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@lemux.minnix.dev
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!
From what I read, this project does help integrate with HA to avoid using the Haier app, but still uses Haier’s cloud. Can anyone confirm if this was true?
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/RcSnd3cyti0
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
How is the plugin illegal?
It’s not like a judge said it’s illegal… what happened is that a huge multinational company sent a menacing letter to a developer regarding their hobby project, and the developer —understandably— decided to comply.
Yeah, even though the claim is 1000% horseshit, it’s not like some small time python dad has the means to defend against a giant multinational in court.
Laws are only for the common man.
The developer has not yet fully complied - the repo is still up, they have legal insurance and are in discussion with lawyers, and they have responded requesting clarification on the specifics of their alleged “violation”.
In the mean time, I think many people have reached out to Haier to express their displeasure. On an unrelated note, the original menacing letter came from cybergovernance@haier-europe.com in case anyone was curious.
How many GBs do these ACs upload to the company’s cloud?
That ended up being a router error. It was actually something like 1mb.
Too many probably
Don’t ever buy anything from these people, got it.
Seems like I dodged a bullet by recently deciding for another company. Definitely on my permanent do-not-buy list now, thanks for letting us know that you do not want any customers, Haier 😑
Do you use any smart home solution with your AC? Maybe even Home Assistant? Just curious
I’m running a Venstar Colortouch thermostat. They’re not cheap, but they have a local API and there’s a Homeassistant integration.
That’s great
I use a BroadLink infrared blaster, as you can control all sorts of devices with Home Assistant that use infrared remotes: https://www.amazon.com.au/Broadlink-RM4-pro-Automation-Assistant/dp/B086VBXSDH?th=1
This is cool, I actually such something similar for my old school (~10 year old) AC unit because Infrared is the only way to control it.
Wouldn’t be a bad idea for potential customers to write Haier and let them know they’re on a personal blacklist.
Is there an OSS-hostile list, like the opposite of the Awesome-XYZ lists?
Someone really should maintain a list like that, hosted on multiple non big tech git hosts.
This recent Anti-FOSS propaganda needs to stop
Forked, and mirrored to my Forgejo server. As someone else pointed out on a different community, this is a great example of the Barbra Streisand effect in action.
People like me, without Haier appliances, are now aware of this fuckwittery, and have actively taken steps to preserve the code, before it gets taken down.
Dickheads.
Seconded, and added Haier to my mental list of companies to never buy from.
Had a nice TV from that company. It was really long ago, though, and the terribly bright blue indicator of it being on I didn’t like, especially when using as a PC monitor.
Haier is Hai Er in Chinese, just saying.
Bit of a tangent, but I hear Haier’s legal department can be reached at cybergovernance@haier-europe.com, if anyone has any questions about the legal grounds they’re claiming, I’m sure they’d be happy to elaborate - they clearly have plenty of free time on their hands.
significant economic harm to our company
Oh! I have a solution! Make it a local API you fucking goofs.
I went with Daikin 'cause they had local control… Except that they changed it in the meantime, and I had 2 different AC splits connected to the pump, one of them is older and still has local control, while the other is newer and doesn’t. Fuck all of them.
My manager once asked me if I could code in API
It depends if it’s in the cloud or not
When companies build shitty software for which they charge arms and legs extra and are pissed that someone found their way around it
Translation: our legal team has to justify their employment, thus we’re threatening non-profit open source projects that can’t fight back and pose no harm whatsoever to the company’s financials, market position, customers, or any other stakeholder.
It’d be awesome if the maintainers could get a pro bono advice / representation here to make a proper response. They’re volunteering their free time improving an extensive list of crappy products of a brand and this is what they get back? Disgusting move from Haier.
