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Comment Re:Creating FUD (Score 1) 79

DOA returns don't work that way. As a vendor, Nintendo has two choices: refund the money and pay for return shipping back to Nintendo or refund the money and let Amazon scrap the product

Nintendo can refuse the DOA as fraudulent after identifying serial numbers. These are working units which are not refundable, even if the customer caused a problem with them.

There is nothing that would require Nintendo to compensate the retailer for accepting a return from the customer which does not qualify under the manufacturer's warranty. Goods are working at the time of sale, and the customer commits a Terms of Service violation causing their unit to be restricted. There is no defect in the unit, and any return as such is a fraud no different than a customer accidentally dropping their unit and attempting to claim warranty.

Actually, there's a huge difference. It's called the "reasonable person test". In law, that means that if a reasonable person would not expect a hardware purchase to suddenly get massively reduced in functionality for buying a used game, then Nintendo generally speaking will be hard pressed to prove that their terms of service (being a contract of adhesion) are not unconscionable. In the absence of such determination, Nintendo disabling the device at least arguably has no legitimate basis in the law, and could be considered fraudulent.

Add to that the presumption that Nintendo has incentive to make used copies of games scary for consumers because they will make more money selling directly to the consumers, and this starts to rapidly fall into the "attempt to monopolize" section of the Sherman Act, which makes the behavior legally actionable federally.

I could go on, but it suffices to say that this is highly questionable on Nintendo's part from a legal perspective, and is a really great way to get their company nailed to the wall on multiple federal charges.

That said, none of the questionable legality of their behavior, their terms of service, or their warranty policy negates the fact that Amazon's vendor contracts determine whether or not Nintendo has to take the return, not any agreement between the customer and Nintendo.

I have a colleague who ordered a thousand dollar CPU and other parts, then when the shipment came from Amazon it was just an empty CPU package. Someone opened the manufacturer's package, removed the actual CPU, and shipped them an empty package that had the number of the part they ordered on it. Amazon absolutely refused to help them. That would be the first time they needed a return with Amazon. Amazon would not take the return or make it good for them in any way whatsoever.

That's where you go to your credit card company and issue a chargeback. Amazon really doesn't have a choice in the matter unless you give them one. As someone who has used this process successfully, it is absolutely better than getting screwed by a sleazy vendor.

I understand your view that playing with copied games doesn't fit the criteria, but Nintendo obviously disagrees.

Nintendo's perspective is moot. What matters is whether a contract of adhesion is so draconian that it would be held unconscionable by the courts. I would argue that it almost certainly would be held unconscionable under those circumstances or anything remotely similar to those circumstances.

Nintendo does not even give room to argue against them on this, however. The Warranty terms on their product specifically cite "Unreasonable" use as a condition that will disqualify the unit from warranty coverage and specifically includes "usage with game copier devices".

THIS WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY TO DAMAGES TO THE PRODUCT CAUSED BY PARTS OR REPAIRS THAT ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH OR AUTHORIZED BY NINTENDO (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADAPTERS, SOFTWARE, AND POWER SUPPLIES).

And again, you're still talking about warranties. None of that matters. The return policy is dictated by a standard Amazon vendor contract, not by whatever pile of legal vomit Nintendo wants to put down on paper.

That said, installing a game presumptively manufactured by Nintendo or one of its licensees does not, at least to a reasonable person standard, meet the criteria you're mentioning here, which means installing a game that to the best of your knowledge is a legitimate copy of the game resulting in Nintendo choosing to brick your online access is fraud, and absolutely is grounds for warranty service, were you not returning the product through the original retail channel, which makes the warranty moot.

WARRANTY SHALL NOT APPLY IF THIS PRODUCT (a) IS USED FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES (INCLUDING RENTAL); (b) IS DAMAGED BY ANY UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATIONS OR TAMPERING; (c) IS DAMAGED BY NEGLIGENCE, ACCIDENT, UNREASONABLE USE, OR BY OTHER CAUSES UNRELATED TO DEFECTIVE MATERIALS OR WORKMANSHIP (INCLUDING USE WITH GAME ENHANCEMENT AND COPIER DEVICES)

Nor does installing a game appear to meet the criteria here. The user did not use any game enhancement or copier device. The possibility that someone else may have sold a game that was so copied is moot. Nintendo still doesn't have any legal right to brick the device, even under a strict reading of those warranty terms.

And the fact that Nintendo has to do something to make the Switch 2 not work — that it is not the fault of the enhancement/copying device actually breaking the Switch 2, but rather Nintendo deliberately doing something in response to someone having used such a device — means that this warranty, if interpreted the way you interpret it, is likely not legally a warranty under Magnusson Moss, and therefore, sale of the product with such a fraudulent warranty would be per se illegal in the United States.

You can't just write a bunch of contract terms down on a piece of paper and claim that because someone appears to have violated them, that person has no rights. The law doesn't work that way. A company can disclaim a warranty only for things that were actually damaged by the use of third-party hardware, software, etc., not merely because of the use of third-party hardware, software, etc. The law is very clear on this. Their warranty terms do not give Nintendo any right to disable a device, nor to return a device so disabled, merely because Nintendo *knows* that someone has done so, much less merely because Nintendo *thinks* someone has done so. The legal bar is far higher than that.

Comment Re:Creating FUD (Score 1) 79

If you're smart, you'll return the console to Amazon as defective.

You can try, but is extremely likely Amazon would check on the status of your console with Nintendo and decline the return as the restricted product constitutes damage due to consumer abuse.

No, the damage is due to Nintendo arbitrarily declaring that the device is banned. Installing a game is not consumer abuse, period.

Also, I think you're greatly overestimating how much effort Amazon puts into defective returns.

Nintendo would end up with a huge pile of e-waste that they can't do anything with

They'll likely refuse warranty, so they don't have a pile in the first place.

DOA returns don't work that way. As a vendor, Nintendo has two choices: refund the money and pay for return shipping back to Nintendo or refund the money and let Amazon scrap the product. There's no warranty involved at that point.

If they actually did: Nintendo themself has the capability to clear the restrictions and make a note on their servers that the package is being repackaged for sale to a new customer.

Yes, they absolutely could do that, and no doubt would. But A. they would take a monetary loss on that, because by law they would have to then sell that unit as refurbished, at a discount, and B. they would have to pay for Amazon shipping that product back to them, pay someone to check the product and repackage it, and then pay again to ship it back to Amazon. I'd be surprised if that added up to less than a $150 loss every time it happens.

In other words, the financial loss to Nintendo would be far greater than the cost of the game that Nintendo incorrectly believes that this person stole, so if everyone did this, Nintendo would stop doing what they're doing, because it would be a net loss for them.

Comment Re:This is NOT evil (Score 1) 79

Nintendo didn't brick the system. They didn't brick the game. They banned online access

Banning online access for a specific device is tantamount to bricking it, because that means you can't play any games that require online access. It's also theft, because they could not download content that they had paid for.

I can see how given their download servers were massively hacked for years why they would be paranoid about allowing compromised systems access to it.

I can't. Either their servers are secure or they aren't; banning access from known-compromised devices won't change anything, because hacks will likely come from devices that are not known to be compromised.

Besides, reusing a game key number doesn't make the device compromised. You're trying to justify something that really isn't justifiable.

An act of evil would be facilitating the corruption. The acts carried out as a result, like say...murder, are an anti-social behavior and in itself not evil (We often support and praise murder.)

We often support and praise killing, not murder. Murder has a very narrow meaning, and is IMO per se evil, precisely because we have defined murder narrowly to include only premeditated killing without justification. No one praises or supports actual murder; to do so would be evil, even under your narrow definition, because it would be actively corrupting others to commit antisocial acts.

Comment Re:This is NOT evil (Score 1) 79

Evil is the condition by which a human is motivated to do an anti-social act.

That's evil as a *noun*, sure. Evil is also an adjective. And whether used as a noun or an adjective, the word evil can also refer to the act itself, not just a moral condition. And as such, it can mean causing harm or intending to cause harm to others, and it can also mean morally corrupt.

In this case, the act of bricking a brand new game console without any evidence is doing an entirely evil act (harming others) in the name of justice. And from a theological perspective, there are few greater evils than this.

So IMO, your statement is not just wrong; it is bordering on heretically wrong. :-)

Comment Re:Creating FUD (Score 1) 79

What are you going to do as a consumer if your console was just bricked for using copied games? IF you are truly a guilty party, then that means you have the ability to get more copied games. You are probably not running out to pay $500 for a brand new console and ewaste that one.

If you're smart, you'll return the console to Amazon as defective. If everyone did this every time, and ideally returned *multiple* new Switch 2 units in a row as defective (Nintendo even having the ability to do this is arguably a defect), Nintendo would end up with a huge pile of e-waste that they can't do anything with, the supply for their hardware would crater without any actual users, and they would be forced by market forces to pull their heads out of their asses.

Treating your customers as criminals is never okay, and if government is not willing to punish companies for such abuse, then it becomes the responsibility of the buyers to find a way to do so, to the maximum extent allowable by law.

Submission + - Microsoft: In 2029, 12-Year-Olds Will Outperform 2025's Professional Programmers

theodp writes: On Wednesday, Microsoft published a clip from a June interview with the AI Report podcast's Alexander Klöpping to its YouTube channel in which CEO Satya Nadella is asked a series of questions about "What will the world look like in 2029?" When questioned if "12-year-olds with AI will outperform today's professional programmers?", Nadella replies, "Yes."

On the same day, Microsoft President Brad Smith announced Microsoft would provide support for Code.org's new Hour of AI, which aims "to expand foundational AI literacy alongside computer science" for K-12 students. "The Hour of Code sparked a generation," the tech-backed nonprofit proclaims on its home page. "This fall, the Hour of AI will define the next," adding that there are "millions of futures to shape" with the new initiative. Code.org in May launched Unlock8, a national campaign supported by tech leaders led by Nadella to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.

Submission + - Microsoft: You Can't Make an $80B AI Omelet Without Breaking 15K Employee Eggs

theodp writes: "After Microsoft this week unveiled a $4 billion, five-year global initiative to help millions of people adapt to the rise of artificial intelligence," GeekWire reports, "the first question for Brad Smith, the company’s vice chair and president, wasn’t about the new program. It was about the company’s own layoffs. What does he say to laid-off Microsoft employees who blame AI for taking their jobs?"

"Addressing the recent Microsoft cuts, he said, 'The notion that AI productivity boosts have somehow already led to this, I don’t think that’s the story in this instance.' In the follow-up interview, he acknowledged that rising capital spending have created pressure to rein in operating costs, which in the tech sector are 'more about the number of employees than anything else,' he said. Microsoft logged an estimated $80 billion in capital investments in its recently completed fiscal year, a record sum driven by the expansion of its infrastructure for training and running advanced AI models."

"He said the reductions were driven by business needs, not employee performance. 'We want the world to know that,' he said, 'so that when they see somebody from Microsoft applying for a job, they know that in all likelihood, they have the opportunity to hire an extraordinarily talented individual.'"

"What would he say to longtime Microsoft employees who lost their jobs and then saw the company commit billions to broader workforce development? Smith acknowledged the difficult juxtaposition but defended the separate moves as necessary. 'Success in life, whether it’s for an individual or a company or any kind of institution, is always about prioritization, and it’s always about investing in the future,' he said. 'This is something that Microsoft should do for the future.'"

Comment The line between citation and advertisement (Score 1) 33

I happened to be aware of the existence of a extension made by someone else that offers domain-level opt-in consent to run script in a particular web browser. I cited the extension's title and author and deliberately left out any URL. I thought that would have been adequate to imply lack of conflict of interest. A user has implied to me that it is not. What means of citing a source would have been adequate?

Comment Re:Number 1 complaint (Score 1) 65

It should be obvious that changing a 0 to a 1 (whether or not one swaps other digits) is not cutting a zero off the price. The normal price is not $3490.99, either.

Yeah, the snark is high in this thread.

But in all seriousness, $3,499 really is an order of magnitude too expensive to compete against Quest at $499. If they had game availability that could compete with Quest, they might be able to get away with more like $750, but not $3.5k, or even $2k, realistically. It's just way too overpriced for something that in practice is only usable for gaming.

Submission + - With Microsoft's Support, Code.org Announces New 'Hour of AI' for Schoolkids

theodp writes: Tired: Hour of Code. Wired: Hour of AI. "The Hour of Code sparked a generation," proclaims tech-backed nonprofit Code.org. "This fall, the Hour of AI will define the next,"

Twelve years after Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi announced the Hour of Code with Microsoft President Brad Smith at his side, Partovi announced the Hour of AI ("Coming Fall 2025") at Wednesday's Microsoft Elevate launch event, again with Smith at his side. The announcement of the Microsoft-bankrolled nonprofit's new Hour of AI, which aims to get K-12 schoolchildren to take their first step into AI much like the Hour of Code has done with CS for hundreds of millions of children since 2013, comes in a week that saw Microsoft pledge $4B for AI education training programs and announce the launch of a $22.5M AI training center for members of the American Federation of Teachers.

“Coding changed the work of software developers, but it didn’t change every occupation and profession, or the work of every professional, the way A.I. probably will,” Microsoft's Smith explained. “So we need to move faster for A.I. than we did for computer science [Smith was a founding Board member of Code.org].” As its tech company sponsors aim to disrupt traditional coding and education with their AI offerings, Code.org has pivoted its own mission to "make CS and AI a core part of K-12 education" and launched a new campaign with support from tech leaders including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to make CS and AI a graduation requirement.

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