Gregory's Server@gsuberland @404mediaco The original code was malware/fraud and should be treated as a criminal act by the manufacturer. Defusing that is absolutely "repair".
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15 comments
 @dalias @404mediaco the real gem in all of this is the precedent it is likely to create. NEWAG may well have done everyone a favour here, given the EC's propensity toward take-no-bullshit stances on matters of consumer rights as of late. @gsuberland @dalias @404mediaco small asterisk though: The customer is not a consumer, but a professional entity. May be afforded fewer rights... I still hope NEWAG gets seriously told to eff off by the courts in a way that future attempts can be pointed at @gsuberland @dalias @404mediaco Not exactly consumer law this time :(  @gsuberland @404mediaco If the software is pretending to be broken because it inferred from GPS that it was taken to a repair shop, that's fraudulent. It's attempting to obtain something of commercial value based on deception. @dalias @404mediaco on that point I agree, but I suspect that the EC will stop short of taking that legal stance if the case is brought to them. I've got no frame of reference for Poland's judiciary, though, so who knows what they'll do. @gsuberland @dalias @404mediaco fraud would have to be litigated in a railroad Vs NEWAG lawsuit, not this one, I think @erincandescent @dalias @404mediaco fraud would be litigated in a criminal justice case, not a civil suit, but yes. @dalias @gsuberland The "fraud" part also comes from newag trying to blame the 3rd party repair shop's work for "why the train doesn't want to work". In other words, they're misrepresenting who broke the train in order to pressure the owner to have them repair it instead (and likely with inflated prices because "urgent" and "don't have to compete") @becomethewaifu @dalias all of this is true, but is still a separate matter from whether or not the EC would make an executive ruling that this is a case of criminal fraud. the onus is largely on Poland's judiciary, on that front. @becomethewaifu @dalias to be absolutely clear: my argument is that the question of whether or not it is criminal fraud is largely orthogonal to the EC's regulatory function in this matter and, as I understand it, also somewhat beyond their remit. nothing NEWAG did was excusable or right or justified, and that entire brand of anti-consumer fuckery needs to get right in the bin. @gsuberland @dalias I guess it depends on the contract/documentation. You can probably get away with parts pairing, but deliberately adding hidden code that disables a device solely based on GPS coordinates seems a lot like intentionally selling defective merchandise.  @gsuberland @404mediaco @dalias It artificially disabled trains for the sake of extracting maintenance money.
So if it is not fraud, it is instead infrastructure sabotage and extortion (with a side of racketeering). Sabotaging rail infrastructure for *any reason* in Poland is a crime. |
@dalias @404mediaco while I agree that perpetual-renting style purchase agreements and related mechanisms for obfuscating ownership and impeding right-to-modify ought to be banned, I strongly doubt that the legal apparatus would agree with a severe enough interpretation to classify it as a criminal act of fraud.
but that's still fine, because even a far more moderate (and, let's be honest, realistic) legal interpretation would clear LSR, SPS, and Dragon Sector of any wrongdoing.