Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

bbc.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 208 posts

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#41

Post by secfirstmd »

hnhg wrote: post #40
draklor40 wrote: post #7

Only a matter of time before they modify the Law to introduce a catch that makes it practically worthless. A - A classification system that makes defines how "easy" it is to repair something, but necessarily doesn't mean that you or I can repair it at home.It will be "easy" IF you have the right 50,000 GBP tool. B - Modify right to repair as good for the environment rule. There will be an escape clause that says that…

Do you have any citations for your claim about EU innovation being bogged down by regulatory capture? In general, I've found that it's more like risk aversion in VC and other local cultural aspects before anything at an EU level comes into play.

Yeh I agree. I hear this a lot but my experience working has been that the US has waaaaayyyy more redtape and regulation stuff to deal with. Taxes for example or the absolute mess of applying for government grants.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#44

Post by detritus »

retSava wrote: post #2

Hopefully such things bring forced availability of rare spare parts. If cookie cutter capacitors break, that's nothing really since you can just order them on Mouser et al. But if a more special part breaks, say a custom voltage regulator to a game console (just since I saw a video on that fail yesterday), I would like for a repair center to be able to buy one such for a reasonable price and have the 500$ console rep…

The door shelves in our crappy fridge at home have all gradually cracked and split and are held in place by messes of superglue and transparent Gorilla tape. Fed up with this, I priced up replacing them last week.

It'll be cheaper to buy a new fridge.

They're just crappy moulded plastic

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#45

Post by kumarharsh »

aboringusername wrote: post #9

When everything is a commodity it's hard to see how this will be useful. When an appliance (fridge, cooker, washing machine) breaks, it's cheaper to replace. I cannot see how repairing a TV will ever be cheaper than just replacing it since they are so cheap brand new. This also applies to smartphones, none of the popular models have replaceable batteries so in the trash they go and they become worthless, even if the…

I thought the same too, until recently.

We had an old mixer-grinder which ran for a decade or so. After it broke down, I went to an official repair shop, and they quoted an amount which make buying a new one a better option. So we did - from different company. It turned out that the new one constantly gave us problems, but we stuck with it for years. And one day while cleaning up our home, we found the old mixer and gave it to our domestic help to keep if she could get it repaired.

She did get it repaired. For less than a DOLLAR! And it still runs better than the new-fangled mixer.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#46

Post by pabs3 »

superbcarrot wrote: post #43
pabs3 wrote: post #42

Wonder if this includes a right to repair/replace software running on a device.

How could it possibly? Is there a way to do this without requiring all open-source software?

The main issue is customers should have the ability to disable lockdown to install their own OS. For fixing issues, the source code could be shared with customers under a license permitting individual use/modification, but not distribution etc.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#47

Post by HPsquared »

MayeulC wrote: post #37
foobar33333 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is you need to be highly skilled to do that repair. So many times I have ordered replacement parts and then either broken something like a plastic ribbon cable connector, or I have installed the new part and it still doesn't work.

Highly skilled? I don't think so. You just have to be very careful, and pay attention to the right things (ESD, cut the power, short circuits, etc). Secondly, the diagnostic needs to be correct. Multiple faillures is unlikely if there is no external cause (surge, flooding...) or cascading failures. Both of the above points can be solved with good documentation. I've seen very good servicing manuals, this is part of t…

A good manual makes all the difference for me, it gives confidence that I'll be able to even open the thing without breaking it.

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#48

Post by HPsquared »

jhrozek wrote: post #39
MayeulC wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly skilled? I don't think so. You just have to be very careful, and pay attention to the right things (ESD, cut the power, short circuits, etc). Secondly, the diagnostic needs to be correct. Multiple faillures is unlikely if there is no external cause (surge, flooding...) or cascading failures. Both of the above points can be solved with good documentation. I've seen very good servicing manuals, this is part of t…

I think your reply shows that you are already very skilled. Other comments mentioned replacing a diode -- I know what a diode is conceptually, but I have no idea how does it look in the appliance, where would I buy a new one or how to replace it. Being as clueless as I am, my only option is to call a proffessional. Sometimes it is worth it -- I had a fan on my MacBook replaced for ~700 SEK which is a fraction of the…

Spare parts are an example of monopoly pricing - the original manufacturer is usually the only source of parts for any given product, so they can charge what they want (usually as much as possible, such that it's only just worth it to do any given repair vs. replacing the whole thing)

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#49

Post by pabs3 »

aboringusername wrote: post #13

I think any right to repair needs to solve 2 problems: 1: Fixing bad hardware (schematics and such) 2: Fixing old/buggy/broken software that renders said hardware useless. Without open kernels, drivers, frameworks your "right to repair" is meaningless. When you install a new camera to iPhone and it complains it's not genuine because the software says so, the right to repair becomes less useful as now Apple holds all…

Most TVs run Linux so asking them for GPLed code should work, failing that, it is a GPL violation that should be reported to Software Freedom Conservancy, who can help bring the vendor into compliance.

https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/

Re: UK 'Right to repair' law to come in this summer

#50

Post by zaarn »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #18
dsnr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given how much of EU innovation is bogged down by regulatory capture, I am extremely skeptical of this (note, I know EU/UK are separated, but nevertheless, lobbying is lobbying, universally) That‘s probably how the concept of „legitimate interest“ made its way into the GDPR law, make it practically worthless, with the single upside of making people more aware of cross-site tracking. Another example of half-assed EU…

> That‘s probably how the concept of „legitimate interest“ made its way into the GDPR law, make it practically worthless Does it though? Is there case law supporting this? From what I can see the big problem with the GDPR is a near-total failure to actually enforce it, so such questions barely even matter.

It's mostly the Irish DPC dragging feet, from experience my own local DPC has been excellent and in one case a complaint of mine resulted in a fine. They just can't do anything about companies registered in Ireland.
Post reply on HN