Lobbyists Have Held Up Nation's First Right-To-Repair Bill In New York (arstechnica.com) 32
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Digital Fair Repair Act, the first right-to-repair bill to entirely pass through a state legislature, is awaiting New York Governor Kathy Hochul's signature. But lobbying by the nation's largest technology interests seems to have kept the bill parked on her desk for months, where it could remain until it dies early next year. Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, said that "opposition has not backed off" despite the bill's nearly unanimous passage in June. Gordon-Byrne has heard that industry groups are pushing for late amendments favoring tech firms but that the bill's sponsors would have to approve -- or convince the governor to sign the bill without them. "It's up to the sponsors at this point," she said. The bill was delivered to the governor Friday, according to the New York Senate's bill tracker, though she has been considering it since late June.
Since passing in June, the New York bill has been aggressively lobbied by various trade groups to limit its impact. An earlier version of the bill would have included lawn equipment, gaming consoles, and appliances, but a "burst of end-of-session lobbying from companies worth billions and their affiliated trade associations" succeeded in stripping the bill down to small electronics, according to the Times Union of Albany. Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, the bill's sponsor, slimmed it down to ensure some part of it could pass in June. State filings showed that trade group TechNet (not to be confused with Microsoft's social/wiki entity) and lobbyists for Microsoft and Apple jumped in then, focusing their efforts on Hochul's office as the bill seemed destined to pass. The Times Union reported that Apple, Google, HP, and Microsoft all paid lobbyists from "the highest-earning professional lobbying firms in Albany" to push back against the bill at the legislative and executive levels. The report notes that the governor has 30 days to act on the bill. "Failing to act has the same effect as a veto (a "pocket veto")."
Asked about the bill's status today by Ars Technica, a spokesperson responded that "Governor Hochul is reviewing the legislation."
Since passing in June, the New York bill has been aggressively lobbied by various trade groups to limit its impact. An earlier version of the bill would have included lawn equipment, gaming consoles, and appliances, but a "burst of end-of-session lobbying from companies worth billions and their affiliated trade associations" succeeded in stripping the bill down to small electronics, according to the Times Union of Albany. Assemblymember Patricia Fahy, the bill's sponsor, slimmed it down to ensure some part of it could pass in June. State filings showed that trade group TechNet (not to be confused with Microsoft's social/wiki entity) and lobbyists for Microsoft and Apple jumped in then, focusing their efforts on Hochul's office as the bill seemed destined to pass. The Times Union reported that Apple, Google, HP, and Microsoft all paid lobbyists from "the highest-earning professional lobbying firms in Albany" to push back against the bill at the legislative and executive levels. The report notes that the governor has 30 days to act on the bill. "Failing to act has the same effect as a veto (a "pocket veto")."
Asked about the bill's status today by Ars Technica, a spokesperson responded that "Governor Hochul is reviewing the legislation."
pocket veto (Score:2)
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I wonder if that equates to pocket money? "the bill's nearly unanimous passage in June" guarantees that if the governor does veto it someone got a perk by it not being signed. I wonder who that could be?
Actual bribes or kickbacks? Unlikely.
I'm betting it has a lot to do with the lobbyists. Basically a bunch of really smart and charming folks giving really good explanations why this legislation, while well intentioned, will have all sorts of terrible unintended consequences.
The other part is money, but not bribes since those can land you in jail. The easier (and legal) way to reward politicians is by donating to their campaign so they can keep winning elections. And donors can totally make that money condit [businessinsider.com]
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Guess they get to live with their choices now.
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Can they "pocket" override the veto, or is New York a state where a near-unanimous legislature can't do jack about a recalcitrant governor?
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But the sad truth is most individuals are incapable of repairing anything!
Sure but "The right for the weird nerdy kid to get to feel cool because he knows how to do a screen replacement after watching youtube" bill was a bit wordy.
Re:Right to repair, Yes! (Score:4, Insightful)
No, but this bill also allows people to take their equipment to an independent tech company to repair their products.
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And a lot of that is because we have been making things harder and harder to disassemble and repair.
Chicken vs Egg (Score:5, Insightful)
But the sad truth is most individuals are incapable of repairing anything!
Most PC enthusiasts can upgrade RAM or swap a hard drive. Most enthusiasts can reformat Windows or install Linux. Most users are not enthusiasts, but most know one. About half my family can do a computer upgrade and the non-techncial half just comes to us for help. I especially appreciate it when they bring a plate of cookies or some beer.
This is a classic chicken vs egg scenario. If you make iPads repairable, enthusiasts will do it, just like PCs. This keeps eWaste out of landfills. I'll happily pay a premium for a device that I can repair and upgrade and is well supported. I readily pay extra for a business-grade Lenovo or Dell laptop because of the longer support period. It's also why I pay more for DeWalt tools vs Bauer or Ryobi.
The market wants this. The problem is the major manufacturers have colluded to ensure your devices cannot be upgraded. It's sad we have to resort to legislation, but you have no other option when the manufacturers band together to work against the customer's interest.
The other 2 scenarios to consider are when a manufacturer goes out of business or loses interest in a product as well as independent repair shops. It's shitty to force the customer to throw away a perfectly good device because the company doesn't want to support it. The company should be forced to provide enough information that a motivated customer can change the battery or perform basic repairs. Also, there are many small repair shops that have been shut out from repairing devices by draconian limits. This legislation allows them to compete with the manufacturer to service and add value to a customer's device...especially the expensive ones like the MacBook pros.
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Among enthusiasts, SBCs are one of the most popular things to tinker with and they are just as repairable as an iPad. Should we mandate that Raspberry Pi also make all of their RAM replaceable without soldering? How about a socket for the CPU so you can easily replace it? You do that and all of a sudden you don't have the benefit of a Raspberry Pi. The same thing applies to the iPad.
Do we need a way to limit e-waste and create better systems to repair these parts? Absolutely. But where do you draw the line?
Draw the line at things likely to fail (Score:2)
Among enthusiasts, SBCs are one of the most popular things to tinker with and they are just as repairable as an iPad. Should we mandate that Raspberry Pi also make all of their RAM replaceable without soldering? How about a socket for the CPU so you can easily replace it? You do that and all of a sudden you don't have the benefit of a Raspberry Pi. The same thing applies to the iPad.
Do we need a way to limit e-waste and create better systems to repair these parts? Absolutely. But where do you draw the line? Individual components for computers are not really individual components. They can be reduced down even further to more fundamental components. Even when you look at a modern motherboard, look how many functions it covers that used to require specific daughter boards. Does it make sense to have a separate network card for a personal computer that just needs Wifi and a single ethernet port? No. Just like it doesn't really make sense to have RAM that's separate from the board for 99% of users. It seems like the right to repair people are the Amish of computer nerds. They want the technology to be frozen at a particular time in its evolution rather than accept that things change. It's more nostalgia than best practices or environmental concerns.
Simple solution. If it has a 10% chance of failing in 10 years, make it replaceable. