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this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2026
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We need a law that companies provide device owners root access for every end of life device.
That's something the EU would do, but never America.
How about a free gun at the end of life of any device?
NOW we're talking!
Knowing America, it'd probably be a free round (gun not included) and you're required to end the life of your device with it.
INB4 companies start making proprietary ammo that only works with their special gun and now they can gouge your money on the tail end of product life.
I think medical device manufacturers should have to support their products for some definite length of time—maybe 10 years?—or not be allowed to make devices at all
This type of laws already exist in some cases, but realistically no one knows that the company won't just go bankrupt in 5 years. Open sourcing things is a "reasonable" last resort option, or rather, the only viable one
I would love to see that codified: you go bankrupt, you go open source!
I’m not holding my breath though. They usually get bought and sold and scrapped for parts along the way
Medical devices are already supported for a very long time. At least the official ones used in hospitals.
Supported? Maybe. Making sure that it works with the latest technology? No.
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2019/08/02/two-years-later-windows-xp-devices-can-still-make-the-health-care-industry-wannacry/
I was thinking about implanted devices, e.g. Second Sight https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-60416058
For software too, if a company has sold software and then goes out of business, it should have to give all licensed users permanent access to use it. Preferably also the source code. (Ideally we'd have open source options for everything but that's not always practical or possible right now.)
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GrapheneOS is your savior. I should donate, their work is only getting harder.
They're working on that, too.