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Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

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Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#3
The journalist on the article missed the mark here:

"Manufacturers tend to be less supportive of right-to-repair efforts, as corporations stand to make more money charging for tools, replacement parts, and repair services than if they were to just let people fix things on their own."

This is not the reason manufacturers oppose right-to-repair. They oppose right to repair because a device that is repaired is one less sale of a new device, and they do not want anything interfering with that "new device sales treadmill".

Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#4
post #3

The journalist on the article missed the mark here: "Manufacturers tend to be less supportive of right-to-repair efforts, as corporations stand to make more money charging for tools, replacement parts, and repair services than if they were to just let people fix things on their own." This is not the reason manufacturers oppose right-to-repair. They oppose right to repair because a device that is repaired is one less…

I think it’s both but depends on the device. For a tractor or car the author’s case is mostly correct. For a smart watch it’s more likely what you describe.

Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#6
In fairness, it's not necessarily a great idea to have as a law as it prevents startups from creating "unrepairable" alternatives on the way towarda a more sustainable repairable future product

The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop

Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#7
post #6

In fairness, it's not necessarily a great idea to have as a law as it prevents startups from creating "unrepairable" alternatives on the way towarda a more sustainable repairable future product The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop

> The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop

Past few decades have demonstrated that this ideal doesn't work. That's why we have laws. I've never understood why the HN crowd is so averse to forcing companies to account for the common good. It's proven to work.

Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#8
post #6

In fairness, it's not necessarily a great idea to have as a law as it prevents startups from creating "unrepairable" alternatives on the way towarda a more sustainable repairable future product The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop

The law requires that manufacturers have repair material availability parity between their authorized shops and independent shops. Basically, they can't unfairly restrict access to repair materials.

A startup isn't prevented from making whatever "unrepairable" alternative it wants. In fact, if it has no repair operation of its own, it's not required by the law to do anything at all. Most startups fall in that category.

Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#9
post #6

In fairness, it's not necessarily a great idea to have as a law as it prevents startups from creating "unrepairable" alternatives on the way towarda a more sustainable repairable future product The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop

> The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop Past few decades have demonstrated that this ideal doesn't work. That's why we have laws. I've never understood why the HN crowd is so averse to forcing companies to account for the common good. It's proven to work.

> HN crowd is so averse to forcing companies to account for the common good

HN is a quite economically libertarian place and it is full of "ashamed billionaires" and founders who yearn for creating companies that will fuck their customers over. There are many engineers who also think the same and think themselves as business-aware.

Rule of law and strong consumer protection is fundamentally against to contemporary startup mindset that prioritizes monopolization over everything else and rent seeking behavior.

Re: Tech Companies Are Trying to Neuter Colorado's Landmark Right-to-Repair Law

#10
post #6

In fairness, it's not necessarily a great idea to have as a law as it prevents startups from creating "unrepairable" alternatives on the way towarda a more sustainable repairable future product The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop

> The ideal is more like a culture of businesses making repairabke products and consumers refusing to buy unrepairable slop Past few decades have demonstrated that this ideal doesn't work. That's why we have laws. I've never understood why the HN crowd is so averse to forcing companies to account for the common good. It's proven to work.

It's proven to not work and to support the big corps, I don't know why so many of the HN crowd don't see this in kind tbh
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