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https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/08/hell-freezes-over-as-apple-supports-right-to-repair-bill/
Somewhere, ol' Beelzebub is putting on his thickest coat because Apple has endorsed a right-to-repair bill, suggesting hell has frozen over. In a letter dated August 22, Apple showed its support for California's right-to-repair bill, SB 244, after spending years combatting DIY repair efforts.
As reported by TechCrunch, the letter, written to California state Senator Susan Eggman, declared that Apple supports SB 244 and urged the legislature to pass it.
[...] The bill has been praised by right-to-repair activists like iFixit, who says the bill goes further than right-to-repair laws passed in Minnesota and New York. Minnesota's law was considered the most all-encompassing right-to-repair legislation yet. Some activists, though, lamented that companies aren't required to sell parts and tools for devices not actively sold. California's bill, however, keeps vendors on the hook for three years after the last date of manufacture if the product is $50 to $99.99 and seven years if it's over $99.99.
The bill also allows a city, county, or state to bring a related case to superior court rather than only a state attorney general, as noted by iFixit's blog post Wednesday.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday August 26 2023, @04:49PM (7 children)
Apple supporting right to repair is like John Deere making farming equipment farmers can repair themselves: it's a completely impossible 360.
Nobody has figured out what Apple's angle is exactly yet, but you can bet a shiny dollar it's exceptionally devious and designed to utter gut any right-to-repair effort in California or anywhere else. And I'm willing to be even pro-right-to-repair activists will be in awe and admiration when they finally discover how devious and clever Apple's scheme had been all along.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday August 26 2023, @04:56PM (2 children)
> Nobody has figured out what Apple's angle is exactly yet ...
Really? I think it was in the last sentence of the third paragraph in the summary above: "... keeps vendors on the hook for three years after the last date of manufacture if the product is $50 to $99.99 and seven years if it's over $99.99."
So if they endorse this it could be cheaper for them, or someone else, to repair it then to have to replace the whole unit. So they either have to have very very short manufacturing cycles or they will be on the hook for repairs and replacements. Cycles are probably not viable to make shorter, I guess they could if they just change one little detail and then claim it's a new product, so that leaves repairs or replacements then. Most Apples products are in the $99.99+ market (seriously do they sell anything below that?) so that would be a seven year hook then. Which is definitively longer then the normal manufacturing cycle.
So it's not cause Apple found God, or Beelzebub, it's just the cheapest and most viable solution for them and the almighty $.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday August 26 2023, @05:17PM (1 child)
I still don't buy it. That's not enough of a reason for Apple to perform such a radical about-face. Not to mention, if Apple accidentally develops a reputation for being friendly to right-to-repair, they might find themselves stuck with it long term, with the risk of pissing off a lot of people if they backpedal. I highly doubt they want to go down that route.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Sunday August 27 2023, @02:26AM
Probably the promise of some tax shelters. /cynical
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RS3 on Saturday August 26 2023, @05:39PM (1 child)
I'm sure there's language in the bill that Apple's
sharkslawyers have already figured out has loopholes, can be circumvented through clever language games, posturing, postponing hearings, and delaying judgements if any happen.What really bothers me, much more, is that Apple, or any corporation, has so much influence in government, and essentially swamps the legislators such that they're clueless about what We the People want.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday August 26 2023, @09:04PM
You assume the legislators cares about what We The People think. How naive.
All they know is who lines their pockets and who contributes to their campaign come the elections. Politicians could very well tell lobbyists off and decide to serve their constituents instead, but they choose not to.
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Sunday August 27 2023, @07:25AM
In other words, while apparently making a turn, they end up still going in the same direction?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday August 27 2023, @12:27PM
The 180 is inconceivable, the 360 is what I expect. When you can't just tell 'em "F you, I own the place; I'll park anywhere I damn well please." then use the well proven playbook of: embrace, extend and extinguish.
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