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Washington State Bill Would Make Hard-to-Repair Electronics Illegal

posted by janrinok on Monday January 29 2018, @02:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the and-so-it-begins dept.

Fnord666 writes:

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

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @12:11PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 29 2018, @12:11PM (#629791)

    The real question is, why in hell isn't there a schematic in the operator's manual?

    For a couple of reasons, and reality is probably a mixture of all of them

    Reason 1: Because lawyers.
    The lawyers, in order to protect the company against the idiot who zaps themselves with electricity then sues the company for damages, pushed for "don't provide any repair info" with the device, and further, stamp everything "no user serviceable parts inside, and further, lock everything together so the fools who would sue can't even get inside to hurt themselves.
    Reason 2: Because repair shops
    The business exec's, tired of simply making money off the plain sale of the product, were looking for ways to continue the revenue stream out into the future. So, when the lawyers ponied up with their worries about "joe lawsuit from idiot" issues, the business folks saw an opportunity to make money after the sale by locking away the repair info, and locking up the device, such that you have to call the factory authorized service center. And do you know what factory authorized really means? It means the maker gets a cut of every repair job bill for authorizing the repair.

  • (Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Monday January 29 2018, @07:03PM

    by Aiwendil (531) on Monday January 29 2018, @07:03PM (#629961) Journal

    Reason 1: Because lawyers.
    The lawyers, in order to protect the company against the idiot who zaps themselves with electricity then sues the company for damages, pushed for "don't provide any repair info" with the device, and further, stamp everything "no user serviceable parts inside, and further, lock everything together so the fools who would sue can't even get inside to hurt themselves

    Electrical installations in sweden has a wonderful take on this point (or maybe used to, havn't read the 2018 update yet). Roughly speaking the two rules are "you are allowed to make the changes you are competent to do" and the other is "fackmannamässigt utförande" (roughly translates to "done like a professional would") - in practice this is interpreted as "as long as it works well enough and doesn't causes any issues" and "would pass an inspection".

    In other words - it is ok to fix and replace (but not do fresh installs) the electrical stuff but if something goes wrong you bear the full responsibilities _and_ you've just voided your insurance.