Open platforms require respect. Open platforms provide freedom and with freedom comes the responsibility to not abuse that power. When that power is abused, respect is lost and then instead of a innovative collaboration between OEM and community, it becomes more like a battle, as with iOS. Do we really want to encourage OEMs to take Android down the path of locked down OS builds, underground modding, paying for the privilege just to make an app subject to arbitrary rules and delays from a app store resulting from a forced monopoly?
I believe that a few recent posts by xda-developers and Engadget crossed that line of respect. Recently, a leaked firmware for the new Samsung Galaxy S3 became available online. Shortly after, an XDA user ripped all of the proprietary apps off the image, including S-Voice, a direct competetor to Apple's Siri, and posted them in a thread called S-Voice and ALL I9300 goodies (Get whatever you want). This was then highlighted as front page news "Samsung S Voice Ripped for the World to Enjoy", and covered on Engadget. Samsung then blocks clients not on S3 with a simple check of the phone's model name, something trivial to workaround technically but a clear sign (in my opinion) that Samsung did not want this happening. Shortly afterwards, a cracked copy surfaces that sends S3's model code regardless where it is installed, "fixing" the issue. XDA praises this achievement again on the front page as S Voice Back Again, the XDA Way. People rip apps/ROMs/proprietary functionality all the time, but some aspects of this particularly bothered me: