Your Favorite Free Product Is Now Paid? Tough

Silicon Valley works well with imitation promises. Only what happens when those imitation promises cover complimentary products that eventually crave payment? In other words, who gets hurt?

You might call up that in 2022, Microsoft announced unlimited deject storage for Function 365 and OneDrive for Business subscribers. The post-obit year, however, Redmond restricted that free storage to 1TB for Role 365 users, while free OneDrive storage decreased from 15GB to 5GB.

How could a company similar Microsoft not foresee the obvious? Don't worry, it did. The whole affair was a publicity stunt.

You lot could complain most information technology as allurement-and-switch, but information technology cost you zippo. It was something free that you did non get. And since Microsoft'south cease-user license understanding says information technology can change the terms of the bargain whenever it wants, there's probably not much a regulatory agency like the FTC could exercise.

Plenty of internet services become from gratuitous to paid. For example, I used a not bad proper name and address database system in the late 1990s that would sync with everything in the globe. The hope was that it would exist free forever, but I had to start paying for information technology after a year.

Simply Microsoft is at it again, preparing to shut downward a translator app for annihilation before Windows 10 and Windows Phone 7.1 and 8, a peculiar motility. Obsolescence used to stem from hardware incompatibility; now it's software.

This software problem sneaks back into hardware in all sorts of ways. Take for example High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection or HDCP. Intel invented this fiasco to copy-protect hi-def audio and video streams on expensive TVs. The protocol was cracked by hackers and thus rendered useless.

This happens over and over, rendering an increasing number of Boob tube sets useless. This is specially problematic for 4K as your set needs to be HDCP 2.two compliant (at the moment) when all the early 4K sets (only two years former) were HDCP 1.4 compliant.

Once again, like the gratis software promises, who can you sue? Nobody. Instead, the companies promise you'll just suck it upwardly and fork over some cash.

About John C. Dvorak

John C. Dvorak is a columnist for PCMag.com and the co-host of the twice weekly podcast, the No Agenda Show. His work is licensed effectually the globe. Previously a columnist for Forbes, PC/Computing, Figurer Shopper, MacUser, Barrons, the Dec Professional person likewise as other newspapers and magazines. Former editor and consulting editor for InfoWorld, he also appeared in the New York Times, LA Times, Philadelphia Enquirer, SF Examiner, and the Vancouver Sun. He was on the kickoff-upwards squad for C/Net as well as ZDTV. At ZDTV (and TechTV) he hosted Silicon Spin for 4 years doing 1000 alive and alive-to-tape Television receiver shows. His Internet evidence Cranky Geeks was considered a …

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/opinion/14679/your-favorite-free-product-is-now-paid-tough

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