Cloudy with a Chance of Lock-In
The &quot;Internet of Rentiers&quot; argument is exactly right. Things are made unnecessarily cloud-y for monetisation reasons.<p>In some ways this is the end of the software piracy wars. Software as a single purchase that you buy once and use forever without restriction is basically over. Besides, it needs updating to cope with both security threats and changing ecosystems. So that requires ongoing effort. But users don&#x27;t want to pay for it in the first place.<p>So the solution we&#x27;ve arrived at by default is for the software to remain inside the datacentre fortress where the user can&#x27;t pirate it, and make the user bring their data inside the fortress instead where it can be ransomed. Quite a lot of SaaS is &quot;free!&quot; but with monetised privacy invasion or the questionable gimmicks of free2play games.<p>IoT makes it possible for this untransparent renting business model to be brought to physical objects. If you buy an appliance once and then use it for 20 years, to the capitalist you&#x27;re a bad customer. Why do that when you can pay for annual fridge software updates and a new fridge every 5 years when it stops being &quot;smart&quot;?