Roku disables TVs and streaming devices until users consent to new terms

The devices those users paid for? That should be illegal.

When are we gonna finally nail companies for using underhanded and coercive tactics with consumers?

Oh, never? Okay then.

Not a lawyer, but 99.9999% sure this violates the CFAA. Correct me if I'm wrong? Would t even matter if they included it in EULA or something, 'no reasonable person...'

This has class action lawsuit written all over it.

There should be a law that any change of T&C after the purchase of a product gives the customer the option to refuse the terms and get a full refund of that product, no matter how old it is.

Well, my next tv won’t have a Roku in it. I was just about to buy one, and if anyone here has any advice on a dumb TV with no built-in smart features, I would really appreciate some suggestions. They’re surprisingly difficult to find nowadays. I’m looking for some thing 43 inches or smaller, 4K or 1080, and nothing special. Preferably very cheap.(I’m poor)

Shit happened to me yesterday. Pissed me off. Bought this TV years ago and suddenly I can't use it until I accept their new arbitration shit. I'm building a stream box and disabling the internet on this thing. I'm sick of ads anyway.

I have no idea how US contract law works. Even if you agree to something that says "we can alter the deal at any time", when a change happens to the deal, don't both sides have to benefit, rather than "agree to this change so that you can keep the same thing you had before"?

When are the users taking them to court. These guys aren't Nintendo so I expect them to have to fuck themselves.

My kid consented. I think. Can she make binding contracts that she doesn't tell me about because she's looking for Blues Clues, or am I responsible for every OK she checks when I'm not present?

So legally speaking, what happens if it was my 8 year old son, who clicks buttons with no regard for human life, that agreed to this BS TOS? How is that legally binding?

You know what. Pirate everything.

My in-laws have all Roku tvs. I had to go over and "fix" the TV's for them cause they didn't understand what the hell this was. I straight up just gave them my modded Nvidia shields and bought myself some more. Fuck that shit. We need a better open source tv like interface. I've used plasma big screen but it's not ready for normal people with not Linux but fixing experience.

Enshittification continues. I used to evangelize roku bc I want a dumb TV. I guess that's no longer valid.

Between this and Amazon's recent nonsense with Firetv I think next time I'll just buy a generic Android box or something, maybe even a mini PC.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Roku users around the country turned on their TVs this week to find an unpleasant surprise: The company required them to consent to new dispute resolution terms in order to access their device.

The terms, of course, include a forced arbitration agreement that prevents the user from suing or taking part in lawsuits against Roku.

This requires anyone with legal complaints to take them to Roku lawyers first, who will conduct a “Meet-and-Confer” call and then “make a fair, fact-based offer of resolution” that will no doubt be generous and thoughtful.

I try to opt out of these when I can, and after reading the terms (to which, of course, by “continuing to use” my TV, I had already agreed), I found that you could only do so by mailing a written notice to their lawyers — something I fully intended to do today.

Though in retrospect, I — and literally every single user of your company’s services — would have preferred a straightforward electronic opt-out instead of this dishonest ploy to increase friction and further coerce adoption of these terms.

Don’t delay; otherwise, when people sue them over how they held devices hostage in order to coerce them into consumer-hostile dispute resolution terms, you won’t be able to join in on the fun.

The original article contains 849 words, the summary contains 214 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Glad I never connected mine to the internet, I find the interface too laggy and clunky to use the built in streaming apps anyway. It shall remain offline until it dies which is hopefully a long way off.

Is there a FOSS option to turn something like a pi zero into streaming device? My assumption is a flavor of Android is required?

Edit: referring to streaming services such as Netflix. I'm aware of that home plex and jellyfin servers exist

i literally only use my roku tv to open hdmi1 which has a fire stick on it (which i only use for jellyfin)

Well that is terrible.

laughs in Google Chromecast

That's more absurd than my ex, who began wearing full-coverage panties to bed, until I consented to give her the credit card without monitoring her spending. In fairness to my ex, this made mixing 50 ounces of stryctnine into her spaghetti far more appealing than it had been prior

Outrage over ticking a checkbox? Was anything in the updated TOS worth being pissed about or are people just that fucking lazy? The article not having the exact wording of the changes but talking about the dispute resolution arbitration--that's in every TOS for pretty much everything ever isn't mandatory and doesn't say you can't sue--is a bit suspicious.

Dude already had to update the article because he misunderstood one thing already. This reads like the knee jerk reaction of a random person which belongs on a blog, and not a news article that belongs on a news outlet site.