Fight to Repair Daily: Monday October 24, 2022
F2R moving to weekly emails! Plus: Lobbyists continue making progress to halt right to repair legislation
✉️ Fight to Repair moving to weekly emails
Starting next week, we will be changing from the Fight to Repair Daily to the Fight to Repair Weekly with one email on Thursdays
This new format will let us give you more commentary and analysis on repair news that you care about
The Fight to Repair Podcast (formerly What The Fix?!) is returning for season two! Premium subscribers get early access to episodes + original reporting.
Governor Hochul: Tear Down That Wall To Repair!
It has been more than four months since the New York legislature passed the Digital Fair Repair Act with a veto proof majority in the Senate and a near unanimous vote (145-2) in the New York Assembly. It’s time the governor signed it into law.
So who opposes the idea of people being able to fix their own stuff? Manufacturers, who very much prefer getting to decide what you can fix and what you can’t – how long a product can live and when it must die and be replaced.
Because manufacturers routinely refuse to sell spare parts or provide access to repair manuals, it’s difficult or impossible to fix everything personal electronics like cell phones. When a manufacturer refuses to share the tools and information you need to fix a cracked smartphone screen or malfunctioning home printer, they get to charge whatever they want to repair it, or refuse to repair it altogether, pushing you to replace it, instead.
They’re not taking their loss in the legislature sitting down. We know that front groups funded by the electronics, home appliance and telecommunications industries (among others) have used the period since the legislature passed the law in June to lobby Governor Hochul hard to veto the Digital Fair Repair Act, in part by arguing that it will compromise security and privacy protections in consumer electronics.
In a world populated by “smart,” Internet-connected, software powered objects, the Digital Fair Repair Act is vital: updating longstanding consumer and private property rights for a digital age. And it does so just as manufacturers seek to turn hundreds of millions of owners into unwitting tenants of their technology. It’s time for the Governor to make New York a leader on repair and consumer rights — and sign this landmark bill into law. (Securepairs.org)
NY 'right to repair' bill shrank under influence of lobbyists
While earlier drafts covered items ranging from tractors and lawn mowers to gaming consoles and microwaves, a burst of end-of-session lobbying from companies worth billions and their affiliated trade associations pressed legislators to whittle it down until limited to devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops.
Insiders told the Times Union that lobbyists realized late in the legislative session that the bill, which had been introduced each year for about a decade, had a good chance of passing in the Senate — where it ended up going through even before the Assembly — something they had previously thought unlikely. So they rushed to make themselves heard.
"All hell broke loose. Opposition came out of the woodwork and I had to deal with it, because (otherwise) the bill was dead, when you have that much opposition,” said Patricia Fahy, the bill's Assembly sponsor. "When session is ending, the clock works against you in a huge way. It's much easier to have it fall apart, and that's where lobbyists can be very, very powerful."
As the summer wore on, lobbyists for trade associations and tech companies — including Apple and Microsoft — continued to push against its adoption, meeting with the offices of the governor and state attorney general. And corporations whose products had already been carved out of the bill, including Medtronic and John Deere, kept lobbying as well.
If Hochul signs the bill in spite of the pressure, it will become the first of its kind in the nation. (Times Union)
iFixit's Google Pixel Watch Teardown Reveals Repairability Promise and Concerns
Google's first-generation Pixel Watch went under the knife in an iFixit teardown video on Wednesday, revealing a slightly messy-looking inside and a clear view that a least some parts of the watch should be repairable.
iFixit, which has partnered with Google to offer repair parts for Pixel phones, found the back plate is likely easily replaceable, while replacing the screen and other components required prying up the battery.
Apple's newest smartwatch, the Apple Watch Ultra, could be much more repairable than previous Apple Watches. iFixit's teardown of that watch, released earlier this year, highlighted that its back plate can be removed with just a screwdriver, making access to its interior easier with less potential for lasting damage. (CNET)
Hardware makers criticized for eco double standards
"[Companies] are claiming their commitments to circular economies and to reducing waste in the supply chain but all of you in the vendor community are still goaled and paid on selling new products," said Alastair Edwards, chief analyst at Canalys.
He was addressing an IT crowd which included brands from across the industry including Dell, HPE, Schneider Electric, and hundreds more, as well as distributors, resellers and other third party providers of technology.
"We see vendors holding back the ability of partners to sell refurbished and secondhand IT products by not recognizing those products in compensation schemes and targets. This is creating immense frustration," Edwards added.
Legislation will be a big driver to help change commercial mindsets, with public sector tenders in France requiring government departments and agencies to include refurbished equipment.
Vendors need to start reporting sales of refurbished product and the numbers of product they are taking back, Canalys thinks.
It is estimated the IT industry will account for 11 percent of global energy consumption by 2025. "In other word, the need for sustainability is more than just an ethical argument, it's an economic necessity."
How to Fix Cars* By Breaking “Felony Contempt of Business Model”
*This is an excerpt of a much longer piece worth reading*
They’re called “anti-features”: artificial limitations built onto the products we buy. These are limitations no customer asked for — and indeed, they’re limitations customers would pay to remove — if only they could.
The first anti-features were “DRM” (Digital Rights Management), like the “region-locks” on DVD players that stopped you from using a player you bought in one country to play back a disc you bought somewhere else.
There’s an approach lawmakers could take, either as an alternative to bans or as a supplement to them: legalize modifying your own property to suit your own purposes.
Right to Repair bills and other anti-anti-feature policies focus on banning companies from selling intentionally broken products, or require them to provide unlock codes to authorized service depots. What these policies don’t do is protect “adversarial interoperability” — reverse engineering and other guerilla tactics used to create products that undo anti-features.
Bonus: Check out Cory’s Twitter thread and the full piece on the Cuecat “a handheld barcode scanner that looked a bit like a cat and a bit like a sex toy.” which teaches us a lesson on how companies exercise control on consumers. (Cory Doctorow)
5 billion cell phones will become e-waste this year
Of the 16 billion phones owned worldwide, over 5 billion are expected to become e-waste this year. A recent survey revealed the top reasons people keep their unused or broken electronics:
46% say they may use the items again one day
15% say they plan to sell or give the items away
13% say they hold onto these items for their sentimental value
9% say the items may appreciate in value over time and
7% just don’t know how to dispose of these products.
(WEF)
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