That has been around for decades.

TIL! Then it’s interesting that it didn’t get bigger faster, since the idea of locking people into your product isn’t new. Like, Dell could have been doing in 2000 what Samsung is now with it’s phones, and Linux would have been dead in the water.

Edit: Oh right, there weren’t any SoCs yet, at least at full scale. At the very least, you could always get out your probes and flash the ROM that way.

Should we ban printers because you may print a news article without buying the rights? Should we ban pen and paper because you could use it to infringe on a trademark by drawing it?

Of course, history is over, and all governments and corporations are 100% trustworthy. We don’t need to consider that opportunity for evil can’t actually be eliminated, just moved around. /s