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Oh man, Dropbox is really losing it's luster for me. First trying to get rid of the Public folder and now blocking third party apps. It's really too bad all of

by aimatt 14y ago

Oh man, Dropbox is really losing it's luster for me. First trying to get rid of the Public folder and now blocking third party apps. It's really too bad all of the hard work put into Boxopus has to go to waste. They won't even have profit to offset their beta testing bandwidth usage. I was really looking forward to having this product at my disposal.

gyardley 14y ago
Dropbox isn't blocking third-party apps, they blocked one particular third-party app which was aggressively attempting to pin a giant 'hey, come sue me' target on their back. Both smart and user-friendly, for the subset of users who use Dropbox for things other than piracy.
wissler 14y ago
Someone chanting that "it's Dropbox's API and they can do what they want" in 5, 4, 3, 2...
- stewartbutler 14y ago
  Well... yeah?
  - wissler 14y ago
    The presumption behind the chant is that what is legal is also moral, but that's clearly not the case, particularly in our ever more corrupt legal environment.
    - drivebyacct2 14y ago
      No, the presumption is that it's their API and they can do what they want. It's obviously a business decision. I'm pretty sure Dropbox didn't say "We hate torrenters" or "We want to turn away potential customers". They said "We see a liability and want to mitigate it to protect our business". I don't see how that can be portrayed as "immoral".
      - wissler 14y ago
        The subject is "should Dropbox block the API" not "can Dropbox block the API." And yes, the saw liability and wanted to mitigate it -- at the expense of moral principle.
        drivebyacct2 14y ago
        I still don't think you've done any work to show that it's immoral for Dropbox to do this. Even if it weren't in their business interests, I don't think you've done the work to convince me that there is a moral issue at stake.
        wissler 14y ago
        That's because I was already doing that work in a different comment and don't want to repeat myself. Feel free to address my remarks there. I'm not saying it's not a complicated moral issue, but in my judgement it's far simpler when you're talking about big corporations with a lot of money and power. If a tiny business was too scared to take the proper stand, that would be one thing, but the big mega-corp ought to at least try to do the right thing, and then only back down when there are serious legal issues they can't get across (see Twitter vs. the US government regarding releasing user information).
        sliverstorm 14y ago
        ... Dropbox is a megacorp? They have something like 100 employees.

by aimatt 14y ago

gyardley 14y ago

Dropbox isn't blocking third-party apps, they blocked one particular third-party app which was aggressively attempting to pin a giant 'hey, come sue me' target on their back. Both smart and user-friendly, for the subset of users who use Dropbox for things other than piracy.

wissler 14y ago

Someone chanting that "it's Dropbox's API and they can do what they want" in 5, 4, 3, 2...

stewartbutler 14y ago
Well... yeah?
- wissler 14y ago
  The presumption behind the chant is that what is legal is also moral, but that's clearly not the case, particularly in our ever more corrupt legal environment.
  - drivebyacct2 14y ago
    No, the presumption is that it's their API and they can do what they want. It's obviously a business decision. I'm pretty sure Dropbox didn't say "We hate torrenters" or "We want to turn away potential customers". They said "We see a liability and want to mitigate it to protect our business". I don't see how that can be portrayed as "immoral".
    - wissler 14y ago
      The subject is "should Dropbox block the API" not "can Dropbox block the API." And yes, the saw liability and wanted to mitigate it -- at the expense of moral principle.
      - drivebyacct2 14y ago
        I still don't think you've done any work to show that it's immoral for Dropbox to do this. Even if it weren't in their business interests, I don't think you've done the work to convince me that there is a moral issue at stake.
        wissler 14y ago
        That's because I was already doing that work in a different comment and don't want to repeat myself. Feel free to address my remarks there. I'm not saying it's not a complicated moral issue, but in my judgement it's far simpler when you're talking about big corporations with a lot of money and power. If a tiny business was too scared to take the proper stand, that would be one thing, but the big mega-corp ought to at least try to do the right thing, and then only back down when there are serious legal issues they can't get across (see Twitter vs. the US government regarding releasing user information).
        sliverstorm 14y ago
        ... Dropbox is a megacorp? They have something like 100 employees.