“It Just Struck Me As Wrong.” Kyle Wiens on Apple’s War on Customer Repair and the Birth of iFixit
Kyle Wiens of iFixit comes on the What the Fix Podcast to talk about how Apple’s efforts to quash owner repair led him to launch his company and kickstarted the right to repair movement.
When you talk to people who have accomplished amazing things, their “origin” stories often involve some moment of recognition and clarity. They see a problem or injustice in the world recognize that it is “just wrong,” and resolve to fix it - to right that wrong.
So it wasn’t surprising to me to hear the phrase spill from the lips of Kyle Wiens, the co-founder of iFixit.com, the world’s largest repair website, and a Prime Mover behind a global right to repair movement, in our most recent What the Fix Podcast.
Thanks, Apple.
In Kyle’s case, the “wrong” he noticed concerned Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) “takedown” notices accompanying links to Apple laptop service manuals. Wiens was trying to fix a broken power cord outlet on his Apple iBook and needed a service manual to help him navigate the complex internals of the device. While such manuals existed,Apple’s legal team was monitoring the Internet for instances of individuals who had access to and were sharing the sought-after documents, then issuing DMCA “take down” notices to their hosting providers when they discovered public copies of them.
The circa 1990s DMCA was initially passed to protect video games, songs and movies. But, as Apple’s behavior illustrated, it has increasingly been abused to stifle all manner of online activities, including the sharing of repair information, under the guise of copyright protection.
Wiens - a college student studying computer science at Cal Poly - was no legal expert. But he said the take downs struck him as wrong and that he knew enough to recognize that Apple couldn’t prevent him from writing his own service manual. Together with his roommate, Wiens dismantled a pair of iBooks and rebuilt them, documenting each step and publishing the finished manuals online.
The popularity of those posts inspired him to start iFixit, the world’s largest repair website, which invites technology users around the world to create and publish their own service manuals - manuals that should be (but are not) published and distributed by device makers.
On the origins of a right to repair movement
But that was just the beginning of the journey. Before long, Wiens wasn’t just publishing repair manuals and selling replacement parts: he was standing up a global, grass roots movement to win a legal “right to repair” - and beat back anti-competitive practices by major manufacturers that made fixing everything from toasters to tractors nearly impossible.
Of course, it wasn’t all that straight forward. Along the way, Kyle made some missteps and learned some valuable lessons about the power of large corporations (and corporate money) to shape the marketplace, our economy and even our society.
In our latest episode of What the Fix, our new Podcast, co-host Jack Monahan and I sat down with Kyle to talk about his journey, founding iFixit and the early days of the right to repair movement. We also talked about what’s next, including myriad state campaigns to pass right to repair laws (including one that is moving towards becoming law in Colorado) and a parallel effort to reign in abuses of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Check out our (abridged) conversation below. If you want to hear our full (30+ minute) conversation, which includes a round up of recent right to repair news, check out this page. (Note: subscription to Fight To Repair is required.)
News Roundup Links:
Microsoft Funded a Right to Repair Study, and the Results Are Encouraging
Ford launches certified glass network focused on use of OEM procedures, parts
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Music: Acid Jazz - Kevin MacLeod