Welcome to Incremental Social! Learn more about this project here!
Check out lemmyverse to find more communities to join from here!

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

Thankfully I don't use any of their products, but this really pisses me off. They claim that this open source project "causes significant economic harm to their company"

This is ridiculous. It is truly ridiculous. How can something that enables the user to efficiently control their AC cause "significant economic harm"???

Consider forking the repository or mirroring it to another platform like GitLab, Codeberg or your self-hosted Git server, so the project can continue to exist and someone can maybe fork it and maintain it.

The effected repos are:
https://github.com/Andre0512/hOn and https://github.com/Andre0512/pyhOn

If you don't know about Home Assistant, check it out. It's an amazing piece of open-source software, that you can run at home on your own server and use it to control your smart home devices. That way, you don't need to connect them to the manufacturer's (probably insecure) cloud. It gives you sovereignty over your smart home instead of some proprietary vendor-locked garbage. Check out their website and the Lemmy community: !homeassistant

I also highly recommend Louis Rossmann's video about this: https://youtu.be/RcSnd3cyti0

He makes awesome videos in general, consider subscribing.

As Rossmann said, don't ever buy anything from such a shitty company that doesn't respect their customers. This move by Haier is nothing other than a slap in the face for everyone, who just wants to comfortably control the product they paid for. This company is actively hostile towards their paying customers. Fuck these bastards!

dangblingus ,

I live in caveman times. I turn my lights on with a light switch, and I turn my AC on with the power button on the unit.

Dehydrated OP ,

If it works it works I guess.

Trainguyrom ,

I can see where some automation would be really nice. I don't want to remember to turn the heat down at night when I'm already covered in blankets and don't need it as warm. I could use a automation to dim the lights when it gets late as another indicator that it's time to head to bed

dual_sport_dork ,
@dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world avatar

Nearly all window air conditioner units have a built in programmable timer that allows you to do just this, and if your system is central you can spend all of $20 on an electronic programmable thermostat that's a plug-in replacement for your old one and doesn't require being connected to the internet.

Just saying, this functionality already existed and worked just fine before everything had to be on the fucking "cloud."

Trainguyrom ,

I mean that's where Home Assistant comes into play. Host it yourself or pay for a managed instance and you get the best of both worlds.

Also you can buy thermostats and air conditioners easily that use with micro controlers and don't rely on any network. It's not like TVs where you have to dig and largely don't get that choice anymore

stockRot ,

🆗🆒

Emerald ,

I laughed when I saw "significant economic harm"

Dehydrated OP ,

Because that statement is really ridiculous.

v9CYKjLeia10dZpz88iU ,

GitHub also has a legal defense fund for developers. GitHub lists it on their DMCA takedown page.

When GitHub processes a DMCA takedown under our circumvention technology claim review process, we will offer the repository owner a referral to receive independent legal consultation through GitHub’s Developer Defense Fund at no cost to them.

They created this fund after claims were made against a YouTube downloader from a third party. (not Google)

I don’t know if this would be an anti-circumvention claim, but it doesn’t sound like a bad idea to ask.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Isn't GitHub Microsoft owned now? Or am I missing something?

v9CYKjLeia10dZpz88iU ,

It is owned by Microsoft.

neidu2 ,

So, is the code in question using a publicly accessible API of theirs? If so it'd be a shame if something were to access that API more than anticipated..

Goodie ,

This is ridiculous. It is truly ridiculous. How can something that enables the user to efficiently control their AC cause "significant economic harm"???

I assume they have their own app and run ads/user analytics through it that make them money.

I have to wonder if you bought their products on the basis that they worked with HA, if you could have some sort of claim here.

Dehydrated OP ,

No, thankfully I don't use any of their products. But I find their statement ridiculous. If I buy something, it's mine, I own it because I paid for it. The manufacturer can fuck off.

Goodie ,

But they want you to use their app.

And they've decided if you have a HA plugin, you won't.

So we do our research, and avoid scumbag companies when making purchasing decisions, or more likely, pick the lesser of a several evils.

Dehydrated OP ,

So we do our research, and avoid scumbag companies when making purchasing decisions, or more likely, pick the lesser of a several evils.

That's why I created this post. To inform people about Haier's shitty and customer-hostile solely profit-oriented business practices.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

If you dig just below the surface, you will find that the very philosophical concept of "ownership" comes with terms and conditions.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Hell's Angels? Because it feels like everything works with Hell's Angels now.

EmperorHenry ,
@EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

It would be even better if they just stopped putting microphones and cameras on thermostats and stopped making them with internet connectivity.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Are you saying things were better before? Because I feel like things have never been better! I'm a CEO of a F500 company though.

badbytes ,

Boycott Haier

dual_sport_dork ,
@dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world avatar

You should do that anyway; they're a bag of dicks. I have to deal with them at work.

Note also that Haier includes GE Appliances and their subsidiaries GE Profile, Cafe, and Hotpoint since Haier acquired the GE Appliances division in 2016. Fisher and Paykel is also owned by Haier now, too. So if you're gotten the feeling that your GE appliances are crap now compared to the ones your parents had, it's not just a feeling and you're right: They're crap now since Haier has been cutting corners all over the place to chase a dollar.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

MY ECONOMIC HARM!

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Hey, also, just btw, as an aside, apropos...

If you use "smart devices" in your home, you're a fucking moron.

Dehydrated OP ,

If you use "smart devices" cheap Chinese garbage that requires a 24/7 connection to some random insecure cloud server in your home, you're a fucking moron. But there are some great solutions that run entirely locally and enable you to do some really cool home automation. Check out the !homeautomation community, as well as !homeassistant. Home Assistant is probably the best piece of software for building an actually smart home, that's also sovereign and not reliant on an internet connection or some company and their infrastructure.

anarchy79 ,
@anarchy79@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah I know, I should have worded myself less aggressively.

m3t00 ,
@m3t00@lemmy.world avatar

reminds me of the DMCA form letters. full of scary empty threats. paid legal dept. earning their keep. mgmt doesn't realize the freely developed stuff makes their products more desirable when it does a better job than their own software. may they flounder in ignorance

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • incremental_games
  • mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
  • meta
  • All magazines
    •