Apparently, Apple has decided that extending DRM to your Nike accessories will keep hackers at bay. Sick of people cutting the sensors out of their Nike shoes for use on other apparell, they have applied for a patent. Ever noticed the warning that it’s illegal to pull the tag off of a mattress? Did that stop you?
[via Slashdot]
Wouldn’t first sale doctrine come into play, patent or not? And are there really any companies that are taking off the sensors and reselling them? If not, then this won’t make much difference — even if they try to apply the DMCA, the workaround is so obvious (even more so than a 64-bit XOR), so they’d probably get slapped down in court.
As for the mattress tags — you know that the warnings only apply to sellers, right? If you bought the thing, you can pull them off to your heart’s delight.
Posted at 7:11 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by Zathrus
As a consumer…
I can do whatever the hell I want to with a product.
Manufacturers have to adhere to these things like tags on mattresses.
Sure.. I may violate the warranty policy if I mess with things but that is MY choice.
Posted at 7:36 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by neo
errm….
what if I want to dance in my running shoes?
the first half of this sounds like pairing Bluetooth, the second half like usage restrictions on my clothing
Posted at 8:45 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by Will
If I don’t sell it or claim I designed it, it’s not a patent violation.
Posted at 9:43 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by BigD145
Hum, guess I will be looking at those sneakers along the
roadsides a little closer now.
Amazes me how many people loose shoes out on the highways.
:P
Posted at 11:20 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by shawn
the shoes aren’t bound to their feet and have been loosed :-p
Posted at 11:38 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by sly
Wow, so dumb. People don’t “cut” the sensors out of their shoes either. They come seperate and are placed in a pocket in the shoe. I don’t understand how people can run a site like this and not dp their fucking research.
Posted at 1:09 pm on Sep 14th, 2008 by Tom
Tom… doesn’t the shoe also have a sensor that the ‘portable’ sensor is paired up with?
Posted at 2:30 pm on Sep 14th, 2008 by Adam Ziegler
this just seems like an excercise in futility… It will be just as easy to pull that second sensor off of the “piece of clothing” and put it next to your Ipod receiver, and THEN duct-tape that to your old pair of New Balance running shoes…
Oooh.. we could put TWO sensors… surely these college-educated software/electrical/mechanical/Industrial design engineering-educated hackers wouldn’t be able to figure that out…
Posted at 4:30 pm on Sep 14th, 2008 by jose
why buy cripple hardware in the first place ?
Posted at 9:39 pm on Sep 14th, 2008 by therian
remember that escaped convict from PeeWee that said he pulled off a tag?
Posted at 10:51 pm on Sep 15th, 2008 by injailfortagpulling
You know this has to be the most pointless thing I’ve ever seen just use both sensors if you want to use it on a different shoe.
I think this is more to prevent people from making their own software to use the sensors vs only allow them to be used in a crappy nike shoe since it would take me what 3 minutes to make it work on any old shoe.
The DRM is likely something idiot simple like a 64bit hash.
But really Apple has become very lame these past few years and DRM is never cool or hip.
Posted at 12:00 pm on Sep 25th, 2008 by Nitori
it is unbelievably, oh wait, yes it can be believable :-D But it sux, tht suits for apple.
Posted at 3:31 pm on Dec 15th, 2008 by fashion blog
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its not illegal for the consumer to remove the mattress tag; the warning is directed at merchants so they cant pass a bag full of rocks off as a tempurpedic.
Posted at 7:03 am on Sep 14th, 2008 by meatwad