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Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#81

Post by camillomiller »

PedroBatista wrote: post #38

Please don't attach any morals to this because there aren't any. This is just another step in a long string of similar announcements and "actions" from Apple to gather ammo against lawsuits and new bills, delay or buy any good will they can get regarding this matter. It's appears they are convinced some meaningful part of the "Right to Repair" can't be stopped and of course as competent strategists they are, Apple ca…

Wow. Is there any way Apple can ever be perceived as honest in their decisions? And by the way, why do we even attach this human categories to an entity that in itself only has the maximization of profits as its incentive?

If anything, this proves that Regulation Works! Big tech Leviathans can be steered if their lobbyists lose, and if governments take informed decisions about how to drive change.

This is a rare exception where the US govt hasn’t abdicated to its role, and this is the natural consequence, with Apple - we can give ‘em that - accepting this as best as it can by fulfilling its shareholder and profit-making duties.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#82

Post by sircastor »

chongli wrote: post #55
PedroBatista wrote: post #38

Please don't attach any morals to this because there aren't any. This is just another step in a long string of similar announcements and "actions" from Apple to gather ammo against lawsuits and new bills, delay or buy any good will they can get regarding this matter. It's appears they are convinced some meaningful part of the "Right to Repair" can't be stopped and of course as competent strategists they are, Apple ca…

Please don't attach any morals to this because there aren't any. This is the way to think about all businesses. Even if they’ve been making your favourite products for years, never forget that they’re just here to make money. People who attach morals, norms, and emotions to businesses are falling into the marketing trap. This is by design. Unfortunately I don’t know much of a way to get people to snap out of it other…

> never forget that they’re just here to make money.

I find this read to be a little too pessimistic. They’re not an investment firm. They’re still making products that they want to sell people, and making them the way they think is best. Do they want profit? Of course. But their product is not money. They’re first and foremost an electronics manufacturer.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#83

Post by randomdata »

kdmccormick wrote: post #63
chongli wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't attach any morals to this because there aren't any. This is the way to think about all businesses. Even if they’ve been making your favourite products for years, never forget that they’re just here to make money. People who attach morals, norms, and emotions to businesses are falling into the marketing trap. This is by design. Unfortunately I don’t know much of a way to get people to snap out of it other…

*large businesses. Plenty of small businesses sometimes act against their own self-interest because they genuinely care about their community and their workers. See: retiring restaurant owners who sell to someone who will keep the tradition alive rather than the highest bidder.

How is wanting to see a tradition you help build stay alive and choosing to spend money on seeing that tradition stay alive against one's self-interest?

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#84

Post by brucethemoose2 »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #79
PedroBatista wrote: post #38

Please don't attach any morals to this because there aren't any. This is just another step in a long string of similar announcements and "actions" from Apple to gather ammo against lawsuits and new bills, delay or buy any good will they can get regarding this matter. It's appears they are convinced some meaningful part of the "Right to Repair" can't be stopped and of course as competent strategists they are, Apple ca…

Maybe they were just waiting for federally-enacted regulation so they could compete on a level playing field when it comes to repairability and parts production? Many companies _want_ to do the right thing but there’s no business benefit to them doing it so they wait until the regulatory conditions are correct, and might even support them. I can also see the same company fighting against state-level regulation becaus…

This kind of makes sense. A company wants to do the better thing but "can't" because its not competitive, and their competitors won't do it, so they advocate for a level playing field.

In Apple:s case, this may even help them, as they have wider margins to absorb the cost of repairability stuff than their competitors.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#85

Post by wredue »

Bluecobra wrote: post #70
spaceisballer wrote: post #6

I think at this point it makes sense. I imagine most consumers aren’t interested in repairing themselves, but aren’t super interested in going to some random local repair shop. At this point they have their consumers hooked on visiting the Apple Store. Not really a net loss for them, plus it gives off the appearance of being consumer friendly.

If it were easier to swap a battery I would do it myself, but they made it so difficult with glue and crap that I would only trust the Apple Store to make the repair since they have the right hardware. Plus, it’s on them if they make a mistake and break my phone.

