I think of the development of the cloud model in the last five years since Glowforge made its commitment. I am not well-versed at how law and practice shakes out regarding hardware and the software and services that are required to use that hardware. Tech is no longer just a hammer that doesn’t need an operating system. How a company provides a technology (that means they are providing not only a hardware device but also a service to use that hardware).
I do recall the topic that @rpegg mentioned above and the good discussion we got into at that time. I understood that I had little agency in this enterprise and had to rely on the good faith of Glowforge to make it right. And that is why I stuck with this forum and read every post for over three years because I knew that they had all the cards and I had to rely on them.
I think it is reasonable that you have posted your disagreement with the change in TOS. But I really am having a hard time understanding how you didn’t see this coming and just would have to accept it.
Even the whole thing about posting the firmware has been demonstrated as being something that won’t really help anyone.
I do think that there are a lot of folks who might be a bit naïve about Glowforge and not understand just how precarious a situation this is. We had many long discussions about the initial advertising and how it sold a great product, but we are still waiting on some things to roll out.
And if they get sold, I just can’t see another company keeping the same ecosystem at all. I’m pretty pessimistic about that. I would say the value of the company is in the intellectual property at the moment and not at the revenue stream. That’s just a guess and I am pulling for them.