11mo ago

Roku Issues a Mandatory Terms of Service Update That You Must Agree To or You Can't Use Your Roku

cordcuttersnews.com Roku Issues a Mandatory Terms of Service Update That You Must Agree To or You Can't Use Your Roku | Cord Cutters News

Over the last 48 hours, Roku has slowly been rolling out a mandatory update to its terms of service. In this terms it changes the dispute resolution terms but it is not clear exactly why. When the new terms and conditions message shows up on a Roku Player or TV, your only option is to […]

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We need legislation put in place that prevents companies from arbitrarily changing EULAs.
Changing a EULA should require the company to refund the price of the product (to be returned at the company’s expense), in addition to refunding customer purchases associated with the services associated with the product.
- It should be locked to the EULA you signed/agreed to when you booted it up.
  
  EULAs should just be prohibited entirely. A sale is a sale is a sale: you execute a contract with the retailer to exchange money for a good, and then you own that good no matter what some bullshit adhesion-contract EULA claims when the manufacturer tries to spring it on you after the fact. The manufacturer was never a party to the sale; they don't get to have a say in its terms!
- It's already well established in case law on how companies are allowed to change their EULAs with Douglas v. Talk America being the most directly comparable case to what roku is doing. The problem with case law though is it's inherently flawed for your avarage consumer as you have to enter a costly legal battle that's may not even be worth the financial risk and corporations know this.
  What we really need is for the regulatory bodies to start enforcing the laws we already have on the books with penalties that are not just a slap on the wrist.
- AND the management who created the ToS update should be tarred and feathered on PBS.
- Agree. And we need a legislation to show middle finger to such company and be able to change the operating system on those devices.

This shit should be illegal for paid hardware. They should be forced to refund everyone the cost of their device purchase.
- Seems like this behavior is perfect for triggering a class action.
  
  They don't even care. The cost of the class action lawsuit will be less than the profit they make from the changes. People need to go to jail, or be personally fined.
  
  If everyone goes to arbitration over it they'll lose a bunch of money since they have to pay for each arbitration.

Lmao.
Can’t wait for all the ewaste this will fucking generate just to save this companies theoretic ass in a theoretical lawsuit which will likely end in consumers producing a lawsuit anyway on top of the ewaste it’ll create.
- I'm sure most users will just agree and there won't be much ewaste...
  
  Yeah, I just agreed because one sided bullshit being added to something I already own lets me continue to use it until whatever they added even comes up and someone else might sue them in the meantime because ever changing terms of service are not enforceable.
  
  His post is right on par with all the people that swore up and down that the password crackdown of Netflix was going to be their downfall.
  
  Additional ewaste is still additional. Regardless of amount, we’re talking about necessity and rate.
  If I got this I’d be returning my tv as soon as possible but I know better and so do my friends and family because I talk about this stuff with them when stories like this come up or they bring it up
  Most people, yes will likely just click ok and not think anything of it because they don’t see these spies physically in their windows, but I’m still not happy about the decision and the extra ewaste it will thus, proportionally, cause right now
  
  I heard you have to have the original remote to confirm the EULA, if you are using a different one it won't click through and you are stuck.

It is ridiculous how long TOS agreements are. It is clearly not meant for a lay person to read. It is so much one-sided bullshit that it should be illegal.
- It's probably not enforceable in court.
- Yet they'll brick your TV. Whatcha gonna do? A class action suit? Yay, get 30 dollars back 5 years from now. Worth it!
  Don't buy Roku, ever again.

This is why all OSs need to be open source and we should only argue over hardware
- Or at least bare minimum in form of a documentation allowing other OSes to be develop for the hardware.
  Starting with the phones...
- I hate to break it to you, but Roku OS uses the Linux kernel and a bunch of other open source stuff. (The UI etc. is proprietary, but never mind that for now.)
  The issue here is DRM and Tivoization, not just having access to the source code.
  
  So the closed source OS uses open source stuff?
  I hate to break it to you, but that's still closed source and it's not possible to replace the OS on these devices.

I am constantly elated that I decided years ago to buy a used micro PC on eBay and install Linux on it as my streaming box.
Fuck Roku, fuck Amazon, fuck Google, fuck Samsung, fuck Vizio.
- curious about your setup, do you have anything for remote control? do you just run everything through the browser?
  
  Not OP, but a bluetooth mouse is an excellent remote control :-)
  
  Yeah, I use an old Dell optiplex micro running Zorin OS Lite, and watch all streaming services in my web browser.
  This gives the bonus of blocking ads on sites like YouTube or Roku.
  I use a Logitech wireless media keyboard with trackpad to control it. All hooked up to a dumb projector.
  Fun fact, my parents have an Amazon Fire TV, and Amazon pushed an update 2 months ago that made it always turn on to an ad page, and slowed down all the interactions to the point of being almost unbearable.
  Second fun fact: Vizio now makes more money selling access to advertisers than they make from selling tvs.
- The equivalent today is a small n100 box. Similar size to a Nvidia shield.

This just ensures that I will never get a Roku. Thanks for making that decision for me, Roku!
Now if only Sony could make an OLED 4K dumb TV about 78″ or larger. Yes, I know the alternative is called “Digital Signage”, but almost all of DS is still just standard LCD and entry-level visual tech.

For anyone who gets this abhorrent soft brick on their Roku TV, MAC address filter your TV on your router (prevents it from accessing the internet and phoning home). Hard restart your TV (unplug and replug since they lock you out of restarting via GUI), and Bob’s your uncle (dumb TV with no forced agreement for continued "dumb" use).
Unclear how long this will last, but as long as you keep your TV off the internet you should be good to go.

Yeah, was considering buying a Roku TV, ain't ever going to happen now.
- This should have put you off as well.
  https://lemmy.world/post/9840946

ditch all this proprietary shit and start your path to freedom

allowing companies to update software was a mistake

This is not surprising. Roku enabled smart TVs do not function if they cannot communicate with Roku servers. Can't even watch TV or use a console.
- Is that new? I have a Roku enabled tv i just use as a computer screen. Am i talking about something different?

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