Apple is planning to fight proposed electronics “Right to Repair” legislation being considered by the Nebraska state legislature, according to a source within the legislature who is familiar with the bill’s path through the statehouse.
The legislation would require Apple and other electronics manufacturers to sell repair parts to consumers and independent repair shops, and would require manufacturers to make diagnostic and service manuals available to the public.
This is completely normal in the automotive sector, and I see no reason why the tech sector should be any different.
Why Govs force automovile sector to release the pieces and related info to properly fix cars? For security reasons.
Same way, we could say, that if Samsung (and Apple & others) would have released pieces and related info to properly fix phone mobiles, then, they might not have catch fire…
So why can’t those Companies that make products that are dangerous (directly by catching fire, or indirectly by not protecting properly some electrical pieces), be forced to release proper replacement pieces and proper information about how to fix any problem with them?
Let’s say it’s time to start doing things right and send to prison those who were bought by such companies to shit in the people’s safety.
Edited 2017-02-16 23:24 UTC
In theory this is all true just like Thom and you posted about cars.
But in practise this is not really true anymore.
Cars are filled with all kinds of black boxes for which you can only buy replacements. There is no information available provided by the manufactures on how it works.
iPhones have already gotten worse. To improve security the hardware will have cryptography built-in to prevent it from working on an other phone. Just listen to this part of a recent talk at CCC in Germany:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpuOQepkA5Q&t=2167s
Self driving cars depends on parts which are under export controls. So by law this will be required to have this cryptography to prevent these parts to be used with other cars.
Edited 2017-02-17 02:17 UTC
A simpler solution is to tax tech companies for electronic waste.
Seriously! Forced obsolescence should come with a high price for manufacturers. Even something as basic as easily replaceable batteries can allow someone to keep their phone for longer. Sealed in batteries were the reason for the Note 7 recall, it would have saved them tons if they could have juat sent out new batteries.
Nokia used to do it right, I have seen parts I could order to make a whole phone, maybe with the exception of the motherboard.
Modern car ‘repairs’ mostly consist of using computer diagnostics to tell you which (expensive) part to replace. Your vehicle is potentially a ticking time bomb of potentially crippling costs after about five years or so.
Spoken like a BMW owner
Best Breed Of All The Universe.
Cell phones is one of the few things where parts & service manuals aren’t readily available. I have repair & service manuals for nearly everything I own that operates on power or gas.
Repairing cell phones interferes with the idea you should just buy a new one every year or two though and that’s what this is really about… Money. Not security, …money. What’s profitable always seems to outweigh what’s `right`.
Needless to say, legislation creating an aftermarket parts universe for smart phones, tablets, and Apple laptops/desktops would reduce repair costs for customers. However, as with the automotive aftermarket parts universe, many of those parts could be quite crappy.
On the other hand, many automotive manufacturers have been trying to claim proprietary rights over certain systems – GM has been trying, for instance, to stop people from modding their car’s ECU and some recent EPA guidelines have been phrased in ways that could be read as prohibiting changes to a vehicle that increase emissions.
I’ll exercise my right to not buy from a company that’s pushing for more planned obsolescence and making disposable the entire stream of resources, including rare earths from deprived places in Africa. Buying refurbished unlocked Android phones off of eBay and loading them with custom ROMs is working well for me, thank you.