Patents can hold up economic development of certain industries much more than copyright. Which can have huge implications if they are on fundamentals.

For example commercial 3D printing (using FDM) was likely significantly stalled until the relevant patent expired.

Culture is of course important but there can always be new successful Alternatives.

At least the last few times I had those they were announced as "accident with injuries along the tracks" or "People on the track".

It's usually reported (briefly) in the local news.

If it bundles them together into one parcel (while staying under 150€) I read the announcement such that the entire package would get taxed by 3€.

If I recall correctly some of the goals of this are

- to relieve the load on the custom s enforcement agencies by motivating sellers to import and declare goods in bulk.

- to make sure there is someone domestic who is legally responsible for liabilities and other regulations (e.g. for waste and EC compliance). It's easier to force a big company to do something than a 2 person shop in China. There are already laws in the book where the marketplace becomes liable if the actual seller cannot be found.

I believe AliExpress bulk imports much of its wares to EU warehouses already (at least popular stuff). It's not possible for everything but for popular items it's happening more and more frequently.

Yeah I'm mostly confused about their lack of communication.

If they want to do that then, as every corporate "open source", they are free to do so but why not communicate that at least in the release post?

Any potential free user who would consider going paid will now be starting off their relationship negatively.

Really weird strategy.

It's a tragedy, though no surprise, that this is required

I guess "the regulations will continue until product management improves".

We already have stationary or wheeled/tracked "killer cyborgs" that can easily eeeh terminate anything within their reach and it seems like bipedals are well on their way.

The much greater challenge faced by Disney and Co is making "killer cyborgs" child save and cost effective.

Then they will break and wear off quite fast I imagine.

Take a look at industrial cobots (not a typo). They feature rounded corners, have very little to no "finger pinchy areas" and lots of force feedback sensors.

Despite that they still require trained (adult) personal and move very slowly when actually interacting with humans.

That's the price for them being sturdy and precise.

Also this thing can probably be tipped over pretty easily endangering itself or guests.

The character shape lends itself to a low center of gravity but the fluidity of the motion implies light weight or strong motors.

An angsty kid giving Olaf a good shove or kick could be expensive and fast moving robotics are either dangerous or brittle

Everything about this chassis strongly suggests no guest touching will be allowed.

In addition to the points you've highlighted, the examples in the video and the images of the character strongly suggest it'll be a soft outer shell. I'd be more worried about a kid shoving it finding themselves caught by an internal pinch-point than damage to the robot.

sounds like it's time to increase their vendor lock in then an make sure they are not as compatible with other solutions.

I fear this would be the obvious conclusion.

Recent comments (and by now published strategy) of the US administration have certainly shifted public and political perception. Not necessarily 180° but enough too make such projects/attempts more viable.

In the end, from a European/German perspective, it matters little whether these thoughts/comments/strategies are a negotiation tactic, "trolling", serious threats or something else entirely. And the fact that "Government adjacent" people like Elon Musk behave the way the do certainly doesn't help.

The fear that the United States may use it's tech companies as blunt offensive weapens does now exist (in a semi-abstract form) where it didn't 5 or 10 years ago.

I think at this point in time nobody can say what the end result will be or how things may develop in the future. Either on the political or the technological field.