Software locks: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 07:19, 16 March 2026

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Software locks are security measures used to control access and features in consumer electronic hardware and software.^[1]^[2]^{These are Wikipedia citations!} Software locks are not considered bad practice and are necessary for basic cybersecurity and operation of most hardware, though they can be abused.

Noteworthy bad practice examples

Anti Interoperability

See also: Proprietary protocols wip stub example you can't use our competitors Bluetooth headset with our XYZ operating system because we invented a our own new proprietary XYZ Bluetooth audio codec and that product doesn't support it.

real example apple mfi certifications on charging and data transfer accessories

apple's history of anti-Interoperability

Account-required products

Mobile phones

ref Small preamble focused on how mobile phones require an account in order to be used, reference Google Pixels and specific Android devices requiring a Google account, and iPhones needing an Apple account.

In appliances

HVAC app activation of furnace control boards (also an example of forced app download (editors note hard to find credible ref this is a thing with ruud furnace control boards) )

Binding hardware features to non-transferable user accounts / activation & licensing locks

-wip

Server connectivity reliance

Also see: Subscription service, Digital rights management

-wip

References

[1] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(computer_science) (Archived)

[2] ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software (Archived)

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-== also see ==
+{{StubNotice}}
-[[Digital rights management|DRM (digital right managment)]]
-[[wikipedia:Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software|Proprietary Software]]
+Software locks are security measures used to control access and features in consumer electronic hardware and software.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(computer_science) ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260131030629/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(computer_science) Archived])</ref><ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software ([http://web.archive.org/web/20260116162909/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software Archived])</ref><sup>These are Wikipedia citations!</sup> Software locks are not considered bad practice and are necessary for basic cybersecurity and operation of most hardware, though they can be abused.
-[[Walled garden]] / [[Software Ecosystem]]
-[[Bootloader unlocking]]
-=== Common definition ===
-Software locks are security measures used to control access & features in consumer electronic hardware & software. <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_(computer_science)</ref>  <ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_open-source_and_closed-source_software</ref>
-==== [[Anti Interoperability]] ====
-also see [[wikipedia:Proprietary_protoco|Proprietary protocols]]
+==Noteworthy bad practice examples==
+===Anti Interoperability===
+See also: {{Wplink|Proprietary protocols}}
 wip  stub example you can't use our competitors Bluetooth headset with our XYZ operating system because we invented a our own new proprietary XYZ Bluetooth audio codec and that product doesn't support it.
@@ Line 20: / Line 12: @@
 apple's history of anti-Interoperability
-also see: [[hardware Anti Interoperability]] / [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_hardware? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_hardware?]
+===Account-required products===
+=====Mobile phones=====
+[https://pirg.org/articles/refurbishers-repairers-and-recyclers-call-on-the-fcc-to-stop-phone-software-locks/ ref] Small preamble focused on how mobile phones [[Forced account|require an account]] in order to be used, reference Google Pixels and specific Android devices requiring a Google account, and iPhones needing an Apple account.
-=== examples ===
+=====In appliances=====
+HVAC app activation of furnace control boards (also an example of [[forced app download]]  (editors note hard to find credible ref this is a thing with ruud furnace control boards) )
-==== account parring in apple iphones ====
+====Binding hardware features to non-transferable user accounts / activation & licensing locks<!-- This needs a much shorter name -->====
--wip [https://pirg.org/articles/refurbishers-repairers-and-recyclers-call-on-the-fcc-to-stop-phone-software-locks/ ref]
+-wip
-==== Binding hardware features to non-transferable user accounts / activation & licensing locks ====
+===Server connectivity reliance===
+ Also see: [[Subscription service]], [[Digital rights management]]
 -wip
-==== Server connectivity reliance  ====
+==Further reading==
--wip
+[[Digital rights management]]
+{{Wplink|Comparison of open-source and closed-source software|Proprietary software}}
+[[Walled garden]] / [[Software Ecosystem]]
+[[Bootloader unlocking]]
-( also see:  [[Subscription service]])
+{{Wplink|Proprietary firmware}}
+==References==
+{{Reflist}}
-<references />
+[[Category:Common terms]]
+[[Category:Software]]