How the Internet of Things Limits Consumer Choice

I don’t always agree with Bruce Schneier, but he has a point here in that the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) isn’t going help IoT much given vendors will use it to make stuff the ‘Internet of Their Things’ which isn’t likely what consumers had in mind.

Software licensing has always been an interesting issue in that you don’t really own the software but you have a license to use it, but when it comes to hardware folks figure they own it as they paid for it and they have it in their possession, but they aren’t free to do with it as they wish (actually they might be but as soon as that means changing the software, call in the lawyers). Its all very interesting stuff with huge ramifications.

Actually in Sony’s case you are not free to change the physical hardware. This is the primary reason why I hate Sony.

Edit: People don’t understand licensing on the whole. The idea is that I purchase a record, I purchase a CD but I can’t then sell that CD to another, since the license is non transferable. It’s like you can’t buy software and give it to another person; that’s impossible.