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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Over the last year, we've noted the surge in so-called "right to repair" laws, which would make it easier for consumers to repair their electronics and find replacement parts and tools. It's a direct response to the rising attempts by companies like John Deere, Apple, Microsoft and Sony to monopolize repair, hamstringing consumer rights over products consumers think they own, while driving up the cost of said product ownership. John Deere's draconian lockdown on its tractor firmware is a large part of the reason these efforts have gained steam over the last few months in states like Nebraska.
In New York, one of the first attempts at such a law (the "Fair Repair Act") has finally been making progress. But according to New York State's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, Apple, Verizon, Toyota, Lexmark, Caterpillar, Asurion, and Medtronic have all been busy lobbying to kill the law for various, but ultimately similar, reasons. And they're out-spending the consumer advocates and repair shops pushing for this legislation by a rather wide margin:
"The records show that companies and organizations lobbying against right to repair legislation spent $366,634 to retain lobbyists in the state between January and April of this year. Thus far, the Digital Right to Repair Coalition—which is generally made up of independent repair shops with several employees—is the only organization publicly lobbying for the legislation. It has spent $5,042 on the effort, according to the records."
Source: techdirt.com
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday May 25 2017, @07:30PM (3 children)
Exactly. I have some companies that I don't buy from. This is a nerd site - I don't like Microsoft's practices, and I don't buy from them. I don't like Intel's business practices, so I don't buy from them. Unfortunately, I am part of a minority, in both cases, so my "boycott" is pretty meaningless. If the number of people who refuse to buy Microsoft and/or Intel were to multiply ten thousand fold in the next few days, THEN we might have an impact. Probably negligible, but we'd be noticed. If, instead, our numbers increased a million fold, instead of ten thousand, we would have a bigger impact. That impact WOULD be noticed, when all of us spent money on an alternative. That impact would show a decline in revenue at Microsoft or Intel, and at the same time, an increase in the competition's revenues. THAT would be noticed.
But, the numbers are against us, or me. Most people don't know enough to give a damn. Most people who know enough still don't give a damn. So, neither Microsoft nor Intel gives the smallest damn that I am boycotting them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @09:33AM
No boycott action is truly meaningless. Not noticeable perhaps, but not meaningless. Deprived of $1 of profit, 1 web page hit, one cpu sale at a time.
I avoid halal certified food and shops, if possible.
Do they notice? No
I sent them a letter to tell them that they lost a sale stating why.
No single drop of rain thinks it is responible for the flood, but I would like to be the pebble that started the landslide knowing that for it to happen one event had to come first.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday May 26 2017, @10:46PM (1 child)
Microsoft is kind of actively being smacked with viruses. Perhaps that will change peoples mind given enough beatings?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 27 2017, @05:16AM
It took the windows 10 spyware and forced reboots to get me to install linux as my primary OS