US Advocacy Group Launches Online Petition Demanding Protections for 'Right to Repair' (repair.org) 27
A U.S. advocacy group called The Repair Association is urging Americans to demand protections for their right to repair from the country's consumer protection agency.
"Tell the FTC: People just want to fix their stuff!" argues a page urging concerned U.S. citizens to sign an online petition (shared by long-time Slashdot reader Z00L00K).
The petition asks the FTC to...
"Tell the FTC: People just want to fix their stuff!" argues a page urging concerned U.S. citizens to sign an online petition (shared by long-time Slashdot reader Z00L00K).
The petition asks the FTC to...
- Enforce the law against companies who use illegal tying arrangements to force consumers to purchase connected repair services.
- Enforce the law against companies who violate the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act by voiding warranties when a consumer fixes something themselves or uses third-party parts or repair services.
- Enforce the law against companies who refuse to sell replacement parts, diagnostic and repair tools, or service information to independent repair providers.
- Publish new guidance on unfair, deceptive, and abusive terms in end user license agreements (EULAs) that: restrict independent or self repair; restrict access to parts and software; prohibit the transfer of user licenses; that and that purport to void warranties for independent or self repair.
- Issue new rules prohibiting exclusivity arrangements with suppliers, customers, and repair providers that exclude independent repair providers and suppress competition in the market for repair services.
- Issue new rules prohibiting companies from deceiving customers by selling products which cannot be repaired without destroying the device or cannot be repaired outside of the company's own service network, without disclosing that fact at the point of sale.
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So, you'd prefer laws that forbade photography of any kind? Because if you are required to get the permission(s) from EVERYONE who even owns something in a picture, then you've effectively outlawed photography
Example: from
Re:No can do on right to repair... (Score:5, Insightful)
Right to repair is a nice thought, but people are not CPU engineers, and it is illegal on a level that is on par with the Constitution, so sorry, no go.
You don't seem to grasp things like the DMCA and laws outlawing drm circumvention are bad laws that don't need to be obeyed because they were bribed into being by corporations and their lobbyists, until the population wakes up and learns their government doesn't work for them and is working for corporations and the rich, they will forever misunderstand that these laws/treaties were passed against the interests of the citizens of the planet.
Re:No can do on right to repair... (Score:5, Insightful)
Above is a nice piece of FUD and all the points above are what the anti-repair lobbyists are trying to push, but reality is that:
1. There will always be a market for new phones, much like new cars.
2. That's just FUD - a physical repair doesn't require access to the data and it's not at all related to IP or the DMCA. The phone makers uses this hollow solution to force people to buy a new one.
3. Not every kind of damage is that hard to fix - and the most common cases are broken displays and dead batteries.
4. Not sure how any court would even take up a case where someone has hurt themselves unless it's proven that the phone is designed to injure anyone opening it - in which case the phone maker would have fun with the FAA and other agencies because if the phone is a potential bomb just because you accidentally jammed it or dropped it then we would have a really fun legal proceeding.
Not sure how the constitution even comes into play here.
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1) yes, but the the environmental organizations in Europe seem to actually be waking up to the fact that they should fight for the right to repair for reduce e-waste. It is slow, but the trend seem to be taking hold.
2) Mostly no. Doing things like swapping a camera module or a say a charging chip to the same chip, but differently serialized does not do have anything to do with DRM protected data..
3) So, what? It is then between the repairer and the consumer. Further giving actually real repair informatio
Re:No can do on right to repair... (Score:5, Informative)
The parent of this comment is a sock puppet troll. Ignore it and it will wither and die.
Re:No can do on right to repair... (Score:4, Insightful)
1. I don't know if that is a bad thing. If the government wants to protect the environment and reduce waste, repair of old devices is a better option than throwing them away and making new ones.
2. Being able to replace a chip does not circumvent DRM. Preventing Apple from preventing a chip manufacturer from selling the chip to me does not circumvent DRM. Preventing Apple from making it impossible to replace the battery or screen does not circumvent DRM.
3. That's their right. If someone, who does not know what he is doing, destroys his own device, what's the problem? If someone destroys the device of a client, well, the client can sue them. Just like a crappy mechanic messing up the job. That does not prevent a lot of decent "unauthorized" mechanics from working. If the mechanic can weld properly, I'm going to use his services in the future, if he messes up the job, I'll find another mechanic.
And yes, soldering BGA chips is difficult. You know what's even more difficult? Having to pull the BGA chip off a donor board and then soldering it on the board you are trying to repair, because the chip manufacturer will not sell a new chip to you.
Luis Rossmann said that to replace a charging controller chip on some iPhone, he has to buy an Apple power bank (that has the same chip), remove the chip from that board and solder it on the iPhone. Then throw away the power bank (plastic case, Li-Ion battery). This is just because the chip manufacturer will not sell the chip to him.
