The first thing I do when researching a new electronic thing is to search “[brand] home assistant” to see if there is already an integration for their stuff. If not, I usually keep looking.
Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice
Submitted 3 months ago by Dehydrated@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
SteveDinn@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
ExLisper@linux.community 3 months ago
There’s so many issues with all the smart/IOT devices that it’s just not worth getting into. Few if any manufacturers offer proper, open integrations and when it comes to home appliance there are more important features than that. Just get up and turn off our AC, that’s still the best solution.
psud@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Getting up to turn on or off the aircon doesn’t allow for turning it on to make the house the right temperature by the time you get home
ExLisper@linux.community 3 months ago
My heat pump has a timer setting. I can tell it when to start heating water or when to start AC. If your weekly schedule doesn’t vary widely it should be enough. I have it set up to heat the water during the nigh and heat up my apartment a little bit right before I get out of bed. I never needed anything more.
RazorsLedge@lemmy.world 3 months ago
The Lennox s30 integration works pretty great. It hits a local api hosted on the thermostat, and my thermostat is blocked from internet access.
corroded@lemmy.world 3 months ago
If any appliance manufacturer says that accessing your own appliance (that you own) outside their software ecosystem is financially “damaging” to them, they might as well be saying “Hey, just so you know, we’re collecting and selling your data.” If you have already purchased the appliance and their software is free, there is absolutely no other way that using a 3rd-party application could damage their bottom line.
Thanks, Haier, for letting me know never to purchase your products.
dev_null@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
The project was accessing Haiers cloud API, not just your appliance. Not that that it makes this any less shitty, but there is a difference. They aren’t saying you aren’t allowed to access a product you own, they are saying you aren’t allowed to access their servers.
Natanael@slrpnk.net 3 months ago
Then make the devices able to run offline
RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Here’s to hoping people start ripping their app apart to call out what information they’re collecting for sale.
Kushia@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Last Haier appliance I had was a heap of shit anyway so no great loss avoiding their garbage in the future.
theangryseal@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I was under the impression they were dead and gone for about 20 years.
The tv I had 20 years ago was garbage and I assumed they were just some shitty knockoff brand. Surprises me that they own GE.
Kushia@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Last thing I had was a dishwasher by them a couple of years ago. Seals leaked about 6 months out of warranty and it cost about as much as a new one to replace them.
baseless_discourse@mander.xyz 3 months ago
Just letting everyone know that GE appliance is also owned by Haire.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GE_Appliances
Besides that, they also own the following brands: Hotpoint (U.S.) Hoover (Europe) Candy Fisher & Paykel
Thorned_Rose@kbin.social 3 months ago
I'm so sad about Fisher & Paykel. It was a local (New Zealand) manufacturer that prided itself on quality. It had such a great reputation for quality it eventually took that great quality internationally. And then capitalism and eshitification got its grubby hands on it and turned it into another trash brand. Yet another quality local company disappearing off overseas, screwing over local workers and trashing the quality in favour of profit.
joenforcer@midwest.social 3 months ago
Enshittification exclusively defines online platforms. Stop using it for everything.
wikibot@lemmy.world [bot] 3 months ago
Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
GE Appliances is an American home appliance manufacturer based in Louisville, Kentucky. It has been majority owned by Chinese multinational home appliances company Haier since 2016. It is one of the largest appliance companies in the United States and manufactures appliances under several brands, including GE, GE Profile, Café, Monogram, Haier and Hotpoint (Americas only, European rights held by Whirlpool Corporation). The company also owns FirstBuild, a co-creation community and micro-factory on the University of Louisville’s campus in Louisville, Kentucky. Another FirstBuild location is in South Korea, and a FirstBuild location in India opened its doors in 2019.
^to^ ^opt^ ^out^^,^ ^pm^ ^me^ ^‘optout’.^ ^article^ ^|^ ^about^
QHC@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I don’t use Haier products but a similar thing happened with Chamberlain when they blocked the MyQ integration even though it was using the legitimate API and not breaking any rules. No attempt to work with anyone in the HA community at all, just shut everything down.
Muehe@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
Just here to leave the daily reminder that API reimplementation may constitute fair use under certain circumstances.
APassenger@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Matter. Get it adopted. Buy and implement only Matter devices in the future.
Needs a year or two, but if we can get that tech widespread, this cloud stuff will be less essential.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Or, you know, just don’t buy smart devices. They are pointless wastes of money and don’t solve any problem but the imaginary problem their marketing made you think actually exists.
Which is better than just supporting something that google, amazon, and apple have developed. Which makes it inherently suspect anyone with a brain should have an intense primal need to avoid.
Emma_Gold_Man@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
There are problems they can actually solve, mostly heating and power related:
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In summer, lower the blinds on south facing windows when the sun comes up to reduce solar heating, then raise them in the evening to increase air flow against the window panes. This reduces the need for air conditioning, resulting in a surprising amount of power saved.
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On a home solar system, start the washing machine, dishwasher, and dryer that were loaded in the morning when the batteries reach 80% charge. Allow them to run off the inverter rather than taking the charge/discharge losses involved in battery storage, reducing the size of both battery bank and solar array needed.
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Lower the freezer temperature when there is a power surplus, and raise it back to normal when not so that cooling energy is used when it’s cheapest/most available
If you don’t work from home, you can’t do the second two yourself. They require automation. Reducing baseload requirements and battery storage needs can make a transition to renewable power much cheaper and more efficient. With mass adoption, that extends to power grids and not just off-grid homes, and has significant effects on things like the amount of lithium that needs to be mined or the number of coal and LNG power plants that are needed fo r times that at iff-peak for wind and solar generation.
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APassenger@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Matter, if implemented correctly, would save them all money and allow the privacy conscious to drop the cloud.
They are losing money on their voice assistants, so they want out of the business of being the voice part of the central hub.
They’ll find ways to monetize the users who are less privacy concerned, but that’s not me and I think it’s not a lot of people who are here.
iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Not sure why I’d want some private cloud system when HA can work on its own. I’d go zigbee, which doesn’t require any cloud.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
Eh? Matter is an open source standard, not proprietary in the slightest.
APassenger@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Matter works with HA and HA works with matter, keeping it local and easier (is the hope).
vividspecter@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Buy Zigbee in cases where there isn’t a Matter alternative. It’s not quite as interoperable as Matter but it’s fully offline once setup (and some newer coordinators have dual zigbee/Matter support). Avoid cloud connected WiFi devices like the plague.
theUnlikely@sopuli.xyz 3 months ago
I love my single TRÅDFRI Zigbee lightbulb.
skizzles@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
That’s interesting.
Here is a better link for it that isn’t pushing Google products. Not implying you are doing that, just wanted to provide a non Google link is all.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 3 months ago
RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Contacted :)
CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world 3 months ago
That is one ugly ass building. It looks like it’s swelling from long term water damage.
IHawkMike@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It’s a shit company for pulling this, for sure. But I kinda like the building.
Dozzi92@lemmy.world 3 months ago
No opinion on Haier but I also like the design. I appreciate an architect who designs something outaide of the literal box.
praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
makes their product easier to use and to be used however we see fit
Haier: You can’t do that!
Dehydrated@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Corporations and their shitty proprietary cloud services…
trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 3 months ago
Anyone know how the plugin developer responded?
Would be dope if the response was ‘Fuck you, prove it’
misanthropy@lemm.ee 3 months ago
Would you risk going into massive legal debt for project you make no money from? Or would you continue to develop it for yourself and no longer post it publicly.
trackcharlie@lemmynsfw.com 3 months ago
Again, it’s the pursuers responsibility to prove damages.
Pro se and wait.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 months ago
From the article a screenshot shows that the project is going to be discontinued with immediate effect
eah@kbin.social 3 months ago
I bunch of people have forked the project on GitHub and changed the README.
https://github.com/Andre0512/hon/network
https://github.com/thempc/hon/commit/f4169cce29fb5a5d669cad627fd6d66e681a5896
https://github.com/fbanwjdmzoasjdn/hoe/commit/70835712ec71086996d47a22b509629ab14c12dd
https://github.com/RearDoor/hon/commit/db2776b1ce3b86aa3ff1e63ebe34999e2df88800
https://github.com/EvilGremlin/hon/commit/263084b46829e00361a26b7cb186303e17128684
https://github.com/abc123me/hon/commit/b4186ad014d73566019cca3ba7422cb09cde5ec9
https://github.com/mon5termatt/hon/commit/5b40cf6947c95c1ea9b0c5b214be0520c32f829a
https://github.com/cathalferris/fuck_you_haier/commit/d896e02bb6d4b188192a7c60fb7e2f6b17c0a14ctrevor@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 months ago
The mistake is forking and hosting it on GitHub. If Haier sends GitHub a DMCA takedown notice, they will comply, and the forks will be deleted too. Use other hosting services for redundancy and keep a local copy.
psud@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I don’t think there’s a copyright component to this. DMCA isn’t on the table
Haier were implying that they might sue if the developer didn’t take it down
Asudox@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Might put it on torrents as well.
Dehydrated@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Awesome! This is why I love the Lemmy community.
Rentlar@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Good news is there is a lot of forks that were made by various users. I have a copy of the source…
Unfortunate news is that development is likely stopping so if they change the API I don’t know if there are any fellas that will come around to fix it…
Dehydrated@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Usually, the open source community finds a solution for everything
Corngood@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
My non-expert take on this:
Haier claims these plugins cause the firm significant financial damage
Don’t care. Competition is not damage.
violate copyright laws
Prove it.
plug-ins developed by you […] that are in violation of our terms of service
The plug-ins never agreed to your ToS. Better sue your customers instead.
pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 3 months ago
It is likely costing them more from whatever cloud service their platform is hosted on.
But, that’s on them for not putting locks on their api.
asbestos@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Hijacking the comment to say: Fork the shit out of this repo immediately. Fuck Haier.
fishpen0@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Ghetto fork it. GitHub will nuke the forks done via the fork button with the initial DMCA
Dehydrated@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yeah they have no legal basis for their ridiculous claims and demands. This company is just full of shit.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
“Hey! We were gonna charge a subscription for that! Fuck you for doing it first, competition is not allowed.”
akwd169@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Does homeassistant even charge a subscription?
pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 3 months ago
They do, but only if you want to go through their servers for access outside of your network.
I do it mostly to support the project.
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 months ago
Home assistant does not, but Haier would rather you use their SmartAir2 app that vacuums up every tiny but of personal data for resale, and could potentially turn into a subscription service later.
Mind you smartair2 has a 1.4 star rating on the play store if that tells you how well any of their software and devices work lol
machinin@lemmy.world 3 months ago
The software is free, and you would never need to pay anything to get set up great system for yourself. In addition to that, they also offer a service that you can subscribe to that gives you some benefits. You can replicate all the functions on your own, I believe, but the service makes it extremely simple.
Thann@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
No, its free an open source, but it out competes their spyware
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 3 months ago
So what do we do, all fork the repos and upload the source to archive.org?
Kidplayer_666@lemm.ee 3 months ago
That would be illegal, and you should absolutely not do that. Just like you shouldn’t clone the invidious repos just in case (/s)
mrbubblesort@kbin.social 3 months ago
Why would it be illegal? A cease and desist is just a fancy letter saying do what we want or else we'll go crying to a judge. If the original dev hasn't done anything wrong (I'm not familiar with the project but I'd still say that's highly likely to be the case) then there's nothing to worry about. So make all the clones you want, and watch a dumbass company Streisand itself
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It wouldn’t be illegal if you hosted it in a country where there is no law against such a thing, and/or Haier does not have any presence which would grant them legal standing. Is anyone running a server farm in Sealand yet?
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I haven’t seen any notice, sounds legal to me.
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 3 months ago
It may or may not be illegal, they’re just throwing their weight around under the suggestion that it’s illegal. Knowing well that a single dev working on a plugin in their freetime isn’t likely to want to invest in legal proceedings.
Which is even more reason to do the above, to stick it to them.
Dehydrated@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Doesn’t sound like a bad plan
wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 3 months ago
Two repos:
github.com/Andre0512/hOn github.com/Andre0512/pyhOn
Fork that shit. Upload the source anywhere you can think. Do crime.
Secret300@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Just build a bomb and fight back fuck them