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Hackers, farmers, and doctors unite! Support for Right to Repair laws slowly grows
In the US, manufacturers in everything from consumer technology to farming and agriculture have long constructed systems that limit where customers can go for repairs—remember the old "warranty void if broken" stickers found on game consoles or TVs? Today if you have a broken iPhone screen, for instance, Apple runs Genius Bars across the country where users must go for permitted fixes. Other companies parcel work out to a network of authorized vendors. Manufacturers generally argue these constraints are necessary to protect proprietary information that gives theirproduct a leg up in the overall marketplace.
Slowly but surely, though, consumers and third parties outside of vendor-sanctioned circles have been pushing to change this through so-called "right to repair" laws. These pieces of proposed legislation take different forms—19 states introduced some form of right to repair legislation in 2018, up from 12 in 2017—but generally they attempt to require companies, whether they are in the tech sector or not, to make their service manuals, diagnostic tools, and parts available to consumers and repair shops—not just select suppliers.
It's difficult to imagine a more convincing case for the notion that politics make strange bedfellows. Farmers, doctors, hospital administrators, hackers, and cellphone and tablet repair shops are aligned on one side of the right to repair argument, and opposite them are the biggest names in consumer technology, ag equipment and medical equipment. And given its prominence in the consumer technology repair space, IFixit.com has found itself at the forefront of the modern right to repair movement.
"The problem is that there are only two types of transaction in the United States: purchases and licenses," says Gay Gordon-Byrne, the executive director of the Repair Association, a right to repair advocacy group partnering with iFixit to further the movement. "You don't own something if it's covered by an end-user license agreement. All you have is a right to use it according to the manufacturer's terms."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @07:22AM (5 children)
Well, that's it: licenses are being used because they defeat property rights.
Mandatory arbitration contracts are also being used to deprive you of your legal rights.
When does the corporate takeover of power against individual people end?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Friday June 21 2019, @07:42AM (4 children)
My guess? It barely started.
And the useful fools playing the "starve the beast" tune are helping them speed the process.
The next 50 years will be interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Sally_G on Friday June 21 2019, @09:05AM (3 children)
That is why I make the blank statement, now. As soon as you concede any right, it is gone forever. Assert your rights now, not 50 years from now.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 21 2019, @11:00AM
A bit late, but better late than never (should've started about 10-15 years ago).
Not that your statement on S/N will make any difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday June 21 2019, @03:50PM (1 child)
Bu, bu, but . . . IoT and the clod are the future !!!
Ink cartridges need microprocessors with cryptographic functions that enable the printer to work, um, . . . because!
And tractors need fenders and windshields that have microprocessors with cryptographic functions that must be present in order for the tractor to start. Because inferior brand X fenders and windshields could be a safety hazard to our corporate profits and executive bonuses!
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday June 23 2019, @01:07AM
If we just get rid of a few Congressmen, along with the law they passed, this problem will go away.
But WE have to organize to get our wish list codified into law just like they did.
It won't happen by itself.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]