Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration
Haier, the air conditioner maker, takes down open source third-party Home Assistant integration
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10882099
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@lemmy.world
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!
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The developer commented the following:
Luckily I'm insured. I've contacted my legal expenses insurance and they're covering a lawyer for the case. I will seek advice and see how an expert assesses the situation and then proceed.
Tldr, They are going to fight this!
Source: https://github.com/Andre0512/hon/issues/147#issuecomment-1892738060
What sort of insurance is that and do I need to get some?
The developer is German, in Germany it's pretty common to have a Rechtsschutzversicherung. You pay them monthly or yearly and in exchange you can request legal advice from one of their lawyers af any time. It's pretty neat.
Wow, and it is a real lawyer? I e had employers with benefits that sound similar but I think only get things like templates for common documents like wills and contracts that you can get anywhere, or “free” co suits like you can get anywhere.
I actually do phage a upcoming minor legal need this year, and they couldn’t even tell me , using that as an example, what would the benefit cover?
Yes, typically you get to talk to real lawyers. They may not be the best lawyers on the planet, but if you just need some advice, you should be perfectly fine.
In America I just use my buddy Carl. He's also my doctor.
Germany sounds ridiculous with how many insurances you have to waste money and time on.
Imagine being American and not even having health insurance
Imagine being American, having quite expensive health insurance, then discovering your insurance doesn't cover any of your basic healthcare needs.
And then you can't afford a lawyer to fight them on it.
Well at least someone managed to get a lawyer to fight my insurance company who’s leveraged AI to auto process claims and it’s issuing unfounded mass claim denials.
Good thing I’m Australian.
Imagine being Australian
It’s heaps sick eh.
You don't have to, but if you do you may have the ability to stand up against a company trying to shut down your open source project...
Or you could just hire a consultant when you need it?
$200 once in your life vs 396 a year, is kinda a no brainer situation.
You do realize a consultation is just the first step, right? If he wants to fight this he'll need quite a bit more than 200
You sound like the kind of person I want to call a complete twat and then block:
- You're a complete twat,
- done
Not getting the downvotes, a lot of those are quite stupid. The Rechtsschutz is basically required if you drive for example, only because of game theory, not because it actually brings anything
It’s just reddit group think, sadly we didn’t leave that behind.
I’ve got them disabled on my instance anyway so I don’t even see it. As far as I know everyone likes my posts because I only see upvotes.
Well, I hate this comment and I’ve downvoted it.
It's pretty common for freelance developers to have insurance like this - if I screw up and you get ransonwared, insurance pays for a lawyer to explain the contracts indemnity clause to you using small words
But what if I saved money not talking to a lawyer and never had the client sign an indemnity?
Then don't screw up
If you have already screwed up, you now get to play The Game of Litigation, where their lawyers try to prove that you are liable for billions of dollars in damages, and your lawyer tries to prove that you aren't. The way the game works is whoever spends the most on lawyers wins. You've got more cash to spend than your clients right?
Not sure if it's really the freelance/professional thing others mentioned. Private legal expense insurance (Rechtsschutzversicherung) is fairly common in Germany, so might just be that.
Most home insurers in Western Europe provide with the coverage additional legal counsel / coverage in case someone claims we are liable for anything non motor related. And house insurance itself costs just a couple hundreds a year.
Most professions where action/inaction can result in damages will have similar insurance. Some insurance firms even specialize in coverage for professionals.
If your profession has an association or similar group, they should be able to help you find those firms if they exist.
my job has one for about ten bucks a month for employees. covers any need. estate planning, divorce, whatever.