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Apple, Google & Microsoft Have Teamed up to Block the Right-to-Repair Law
Apple, Google & Microsoft Have Teamed up to Block the Right-to-Repair Law:
Bloomberg today released a report on how companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are working together to put a stop to laws that would make it necessary for companies to provide device schematics, genuine repair parts, and repair manuals to independent repair technicians.
Almost 27 states have considered the laws in 2021 alone, but in more than half of them, the laws have been voted down or dismissed. Many lobbyists and trade groups representing tech companies have fought hard against this law with Apple pointing out that such measures could lead to device damage or consumers harming themselves when attempting to repair their devices.
In Washington, for example, Washington House of Representatives Democrat Mia Gregerson sponsored a Right to Repair measure that was fought by Microsoft, Google, Amazon, along with lobbyists representing Apple. Lobbyists later said that Apple would endorse repair programs at local colleges if the bill was dropped.
Also at Bloomberg and MacRumors.
See also: Leaked Apple Documents Inadvertently Helped the Right-to-Repair Movement
Louis Rossmann Starts a GoFundMe to Get "Right to Repair" Legistation Passed Through a Direct Ballot
Summary Louis Rossmann, electronics repairman and YouTuber, has started a nonprofit and GoFundMe campaign to fight to get right to repair legislation passed through direct ballot initiatives. For years Louis has talked about the importance of right to repair and how it has become more difficult t...
Right to repair series - Louis Rossmann
In this series he specifically explains why we need better right to repair laws.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyM7FxEaShI
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Friday May 21 2021, @09:07PM (9 children)
It's one thing to not be able to change the $20 battery in your $300 phone. It's a completely different thing to not be able to fix the $100 widget in your $30k doohicky that costs you $20k for every day it's out of service, and if you don't meet a narrow window you can never harvest those rotten/spoiled crops.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday May 21 2021, @09:10PM
Holy shit that is an old tagline. It only lasted for 3-4 days and was poking at a friend. (the viagra/gramma thing)
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Friday May 21 2021, @09:23PM (1 child)
Maybe it is cheaper to pull out all software (and locked computers) from the tractor and put in new ones with hardware and software that anybody is allowed to handle in any way he or she deems appropriate.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 21 2021, @09:38PM
That would require replacing the engine and likely the transmission as well. It also wouldn't help when you need other replacement parts that can only be purchased (and installed) by the dealer. It wouldn't surprise me if accessories have some sort of DRM built in to them too these days.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 21 2021, @09:35PM (1 child)
I've posted this before, but I'm facing a situation with a furnace with a noisy fan bearing. It is impossible to oil it, let alone replace it, without breaking the moulded plastic motor housing. The bearing should last at least 20 years with proper maintenance and is a common part worth about 30ยข. When that bearing inevitably fails I'm looking at replacing the entire fan assembly for over $500 in parts alone and it can only be purchased and installed through an authorized dealer, meaning labour fees too. I can't even pull the fan assembly to clean it without dismantling half of the furnace, and there is no manual to say how to do that without wrecking it. This is standard across the industry and there is no recourse.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 22 2021, @02:32AM
Roughly similar with the circulator fan on our house AC unit. It's a metal squirrel cage blower (about 12" dia) and the design means that access to the motor requires removing the fan hub from the motor shaft (or destroying the fan housing). However, living in the damp AC ducts means that the hub is rusted solid on the motor shaft. Unlike any sensible hub, there are no tapped holes or shoulders to connect a shaft puller (after a couple of weeks of daily application of liquid wrench). I tried grinding some notches in the side to use a generic puller, but no dice. It's all galvanized (except the motor shaft--source of the rust), so I'm not keen on using a torch and getting myself zinc plated.
The motor ball bearings have (by the obvious death rattle) lost most of their grease and I'm assuming they are cheap shielded bearings. If there was a way to get the motor out, it would probably be straightforward to replace the bearings with some high quality sealed units, for a few bucks apiece.
When the fan packs it in, again, I'm in for another dealer fan replacement -- already done this twice in 10 years.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by sjames on Friday May 21 2021, @10:14PM (3 children)
It really tells me something when I hear that farmers in the midwest have resorted to downloading cracked software from eastern Europe in order to maintain their equipment. The world sounds a little more like a Gibson novel every day. It shouldn't!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 22 2021, @02:46PM (2 children)
A lot of those same farmers are the same people that vote for politicians promising to lower taxes on corporations and get rid of loopholes. Anybody voting for that deserves what they get as a natural consequence of their actions. I wish people, in general, would pay more attention to the effects of the policies they're supporting, especially when it bites them in the ass.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 22 2021, @05:56PM (1 child)
what does taxes have to do with anything except your government-sucking slave dogma?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 22 2021, @06:46PM
Remove the excessive profit motive and you'd remove the incentive to engage in this kind of behavior. If Apple couldn't have hundreds of billions of dollars just sitting there, they probably wouldn't be so focused on nickling and diming people on repairs. Most of the problems with corporate behavior are the result of a combination of perverse incentives and a lack of regulation telling them they can't do such horrible things.
Similarly, you wouldn't see so many sweatshop produced products if they weren't allowed to keep the profits of utilizing such labor.