Apple would be half the size it is if people could easily repair their devices. What’s good for the environment is not good for profits.
Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
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Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#32Am I the only believing it should be a free market, where each company follows the strategy it prefers? Let the market decide if repairability is desired or not. If customers really want it, certainly there will be companies offering it. Much better to have millions voting with their money and purchases than a few bureaucrats deciding how they believe things should be.
If you want a truly free market you need to abolish patents, trademarks, DRM and a lot of other laws as well. How else are other companies free to compete or consumers free to choose? The current market does not exist in a vacuum.
You are describing a "free for all" market, not a "free market". Protection for patents and trademarks is absolutely compatible with a "free market" economy. But that doesn't mean that all patents and trademarks that have been granted are valid.
The patent and trademark system needs work, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater.
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#33Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#34Am I the only believing it should be a free market, where each company follows the strategy it prefers? Let the market decide if repairability is desired or not. If customers really want it, certainly there will be companies offering it. Much better to have millions voting with their money and purchases than a few bureaucrats deciding how they believe things should be.
Imagine a place where no lower bound on quality is established on anything. You'd have to spend all your time advocating, evaluating, fighting for everything important in your life: the quality of your housing, the quality of your children's education, the quality of your car and your consumer goods, and so on.
And imagine how much better each of those things would be if they were held up to additional scrutiny!
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Commodore 64 was much more akin to the Raspberry Pi's. You didn't have to be rich to have one.
From wikipedia, the introductory price was: > US$595 (equivalent to $1,596 in 2020) Slightly more than a Pi. I could not afford one back then, particularly when you factored in the floppy disk drive prices.
Still 3 times cheaper than the Apple II.
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#36TL;DW: He's very supportive, and talks about how things used to be fixable and have plans included on paper, "open source". He says Apple II shipped with complete schematics and source code listings.
He goes over some fun and inspirational stories about that yes. But it's much more than that: "In a lot of people's minds power over others equates to money and profits. Hey, is it your computer, or is it some companies' computer?" He talks about companies trying to control and inhibiting repair and modification and compares it to the liberating and creative experience that he had and how that lead to him building th…
in other words, the Right to Repair movement is doing for hardware what the Free Software and Open Source movement is doing for software.
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
He goes over some fun and inspirational stories about that yes. But it's much more than that: "In a lot of people's minds power over others equates to money and profits. Hey, is it your computer, or is it some companies' computer?" He talks about companies trying to control and inhibiting repair and modification and compares it to the liberating and creative experience that he had and how that lead to him building th…
in other words, the Right to Repair movement is doing for hardware what the Free Software and Open Source movement is doing for software.
It's partly this. It's also partly about restoring the kind of rights one is supposed to get under the first-sale doctrine: ownership over the thing that you have bought.
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want a truly free market you need to abolish patents, trademarks, DRM and a lot of other laws as well. How else are other companies free to compete or consumers free to choose? The current market does not exist in a vacuum.
You are describing a "free for all" market, not a "free market". Protection for patents and trademarks is absolutely compatible with a "free market" economy. But that doesn't mean that all patents and trademarks that have been granted are valid. The patent and trademark system needs work, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater.
>"The patent and trademark system needs work, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater"
This baby is only protecting big corps now. Nothing can be done at the moment without violating some "rounded corners" patent. The only reason individuals can get away with it for a while is that it is not worth for patent holders chasing. As soon as they make some money the vultures come down.
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want a truly free market you need to abolish patents, trademarks, DRM and a lot of other laws as well. How else are other companies free to compete or consumers free to choose? The current market does not exist in a vacuum.
You are describing a "free for all" market, not a "free market". Protection for patents and trademarks is absolutely compatible with a "free market" economy. But that doesn't mean that all patents and trademarks that have been granted are valid. The patent and trademark system needs work, but the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater.
Environmental and consumer rights regulations are also compatible with a free market.
Re: Steve Wozniak speaks on Right to Repair [video]
#40Am I the only believing it should be a free market, where each company follows the strategy it prefers? Let the market decide if repairability is desired or not. If customers really want it, certainly there will be companies offering it. Much better to have millions voting with their money and purchases than a few bureaucrats deciding how they believe things should be.
Wow, the voice of reason in the first comment? Am I really on HN? Of course, you are 100% correct. There is nothing stopping one of the big players from offering a more "repairable" product to satisfy all of the supposed demand. Remember, R2R wants to force their ideas upon _everyone_. Doesn't that mean, that there should already be a huge group of people who are willing to buy repairable devices? Instead of making n…
none of which will help, because the big companies will just buy up all the competition. and not all regulation hinders competition, anti-monopoly regulation protects competition. and so does right to repair btw, because now i can run a repair business that competes with the manufacturer in fixing their devices.