Submitted via IRC for Bytram
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."
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Hacking Ventilators With DIY Dongles From Poland:
As COVID-19 surges, hospitals and independent biomedical technicians have turned to a global grey-market for hardware and software to circumvent manufacturer repair locks and keep life-saving ventilators running.
The dongle is handmade, little more than a circuit board encased in plastic with two connectors. One side goes to a ventilator’s patient monitor, another goes to the breath delivery unit. A third cable connects to a computer.
This little dongle—shipped to him by a hacker in Poland—has helped William repair at least 70 broken Puritan Bennett 840 ventilators that he’s bought on eBay and from other secondhand websites. He has sold these refurbished ventilators to hospitals and governments throughout the United States, to help them handle an influx of COVID-19 patients. Motherboard agreed to speak to William anonymously because he was not authorized by his company to talk to the media, but Motherboard verified the specifics of his story with photos and other biomedical technicians.
William is essentially Frankensteining together two broken machines to make one functioning machine. Some of the most common repairs he does on the PB840, made by a company called Medtronic, is replacing broken monitors with new ones. The issue is that, like so many other electronics, medical equipment, including ventilators, increasingly has software that prevents “unauthorized” people from repairing or refurbishing broken devices, and Medtronic will not help him fix them.
[...] Delays in getting equipment running put patients at risk. In the meantime, biomedical technicians will continue to try to make-do with what they can. “If someone has a ventilator and the technology to [update the software], more power to them,” Mackeil said. “Some might say you’re violating copyright, but if you own the machine, who’s to say they couldn’t or they shouldn’t?”
I understand that there is an ongoing debate on the "right to repair". However, many manufacturers increasingly find ways to ensure that "unauthorised" people cannot repair their devices. Where do you stand on this issue? During the ongoing pandemic, do medical device manufacturers have the right to prevent repair by third parties?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Sally_G on Friday June 21 2019, @06:40AM (8 children)
When we buy our washer, dryer, blender, or pressure cookers, we have bought them. Nonsense to say that we've only rented, leased, or licensed them. If that be the case, then a factory representative should arrive promptly on my doorstep when the refrigerator starts gasping, with a replacement refrigerator in tow!
We can all empathize with the farmer who pays close to $100,000 for a tractor that won't run. Can't run it, can't fix it, and it will take xx weeks before a representative can come out to the farm? That's crazy!
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Friday June 21 2019, @07:11AM (7 children)
If you bought dumb things, yes.
If you bought IoT thingies or "smart" devices... then you made a dumb decision [soylentnews.org] and you worth your faith being locked out of your home [soylentnews.org].
Problem is: what when you don't have the choice of buying dumb devices, like the doctors are?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(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/@ProfSteveKeen 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/@ProfSteveKeen 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!
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(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]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @01:10PM
If they don't sell the "smart things" they should lease the thing for a monthly or yearly fee and put some SLA to appropriately respond in time for any repairment and maintenance, that way the customer will face the real cost of "having but not owning" one of the "smart things" and not falsely believing he bought it. The licensing thing is a bit tricky. True is that you should read before signing and realize what ship you are boarding, before complaining after deal is done. Legally there are no excuses, but the system is morally cuestionable. Why many people has fell for that?, there should be a lawyer in the customer side, everytime someone is buying licenses.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 21 2019, @01:20PM
Sadly Richard Stallman didn't wrote "The right to plow".