US The FTC Votes Unanimously to Enforce Right to Repair

[rcjordan]

^{Does this effectively become a Right To Modify?  I'm thinking about the John Deere copyright issue regarding their computer chips and control software.}

https://www.wired.com/story/ftc-votes-to-enforce-right-to-repair/

[rcjordan]

I've got a broken combine harvester – but the manufacturer won't give me the software key • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/27/right_to_repair_activists_welcome_policy_wins/

[ergophobe]

We see that in design choices like Apple's soldering of RAM to motherboards... This manufactured demand is helping create a tsunami of electronic waste

I'm glad they folded this into the discussion of tractors, which seems to get a lot of press, while the Apple business model does not. For a long time, this was one of my main complaints about Apple. It's a racket designed to make memory and HD upgrades hugely expensive and hugely profitable to the company.

But now that I'm shopping for a laptop again, I realize that the whole world has copied Apple. A laptop is now a total system failure design with no user-serviceable parts, including even the battery, which you know has to be replaced periodically.

And now there's also almost no price premium for Apple. Comparable hardware at a comparable price. The sad part is that this was achieved by everyone becoming more like Apple rather than Apple becoming more like everyone else. So it used to be that a big difference between Apple and the others was that the others were user-repairable and upgradeable, so they could not overcharge for components. Now that they've all copied Apple, the upgrade premium for memory, HD space, etc is almost as expensive at LG as it is at Apple. But more than that, they force you to make that choice at the time of purchase.

[rcjordan]

Joe Biden Formally Backs Consumers' Right to Repair Their Electronics
https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjbzpw/joe-biden-formally-backs-right-to-repair