TP-Link is playing around - release what you have working :)

[TCB13]

Hello,

all the work (weeks) I spent working on it is now not going to be able to be used and released for everyone here, which makes me sad, but I learned a lot in the process.
#551 (comment)

According to your last comment on that issue TP-Link seems to be "playing chicken" with us. So, may I ask you, why can't you release all that good work you've done? Eventually they'll make their API endpoint ready and we switch to that.

Thank you for your efforts @JurajNyiri !

[github-actions]

@TCB13 this issue was automatically closed because it did not follow the Bug Report or Feature Request template.

[TCB13]

@JurajNyiri ... can you re-open this?

[JurajNyiri]

See #551 (comment) and #551 (comment) (and my other updates) your questions are answered there.

With all that being said, I am not feeling comfortable releasing this without the TPLink approval, as I am not a lawyer and so far everything in this integration was in one way or another already documented on the internet and the integration was fully local. I do not want this repo to be taken down or face any issues personally even though I know it is common in the industry for integrations to communicate with cloud, including undocumented APIs (and it is, to the best of my knowledge and research, legal, under laws such as, but not limited to, achieving interoperability with devices) . Still, I am not a lawyer, I am doing this for free and as a hobby and under best ethics and intent in mind for all the parties involved. Because of this, cloud is where I personally draw a line for the need of approval. I believe this integration brings only positive value to every party, but ultimately, the decision is on TPLink. I trully hope, and believe TPLink will do the right thing.

Now, if they disagree, I will not be able to release the extraction at all which gets me personally into deadlock with any kind of solution, including accepting PRs. I am not the only dev out there, and someone else might release the logic or CLI tool, if they are not concerned. As I #551 (comment) previously, reverse engineering and releasing code interacting with cloud crosses a comfort line for me, even if I believe it is in fact ethical, and legal for the purposes here.

Just in case someone thinks about contacting me in regards of extraction of the token - please do not, at this point I am waiting for TPLink approval. If they refuse, I am not sharing anything. I will not go against their wishes.

If and when that happens, the genie is out of the bottle and nobody can get it back. Even if that happens though, with the decision they would've made in this case, I would be concerned of more breaking changes coming next with the purpose of breaking the integration (or cloud part) so an entirely different discussions will need to be had. I will not ever play the cat and mouse game with any company trying to actively break open source integrations. I consider the HA integrations a huge value for companies and if they do not want them, they shall not have them (see myq case for example).

There are workarounds on how to get your camera working today. Tplink has been actively communicating with me and they have said they are working on the endpoint specifically to support this integration and that it would be done by end of June the earliest.