And I thought Mickey Mouse was cute...

CNN is shit anyway

ChannelNews article, written by Varun Godinho

YouTube video by Mental Outlaw

I linked through ycombinator because the discussion there adds to the solution pool

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/23949437

YouTube video by Future Proof

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/39928515

> cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18776912

Crosspost from: https://lemmy.world/post/18724475

> Disney has asked a Florida court to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed earlier this year regarding a woman who passed away due to anaphylaxis after a meal at Disney Springs, citing an arbitration waiver in the terms and conditions for Disney+. > > ... > > In the latest update for the Disney Springs wrongful death lawsuit, Disney cited legal language within the terms and conditions for Disney+, which “requires users to arbitrate all disputes with the company.” Disney claims Piccolo reportedly agreed to this in 2019 when signing up for a one-month free trial of the streaming service on his PlayStation console. > >In the May 31 motion filed to move the wrongful death lawsuit to arbitration, Disney attorneys said that the Disney+ subscriber agreement states that any dispute, except for small claims, “must be resolved by individual binding arbitration.” > > ... > > Attorneys for Piccolo called Disney’s latest motion “preposterous,” and that it’s “‘absurd’ to believe that the 153 million subscribers to the popular streaming service have waived all claims against the company and its affiliates because of language ‘buried’ within the terms and conditions,” according to Newsday. > >>The notion that terns agreed to by a consumer when creating a Disney+ free trial account would forever bar that consumer’s right to a jury trial in any dispute with any Disney affiliate or subsidiary, is so outrageously unreasonable and unfair as to shock the judicial conscience, and this court should not enforce such an agreement. >> >> Brian Denny, Piccolo’s West Palm Beach attorney in a filing on August 2, 2024

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/12700714

On mobile, it prompts you to either "get the app" or "open app" with no way to click past. Screenshot won't upload.

This is worse from several months ago https://lemmy.today/post/8935690

crosspost from: https://lemmy.world/post/10321573

> i've never been on this site before -- that is to say, you don't even get like a couple free words > > what a joke

cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/3381833 >Exciting news for who? Only the site owner is excited that a free resource now requires a subscription > > "Yay! Now I have to pay another subscription! I'm so excited! Let's celebrate with them!" - nobody

Bit of a rant here, but I am currently subscribed to a game development related Patreon because I wanted to follow the development of a project that was interesting to me. The reason I covered the name is that the developer is doing a fantastic job with the project, posting regularly and providing interesting and informative posts, but the main advantage of Patreon is simply that he also provides builds which I was interested in checking out.

Patreon rebilled at the beginning of the month and I thought "Fine I guess, but I don't really want to pay $6 a month to get test builds of this game" and tried to cancel, assuming it would simply not rebill next month, but instead of cancelling rebilling, Patreon says I will immediately lose access to everything I can currently see on Patreon and new posts for this month, even though it billed me for this month literally three days ago.

There is no technical reason they can't just cancel rebilling and allow me to access this subscription until the end of the month, but they are clearly hoping I'll be scared to lose access to what I've paid for and will forget about cancelling later in the month, which would be the better time to do it, since I would benefit from access to more posts and development builds. There are a few other subscriptions I've used in the past that remove access to everything the instant you cancel, but even Amazon lets me continue free trials of Prime until the end of the trial period when I cancel it.

There are presumably no laws against this, or it was mentioned in some legal bullshit I ignored when signing up, but I do think that there should be a law that forces providers of subscription services to allow users to access their subscription for the entire period for which they have paid, regardless of whether they cancel their subscription if no refund is due.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3078732

> cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/118334 > > > [ comments | sourced from HackerNews \] > > > Welcome to the Internet of Stings, an occasional series in which we report on connected devices that are abruptly bricked or rendered considerably more costly due to the actions of their vendors. > > > > Today's tale concerns the Miku Baby Monitor, a $400 device aimed at parents who want to check up on their precious poppet from the comfort of their smartphone. > > > > Spend the cash and you'll get a camera that will also monitor breathing, room temperature, humidity, and provide some two-way communication to reassure the baby that its parent or guardian has taken a break from YouTube or Candy Crush to check that all is well. > > > > The upfront cost was steep, but what price can one put on the reassurance of a breathing waveform and being able to bring up some live video while you're out and about? Apparently, $9.99 a month.

!

I don't know if it has a subscription per se, but holy crap/crab

cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/3190681

You've seen Louis's rant about how difficult it is to cancel gym memberships. But I think he's mad at the wrong thing here, or at least not at the main wrong thing.

The worse issues, as I see them, are:

The main issues are:

1. Why does a gym require membership/subscription in the first place? Ok sure, fixed expenses and stuff, but that's the case of every business ever, and my grocery store doesn't require me to sign up for membership to buy bread.

