Right to Repair: Taking it to the Streets with Louis Rossmann
With 1.5m YouTube followers, Louis Rossmann is one of the most prominent voices in the right to repair movement. In this video, he and I talk about his push for a right to repair ballot measure.
With more than 1.5 million followers of his repair-focused YouTube channel, Louis Rossmann is one of the most prominent and influential voices in the right to repair movement. As an actual, successful independent repair professional, he’s also one of the best spokespeople for just how difficult OEMs like Apple Computer make it to simply repair your own property - or hire someone other than the manufacturer’s licensed professionals to do the work for you. Louis is also a great source of first-person proof of how expensive manufacturers’ monopolies on parts and service is for ordinary consumers. Take, for example, this recent video about Apple’s Genius Bar mis-diagnosing a battery charging problem with a customer’s Macbook and then pushing for an unnecessary $475 logic board replacement to fix the (non-existent) problem. (Louis’s price for replacing the battery: $129.)
While companies like Apple try to argue that their insistence on having service and repair work going through their authorized repair shops is about quality, not …err…profit, Louis knows better and isn’t shy about pointing it out.
In recent months, Louis has put his full weight and influence behind the fight for the right to repair. Specifically, he has taken on the task of pushing a right to repair ballot measure to make it law with a GoFundMe that has raised over $400,000 so far. (Please donate if you haven’t!)
In this interview, Lewis and I talk about his path to the repair profession and how restrictions on simple repairs affect his day to day work. We also talk about how some of his initial skepticism about the effort to pass a right to repair law was informed by his experience testifying at state hearings on proposed digital right to repair laws, where PR flaks and lobbyists for the electronics, home appliance and telecommunications industry foist lies and misdirection on bored and disinterested lawmakers, with predictable results.
Check out the video below and feel free to share it with your pro-repair friend and contacts!