I would love to see stronger regulations on this. Ultimately this comes down to ownership. Companies have been heavily litigating users out of being able to own anything even if there has been money changing hands. (Also while including terms that make them not responsible for actions performed with a device you don't own).<p>For example: Sony and Amazon can take away the digital books/games that you bought a copy for. Sony will do it if you ever enact your consumer rights to charge back for fraudulent activity. (See r/playstation on chargebacks) (I'm not just talking about the game/content in question.. I'm talking about your entire library)
Seems to me like they are hurtling, not hurling.<p>But whatever it is, more power to them. It is amazing what corporations have got away with since they got the Feds to stop enforcing the anti-trust legislation still on the books. Apparently there is this dodgy economic theory that says as long as prices don't seem to be soaring, monopoly power is harmless, even where it is demonstrably suppressing alternative products, some of which would be markedly better. And, even where prices soar, people might be better off for it, somehow. Or, the monopoly might not actually last forever if they get complacent enough. And so on.
There was a recent story on HackerNews about the New York Times, which cut off ad exchanges and still kept growing revenue.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18920079" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18920079</a><p>I wonder if it's a similar thing about the supposed benefits companies thought they were going to get about limiting the customers "right" to repair their products.<p>On one hand, the benefit look "obvious", yet when you take into consideration the second-hand effects (like bad publicity, people getting frustrated by the inability to repair and getting a cheaper alternative) my guess is the costs were bigger than the benefits.
I had issues with the battery of my sole MacBook Air. The thing was still under warranty, but I since I needed it for work, I couldn't afford to let it for one week under the care of the local Apple licensee while they were ordering the part (which is mandated by Apple, no way around it).<p>I ended up buying a battery on iFixit (I had already replaced the battery of my previous model), only to realize that iFixit wasn't selling Apple parts anymore. The "aftermarket battery" I now have is less that ideal, and apparently there's no way to source an OEM battery anymore.<p>So it's nice we have the right to tinker with our machines, but if there are no spare parts, the point is moot :-/
.. those who do not learn history, are doomed to repeat <the same ask without results><p>Seriously, how much "positive" spin can be tolerated at this point? We are in a tsunami of consumer-product waste.. some of it with notable components.. the markets are failing to balance the industrial life cycles.. This is exactly part of a giant fail by humans in geologic time, to adapt to sustainable patterns.<p>"It remains to be seen if we have poisoned the nest"
Intellectual property reform is wayyy overdue. The DMCA needs to be reworded to provide stronger protections to creators. The timetables need to be reduced.
The planet are literally on fire due to global warming!
Still producers make things that are buy and throw, not made last and to repair! If we are to stop global warming together we need to consume less things that we can repair things so they lasts longer.
This will lead to less global warming and less thrash which will mean a better environment that we share!
I got some open source hardware recently and I wanted to upgrade it. For the first time I felt the joy of reading a schematic to work out which configuration the board is wired in so I can get the correct part.<p>I think right to repair, open source hardware and 3d printers are going to be critical if we hope to turn around our throwaway society. It makes me so sad to see average people throwing out perfectly fine electronics because the OEM stopped supporting them or the battery got old.<p>A few of the people in this thread are suggesting that you should simply not buy these bad devices but the fact is unless everyone stops there is no hope for the environment.
I never bought the right to repair cry. I'm a tinkerer - always have been - and an iPhone owner. I bought my phones and knew what I was getting into. I don't think I've ever thrown away any of my old 'unrepairable' tech - I've mostly passed it on to relatives, traded it in, or recycled it. There are all kinds of way to mitigate junk in the environment and you can always...... just not buy.<p>It's incredibly hard to build a successful product. Just look at the Pebble or other Kickstarter graveyard entries. I would never in my right mind tell Apple to build anything - if I could, I'd be richer than them. I know they have their reasons for designing things the way they do. As a consumer, I am thankful for amazing tech that pretty much works as expected. Telling them <i>how</i> to build their amazing products, which would just make them worse, is the pinnacle of narcissism.