Where I live (Europe), gyms, swimming pools and other such establishments are walk-in. You come, pay an entry fee and leave whenever. Memberships and tickets for multiple entries are offered, but it's just to save money if you want it and are a regular anyway. So there's a steep discount coming with those. Businesses need go actually earn your membership money.

I kept seeing people joking about gym memberships in US TV shows and comedies, and just had to shake my head.

Not that people aren't trying to bring this subscription/membership rot here. One large local gym/wellness chain now requires membership and a phone app to enter. The membership itself is free (presumably you pay with your data in some way) and there are still just single entrance fees, but fuck that.

2. I'd say it's good manners to accept cancellation of a contract by the same method as the sign-up. But in absence of good manners by businesses, laws should exist to enforce exactly this.

As far as I know, Europe-wide laws require cancellation of contracts to be easily available, at least using the same way as you can sign up.

So if the laws don't demand this, and businesses don't respect this simplest, basic logic, then there's something fundamentally more wrong than just "making it difficult to cancel".

And overall, it also just shows how far can things get when subscriptions are just accepted as normal thing. It always gets worse and worse, unless the law intervenes (if it does). That's why it's pretty much best to avoid subscription services and memberships whenever there's an alternative available. Sure, exceptions apply, but always think what the situation with your service will be in 10 years.

Louis getting pissed off by gym memberships is very entertaining. And he is right!

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/tech/t/433816

> BMW has made a U-turn on a controversial subscription service that saw drivers pay a fee to activate the heated seats fitted to their car.

//

How nice of them. But I'll bet my tyres that even worse subscriptions will come from all sides, and we won't need to wait long. These tiny wins against corporate nickle and diming only make sense, when we keep fighting them. More often than not, people get tired of complaining about the same thing over and over, until it just gets fully normalised.

In other words, don't buy cars with subscription seats, don't buy shitty subscriptions and try to not support companies that push that kind of shit.

Sorry for being a downer and not celebrating, but that's the point.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/gaming/t/408797

> USD "per year" prices: > The Essential plan is increasing from $60 to $80. > Extra increasing from $100 to $135. > Premium increasing from $120 to $160.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/2944272

> Smaller subscription deals and the underperformance of certain titles have had a severe impact on Devolver and TinyBuild, says stockbroking firm Goodbody. > > Both companies floated at the peak of the games business in 2021 and have seen their share prices plummet over the past two years. Devolver has seen its share price drop 92% since its peak in January 2022, while TinyBuild's has fallen 95% > > "We have seen from Devolver and TinyBuild that subscription is under pressure at the moment," says Patrick O'Donnell, technology and video gaming analyst at Goodbody. > > "The cheques coming from Sony and Microsoft are just not as big as they were. And that creates problems if you're concentrated on that side of the market. > > "TinyBuild, of all of them, was most exposed. Devolver was exposed, but not quite as much."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/3882090

> Reader would work for like 90% of people, but no, everyone needs Standard or Pro because reasons.

"Subscribed" (subscribed and right after unsubscribed) to Game Pass because of a deal for 1$. When my subscription was closing in, got this in a new tab called "recommendations". It says:

---

Continue playing

Time to renew your subscription.

---

When I removed this notification, the whole tab disappeared.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/3405817

> Have to use Windows for work (I've asked), the ads have been getting worse and worse on my work laptop. Today got a game ad notification... That's clearly too far, right? Like I have to clear notifications, so I have to see it

And here's the other side, a view against subscriptions or rather any monetisation of features, specifically in cars but can easily be applied to lots of other industries.

This article can be quite agitative and speculative (tho I can't really disagree with much), so be warned - but like with that other post, there you go - some points "against".

It's a bit of a cucumber season, so I thought I'll post something from both sides of the argument.

This video discusses some positives of subscriptions, though specifically in comparison to free services. I think they're forgetting a few things - such as that just because a service is paid, doesn't mean it's inherently better or more private - but there you go. Some points "for".

I admit I don't quite get what is supposed to appear as the point of it.

But it seems like an example of a subscription service where a few people caving and using it make things worse for everybody.

Verification as a concept definitely makes sense. I can even imagine a one-time fee for it, as there may be some associated costs. Fair.

But once you start charging a subscription fee, it absolutely stops being a service for the good of the community, and starts just being a thing you want to sell as much as possible. Meaning the standards for verification drop, possibly to zero (like on Twitter), and the whole system loses any actual meaning. But people who do have a need for verification will need to keep paying too, just for appearance.

I think it's a lesson/example in why subscriptions suck, and why is it generally a good idea to discourage people from signing up to subscriptions like this. Even if it's "just a couple bucks". Eventually you'll just be paying for a pointless, if not an actively hostile system.

Gee, just charge for dark mode like Snapchat, or non-ugly icons like Reddit. Just don't mess up something essential people rely on?