Thread by @doctorow

"Tread," a $3000 "smart" treadmill from @OnePeloton, is a deathtrap. 125,000 Treads have been recalled after the devices injured 72 people and killed a child.

bbc.com/news/business-…

1/

Say what you will about Peloton's safety engineering, but never fault the evil genius of its strategists. The company responded to the news by bricking the Treads in the field and demanding $40/month "subscriptions" from owners to continue using them.

bleepingcomputer.com/news/technolog…

2/

The pretense here is that the subscription comes with safety software that means that you treadmill will not maim you or murder your children.

This raises an obvious question: why not just put that software into all the existing Tread devices for free?

3/

But the answer is obvious. Because a free software update will cost the company money, and charging $40/month will make the company money - $480/year/customer, free net revenue for software that they've already written.

4/

You might as well ask, "Why don't ransomware gangs just tell pipeline owners about the defects in their software for free, rather than demanding millions of dollars?"

I mean, ransomware gangs have bills to pay, and so does Peloton. No one will write ransomware for free.

5/

This is the predictable failure-mode of designing devices that can be updated without their owners' permission or consent.

It's not even the first time Peloton has done this - in 2020, they bought their competitor Flywheel and bricked all its bikes.

theverge.com/2020/2/20/2114…

6/

The whole scam is only possible because Peloton - like most other "smart device" companies - gets to abuse copyright, patent, and cybersecurity law to ban third parties from making alternative software for its devices.

7/

Without laws like Section 1201 of the DMCA and the CFAA, a small group of coders could hack up their own Tread firmware, one that re-enabled the standalone mode, or offered a cheaper (or better) (or both) subscription service.

8/

Without #AdversarialInteroperability (AKA #CompetitiveCompatibility/#ComCom), Peleton's dead hand lays on your property forever, long after you've paid, and if you have demonstrate disloyalty to its shareholders, that hand punches you in the face.

eff.org/deeplinks/2019…

9/

Devices that answer to their manufacturers, not their users enable a toxic new usury, with riskier loans made to precarious people, with the threat of "digital repossession" to ensure a steady flow of payments that are securitized as bonds.

pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/inn…

10/

Peloton is in the usury business, lobbying Iowa's legislature to maintain the "rent-a-bank" system preferred by loansharks who offer Peloton financing at "0% down, 0% APR, 0% fees" but reserve the right to charge THIRTY PERCENT APR in the fine-print.

pluralistic.net/2021/04/24/pel…

11/

This is dystopian on its face. My novella UNAUTHORIZED BREAD is a good place to start if you want to see where the #InternetOfShit leads us to in terms of class war and exploitation.

arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01…

Image: The Jetsons/Hanna-Barbera

eof/

ETA - If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vap…