The cost of supporting openness
Jacob asks why software and hardware vendors insist on restricting their products (such as Apple’s iPod and iPhone or Microsoft’s Zune) so that customers cannot easily modify or add to the product.Having worked for an Internet Service Provider as well as a fairly large software and hardware company for a number of years, the answer that first came to mind was related to another response I wrote to him: the cost of support.
Most consumers that purchase a product want to be able to call up the manufacturer when things go wrong and expect them to be able to fix it. Anyone that’s done technical support knows how difficult troubleshooting can be when dealing with a complex system.
An iPhone is complex you say? Well yes, actually, when you allow consumers to arbitrarily modify or hack the software that’s loaded onto the phone. Tracing problems to the root cause are difficult enough without having to worry about third party apps. Maybe that one little tweak it made just caused something as subtle as a timing issue in the system, maybe it just mangled the encoding for some essential property, or maybe it just caused some unexpected memory contention the system wasn’t designed to handle (particularly with embedded systems where resources are usually limited).
Another potential issue is that hacks could run afoul of legal agreements that the vendor has made with others. Apple had to convince the music industry that it could protect their product and wouldn’t allow unauthorized copies. Not only could individuals circumventing the copy protection be liable, but perhaps Apple could be as well. At the very least the industry could revoke Apple’s ability to sell or distribute its music.
And in the case of the iPhone, one serious issue I was recently made aware of is that cell phones are often designed so that apps are isolated and cannot take over the transmitter and wreck havoc on the (largely unprotected) cellular networks.
While I as a technology-savvy consumer would love to be able to hack my gadgets, I can certainly understand why manufacturers might be afraid of openness. It’s our duty as the enlightened to help assuage their fears and to help design the appropriate solutions to ensure that the FUD doesn’t become reality.
Tags: , digital rights, open source