Yeah. And on this topic, a Canadian channel just installed spyware on a PC, and loaded it with lewd images, then asked a bunch of shops to fix the computer. And all of them except a couple that either didn’t turn the laptop on yet, or just full wiped, accessed, and even copied the images.

I would definitely like for some things to be reasonably accessible to me for fixing so I didn’t have to rely on privacy disrespecting repair shops.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#86

Post by cute_boi »

ge96 wrote: post #76
whazor wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually like that my device cannot get stolen and be taken apart for parts. If only I can control whether a part can be sold or not. Together with the ability of checking whether a part is unlocked or not.

Unfortunately theft will still happen just because "apple = expensive". The coded parts makes it seem like it's a disposable/single use computer unless you send it in. Also most people I would venture can't/don't want to take apart their computer eg. need heat gun/remember how to reassemble it... So it's like pick a side fully support or don't... I feel two ways about bricked devices too. Those stacks of devices that…

I disagree. If stolen iPhone becomes brick, then the price thieves can earn will be considerably less and it will disincentive them to steal phones.

What apple can do is unlock the parts only on owner's consent. Then it will be win win on both sides.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#87

Post by smoldesu »

thereddaikon wrote: post #78
naremu wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>On the other hand, we should be open and accepting when large companies make policy shifts. Man, if I had a dollar for every time I heard something along these lines of "well we should still encourage X, even if it's a clear political play" I suppose there's just something about being vaguely eager to tacitly accept overt attempts at changing the general discourse Simply because they begrudgingly acknowledge economi…

Its not tacit acceptance. Corps are amoral and always looking out for their bottom line. If that just so happens to mean they align with what the people want then good. And if it doesn't then its on the people to pressure politicians to change the laws and regulations to incentive they do and punish they don't. Cynicism over corps lacking no morals will get you nowhere. They don't and wont. So instead of complaining…

> So instead of complaining the world isn't perfect its better to try to make it better.

Well, that's part of the problem. Right-to-repair bills that don't address serialized components or hardware DRM won't make it better. Apple is backing this bill because it aligns with their definition of "repair" and further reinforces the idea that the first party is the only one allowed to authorize maintenance.

This is less about letting perfect be the enemy of good, and more about struggling to identify the core problem in the first place. If Apple is a required party for me to replace my screen or reinstall a USB connector, then you aren't advocating for a "right" to repair at all. In fact, you're actually coming back around to the 'Repairs-as-a-Service' model that third-parties protested against in the first place.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#89

Post by jwells89 »

cute_boi wrote: post #86
ge96 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately theft will still happen just because "apple = expensive". The coded parts makes it seem like it's a disposable/single use computer unless you send it in. Also most people I would venture can't/don't want to take apart their computer eg. need heat gun/remember how to reassemble it... So it's like pick a side fully support or don't... I feel two ways about bricked devices too. Those stacks of devices that…

I disagree. If stolen iPhone becomes brick, then the price thieves can earn will be considerably less and it will disincentive them to steal phones. What apple can do is unlock the parts only on owner's consent. Then it will be win win on both sides.

> What apple can do is unlock the parts only on owner's consent. Then it will be win win on both sides.

This seems like the best solution. Frees up parts for reuse when the owner has permitted it while still bricking stolen devices.

Re: Apple backs national right-to-repair bill, offering parts, manuals, and tools

#90

Post by kdmccormick »

kiba wrote: post #77
kdmccormick wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*large businesses. Plenty of small businesses sometimes act against their own self-interest because they genuinely care about their community and their workers. See: retiring restaurant owners who sell to someone who will keep the tradition alive rather than the highest bidder.

How would you define self interest? I would say that they have a different value system, or what they're pursuing might be more conducive to their long term survival instead of chasing the almighty dollars. It reminds me of corporate raiders destroying companies by jacking up prices and reducing costs until it's no longer a functioning business.

You're right, I should have said "profit" not "self-interest".

My point stands. Large businesses are more exclusively profit-driven than smaller ones.

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