I am sure most of you might be aware that Google plans to bans the simple act of sideloading [though I presume adb driven sideloading remains] on it’s platform in name of security. At the same time Play Store itself remains riddled with malware. However, here I wish to throw light on a different rising case of apps, a set that actually deserves to be pirated.
With the start of the so called subscription driven economy where one time purchases are becoming a thing of the past,everything needs to be a subscription. Some things like a newspaper make sense, a music tracking app does not. Let us turn our eyes to Stats.fm. It aims to link to Spotify/Apple Account and present data in good format. It was a one time purchase back in the day when I barely used Spotify, so I got the legit version. Spotify usually retails for INR [Indian National Rupee] 1200 per year but was retailing for 500 as an initial promotional scheme last week. Fed up with the mess that YT Music is [Yes, I do hoard music via Soulseek as well], I thought why not give Spotify a try. So, I installed both the streaming app and this fancy scrobbling service which as I repeat, was a one time purchase linked to a Google account.
As soon as I open the app, I am told I need to subscribe [bait and switch]. To put salt on wound, their cheapest plans were INR 750 for 6 months, which ironically is equivalent to YT Premium [when equating to per year]. So, what is basically a Last.fm clone with little third party support [Last.fm offers a largely working free tier and has open APIs that make it work with third party plugins/clients] and now did a classic bait; is it not ethical to pirate such kind of stuff?
I would go on a limb and say that Google actually has a case for asking money for YT Premium since they offer 2 services : music and video streaming [yes, the apps are shit, I know that] which incur server costs. But am I to truly believe that equivalent server costs are incurred by err,a music tracking app that ONLY tracks one music client?
As Cory Doctrow coined the term enshittification, we are heading down that route. I am sure many more apps would have done that bait and switch. [I even saw an Wear OS watch face as a yearly subscription option once].
Google is doing much more than banning user app installation, they are going to ban abd side loading as well, because it’s not about security is about control. Whenever someone tells you they are taking away a freedom you have for something harmless like installing your own apps for your safety, it’s always about control.
Google is also banning emulators and many types of software that the corporate cartel don’t like. They have already been doing this as well. If people offer ad free apps they get removed from the play store. There is about a 9/10 chances that if there was a decent app, it’s been removed. Not anything anticorporaye they just hate ad free good software on the store.
This has led to a situation where nearly every piece of software on the store is junk, and to stop people from downloading decent apps from the internet, they are doing this nonsense.
There is so much wrong that Google does, lock bootloaders, banning user apps, taking away root access, stopping users from being able to to basic configuration of their devices like stopping software updates, they spy on people, censor the internet, the interfere in democratic elections, they target activists and stuff with demonization while allowing the absolute worst people on earth like conservative superpacs and think tanks to operate on their site, often times given them preferential treatment, like they did with corporate media over independent media.
Google is like the only phone OEM with unlockable bootloader…
Do you mean android-compatible? Because there are a lot of android-compatible device manufacturers with unlockable bootloaders outside of Google themselves. Like the OnePlus I’m currently using.
OnePlus is the “like” in my comment, they’re the only alternative I know of that allows you to still plug your phone to a PC and unlock it.
So you mean android-compatible devices with a supported method for unlocking? Because you can also jailbreak most locked bootloaders through unsupported means.
I wasn’t actually aware that OnePlus have a supported route and that they were the only other brand who do. I jailbroke my own OnePlus :P