,

Bad enough if a air conditioner needs cloud access for smart functions and doesn’t have a local api.

Rai ,

Absolutely. I’ll never buy a device like that if I can’t use a local API! I have no IoT devices and refuse, because they sketch me out.

ironhydroxide ,

I was this way, then got into home assistant and esphome. Now I have iot things like thermostats, garage door openers, air compressor controller, and know exactly how they work and where their data goes. And none of it leaves it's own network (separate vlan).

HeartyBeast ,

I don't disagree.

walden ,

Except instead of something similar, it's always something way, way worse.

jonne ,

The EU really needs to start doing something about this kind of shit.

Tinidril ,

The US does too, but fat chance of that happening.

AzPsycho ,

The Apple iOS method. See a great app or product on your platform. If they won't sell it or want to much Apple just makes their own version and prohibits the original.

bamboo ,

This is actually a thing and is called Sherlocking: https://thehustle.co/sherlocking-explained/

redcalcium ,

Apple is so notorious at doing this, it's not even funny anymore. The article didn't mention these two famous sherlocking cases though:

nexusband , in Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

Never considered buying Haier anyway, but i am looking specifically for appliances that have HAOS support. So them pulling this shit will put them on my black list for ever. I get why Mazda did it, but the car doesn’t need the app to be useful, i can just ignore that part. But this is an home appliance that looses a big part of it’s usefulness…

originalfrozenbanana , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration

Don’t discount the economic loss they experience from not being able to harvest and sell your data (even possible in the EU, though harder of course)

Dehydrated OP ,

Well that's even worse and it's the reason we need local, self-hosted open source alternatives like Home Assistant.

originalfrozenbanana ,

Hard agree

Buffalobuffalo , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration

Any idea what the consequence is if the author instead transferred ownership entirely to an owner based in a country that would give no fucks about a lawsuit? Sure, the OG owner loses the project but would he avoid culpability?

jonne ,

Anyone that wants to take the legal heat can just fork the projects and continue hosting it. I don't blame the original developer for not wanting to deal with it, even if the legal threat sounds very ridiculous (a project like this would be the opposite of financial harm, how many of us check if something works with home assistant before buying a device?).

roofuskit ,

In this case the owner actually has legal insurance and is fighting it.

jonne ,

Oh ok, so he's taking it down temporarily while he's going through the legal process?

roofuskit ,

Apparently

Lifebandit666 ,

I read there's already 803 forks

burrito ,

Kinda like how VLC is based out of France because there's no software patents?

Miaou ,

Software cannot be patented anywhere. What is patented are the algorithm. In France algorithm are considered maths and cannot be patented.

notannpc , in Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice

Based on the verbiage of the threat from haier it kinda sounds like they don’t have a leg to stand on. Short of just the financial cost of fighting this blatantly bullshit lawsuit should they file one. The TOS isn’t the law, so to demand the devs to cease all illegal activities means nothing here.

Or am I misunderstanding something?

ForgotAboutDre ,

You are right, TOS isn't the law. However businesses will try to trick you with this technique, especially if they don't think you have any legal support. You can't commit a crime just because the victim agreed to it, no amount of contracts negate this. Employers often pull this trick to force employees to accept illegal practices.

The person hosting and publishing the code may have never agreed to the TOS. So can't be bound by it. They also can revoke their agreement, and no longer have to comply with it. However, continued use of the businesses web services likely requires agreeing to the TOS and this plug in may be using the businesses web services to make the plugin work.

avidamoeba , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration
@avidamoeba@lemmy.ca avatar

I'd like to thank Haier for their transparency. ♥️

WanderingCat , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration

This is sad to see. I have a hOn device which I recently connected to WiFi to see what features it would have. Sadly it had to connect to the internet to work so I didn't play with it too much. I checked this plug-in out then and was hoping I could use it.

Lem453 ,

You probably can still use it. Just don't ever update the appliance because they will probably do something to break to api on purpose.

digger , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration
@digger@lemmy.ca avatar

Alright. Let's get the ratgdo guy on this. I'd pre-order a rathvac today.

dmtalon , in Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration

I sent them a nasty gram from their contacts page. I don't own anything from them right now but you can damn well bet I will avoid them if when/if it comes up.

I pointed them to Louis' video also

I assume a zero chance of any purchases is a larger economic hit than allowing a small diy community to interact with their PURCHASED and OWNED product.

DeltaTangoLima ,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

I didn't go nasty, but did do my bit to point out how short sighted this move was:

I just wanted to say that your silly take down notice on the Home Assistant developer, who was enabling greater satisfaction for customers who bought your products, was a perfect example of the Streisand effect in action:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

Thanks to you, I (who didn't own - and now probably never will - any of your products), am not only aware of your silly, unethical, and pointless behaviour, but have now taken steps to preserve the developer's code for future use.

You could've fostered this innovation, and gained yourselves the admiration of global, active and thriving community of like-minded people. And potentially gained more paying customers in the process.

Instead, you have achieved the opposite. Well done.

It won't make a lick of difference, but hopefully they get the same sentiment enough times that they at least understand what a fuck-up this was, on their part.

Edit: at least I know they got it

dmtalon ,

Nasty was probably strong word. I mostly expressed my disappointment and that I would steer clear going forward. And that would have a stronger economic impact on their bottom dollar.

DeltaTangoLima ,
@DeltaTangoLima@reddrefuge.com avatar

Yeah - they need to hear this a lot. They could absolutely have taken a little time to understand what need the dev was filling here. Ultimately, this could've been a free kick for them, had they handled it the right way.

Lifebandit666 ,

I've just done the same thing, said I don't own any of their products but I certainly won't be buying them in the future and I will be actively discouraging people from buying their products, which will actually hurt their profits, and also put a snide little PS at the bottom saying "Good luck issuing cease and desist notices to the hundreds of forks of the software (803 so far according to another post) which will cost you real money instead of the made up MILLIONS OF DOLLARS that you claim this is open source software is costing you. It's companies like you that make buying consumer electronics a quagmire

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