Our $100k bounty program is fighting for your right to repair—and own—your stuff
There are so many ways companies screw with their customers today. They love to change their products after they’re sold, or add “proprietary” versions of a refill where a generic one would suffice. We’ve seen it with printer cartridges, tractors, and even air and water filters. In this very space, we’ve talked about reverse ransomware — firmware update breaks a device which then requires an ongoing subscription to fix — and software end of life announcements that make no sense. Earlier this month, Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 for most of the world, leaving millions of devices unsecured.
You’re tired of not actually owning the stuff you paid for. So are we. That's why we're doing something about it.
We're putting money where our mission is.
Today, we're excited to launch a first of it’s kind Bounty Program—a community-driven initiative that rewards, coders, tinkerers, and developers to fix products that get broken by their manufacturers.
This is a first-of-its-kind bug bounty program to advocate for the Right to Ownership. FULU believes that companies should not be able to change the terms of purchase after a product has been sold.
The Bounty Program
There are two parts to the bounty program.
First, we’re providing a pool of $10,000 each to the first coders who can provide a fix that makes the devices on our list work again — that’s a total of $50,000 guaranteed to be paid out.
Next, and this is the exciting part, is where you come in. We’ve saved up another $25,000 in matching funds that can be unlocked when you donate to a bounty, bringing the total up funds up for grabs to $100,000 USD.
This means, say, you see a product on our list and hate what the company has been able to get away with so far. You can donate $10 (or more!) to the bounty for that product. We’ll match your $10 so that the pool is now richer by $20 even though you only put in $10.
The Product line-up
Headlining this list of products being bountied are the first two generations of Google’s Nest Learning Thermostats — support for which is ending on October 25. After that, the revolutionary smart thermostat turns into a dumb device on the wall that should not have cost hundreds of dollars. Also on the list, are refrigerators by General Electric that require a “proprietary” water filter, and air purifiers by Molekule that require “proprietary” air filters to function. Using generic version of either costs less than half the listed price of the “branded” version and breaks device features that customers already purchased. Rounding out the current list, we have a line Samsung Refrigerators that show unwanted and unexpected ads, and X-Box gaming consoles that are notoriously wasteful and expensive to repair.
Our selection of products highlights anti-consumer practices and showcases the different ways in which we are all being taken advantage of. Learn more about each product, and donate to the bounty here: [insert link]
Why a bug bounty?
Bug bounties are used by governments and technology companies to engage independent technologists and hackers to find bugs in software that can then be identified and fixed. We’re using the same format here because we believe the product is truly broken, and fixing them will help the owners use their devices longer.
The main reason device owners can’t install or integrate their own software on their devices often comes down to manufacturers’ use of digital locks. These layers of software control access to internal code or files. Sec. 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prevents circumvention of these digital locks, regardless of intent to infringe upon a copyright.
You can show your support to the cause by donating to the bounty, and telling your representatives to take action.
