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A number of states are considering right to repair bills, legislation which if passed would make it easier for individuals and repair shops to replace or repair electronics parts. Repair.org reports that 17 states have already introduced bills this year and while most aim to make repair parts and manuals accessible, Washington's proposed legislation would straight up ban electronics that prevent easy repair. "Original manufacturers of digital electronic products sold on or after January 1, 2019, in Washington state are prohibited from designing or manufacturing digital electronic products in such a way as to prevent reasonable diagnostic or repair functions by an independent repair provider," says the bill. "Preventing reasonable diagnostic or repair functions includes permanently affixing a battery in a manner that makes it difficult or impossible to remove."
[...] Naturally, tech groups have jumped to make their opposition clear. In a letter to Morris, groups such as the Consumer Technology Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Computer Technology Industry Association said the bill was "unwarranted" and added, "With access to technical information, criminals can more easily circumvent security protections, harming not only the product owner but also everyone who shares their network."
Source: Engadget
(Score: 4, Insightful) by crafoo on Monday January 29 2018, @05:54AM (5 children)
Full documentation of the electronics, provided at a reasonable copy fee upon request to anyone who has purchased the product.
No blackbox firmware. Source code must be published and made available to purchasers.
"bluh blugh bluh muh secret sauce code! my _patented_ mathematical algorithms!!" Don't care. Fuck off. The utility of the public through NOT granting you ARTIFICIAL government-backed restrictions on information is more valuable.
You know what? Just remove the abusive and lopsided DMCA law, then rip down copyright to 7 + 7. The rest will take care of itself.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Monday January 29 2018, @06:08AM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by c0lo on Monday January 29 2018, @06:16AM
"common sense consumer protection law"?
Wow, so many questions, so little time. Like:
- how did you manage to travels between Universes?
- does your Universe have obese people too?
- do you have flying cars already?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday January 29 2018, @07:02AM (2 children)
Right to repair means you can restore it to essentially new condition. Replace a broken screen, replace a failing battery.
Maybe even provide an alternative os.
Doesn't mean you get source code. Doesn't mean you get access to binary blobs running the radios or driving the screen. You don't get
Circuit diagrams. You don't need anything like that to do reasonable repair of a phone.
Reach too far, demand too much and that's why companies dig in their heels and stone wall everybody.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @09:03AM (1 child)
Why? It's a time-honoured strategy in legislation. Make an over the top bill with outrageous stuff just to get everyone up in a tizzy so then you have room to compromise with your opponents when you finally have to sit down with them and write something more acceptable. When they try to make you strike off a few clauses here and there, you can ask them to remove other stuff instead, and then you look more reasonable. If you presented legislation with only what you couldn't live without then you'd have to compromise the essentials out when the time came to negotiate! You see it done all the time in legislation benefiting large corporations, so why can't the other side play that game too?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @09:47PM
Giantcorp has more money to buy lobbyists and legislators than you.