Also, if the device needs repair, then it's useless anyway. If a phone needs new screen, I have four options -
a. try to replace the screen myself (cheapest, highest risk of making it worse),
b. go to an "unauthorized" repair shop (not expensive, very low risk of failure)
c. go to an "authorized" repair shop (expensive, very low risk of failure)
d. buy a new phone (very expensive).
Apple and other manufacturers work really hard to deny me options a and b, because they really want me to only have option d. And it's not because they care about my already-broken device.
4. What is the difference from right now? Joe Sixpack can try to use his knife to open the phone and then sue the manufacturer. At least with a service manual he would know what tool to use to remove the battery.
Right to repair is a very good thing. People used to have it, companies are trying to take it away and the only reason they are doing that is profit. Old devices, like vacuum tube radios had circuit diagrams right in the user manual. And repairing them was more dangerous than repairing a phone, because of the high voltages and hot tubes. But people were able to keep their devices working until they decided to buy a new one, instead of the manufacturer deciding it for them.
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1: It consumes up the market for new phones. This is why it has stalled in Europe.
Good. We need less e-waste and more sane prices on new phones. While Arm and Hammer is to be congratulated for convincing people to voluntarily buy their product and immediately wash it down the drain and sprinkle it in the trash, they do not have a legal right to insist on that behavior.
2: It causes exposure of DRM protected data.
If the DRM depends on the device owner not opening the device, it's already a fail. All it takes is one motivated person in the whole world to be knowledgeable and skilled enough to defeat it. It's funny how the FBI and oth
add an laws saying that the DMCA can't be used to (Score:4, Insightful)
add an laws saying that the DMCA can't be used to stop repair as well.
Signed (Score:2)
We don't need new laws, just remove old cruft (Score:5, Interesting)
Lack of support should mean loss of copyright/patent protections. Show them they will collect no royalties if they don't lease out the rights to manufacture and distribute parts and service. Let's demand compulsory licensing, right?
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Lack of support should mean loss of copyright/patent protections.
You're shitting me right? The average american is politically illiterate corporate boot licking right wing moron.
The last 200 years copyright law always was expanded, never once was it revised in the public interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
If corporations are bribing and have taken over government, you're job is not to elect pro corporate douchebags to office, it's the opposite.
I wonder (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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Calling all cars (Score:2)
Within the spirit of Right to Repair, it would be prudent to require automotive makers to bundle their diagnostic software on all new cars with touch-displays.
I've heard horror stories of mechanics charging $150 bucks just to plug one's car into a dedicated diagnostic terminal and read the output. Yes, the manufacturers charge ridiculous prices for these devices, but that is secondary to a larger issue which is part of the problem proper: namely, one can't play with her own toys without "officially"-sanc
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Some European cars makes are especially bad at this. Want to add another key? $500 for a tech to even look at a terminal, and $200-$500 for the actual key. The guy with the Ford or Chevy just buys a blank from Amazon, and can program it into the system by themselves. Similar when a car throws a code. The guy with the Dodge just resets it via his Scangauge tool, while the foreign car has to go to the dealer.
Then, there are things like batteries. A certain German car maker, for any model 2002 or newer,
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A simple diagnostic pa
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I beg to differ. Its just software, transistors, and 0's and 1's. And the gas analyzers are in-line under the hood with the engine.
As for mucking with the "entertainment display", its just a console that can serve any purpose, similar to the console/display on the dedicated device that the mechanic has shelled out hundreds of thousands for, unnecessarily, in my opinion. Perhaps there are technically-minded people who would enjoy being able to display precise engine status from the driver's seat. I know
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I don't think that's all that far-fetched, but what do I know?
It's a pretty solid call given what we know about corporate america.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
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That sounds good in theory, but implementing it would be very difficult. Dedicated diagnostic equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the specialized equipment in them. The diagnostic equipment can contain logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, signal generators, simulated loads, specialized diagnostic software, multiple input leads, gas analyzers, etc. Imagine trying to build all these things into an existing entertainment display and you begin to see the problem. A simple diagnostic page in the display to show error codes for OBD II / CANS error messages would be easy to add, but when you can buy a reader at Walmart for $20, why complicate the entertainment system for the millions of drivers that would only be confused by the information?
Hundred of thousands of dollars? This suggests that the diagnostic equipment itself is a manufacturer scam, if true. Everything is done in software these days on general purpose processors, doing real-time 8K video processing for example which once required special hardware, and multichannel oscilloscopes and logic analyzer boards run hundreds (not hundreds of thousands of dollars). The equipment for hooking up to a standard digital interface, and running the equivalent of a supercomputer (any good process
right to repair supporter (Score:1)
right to repair (Score:1)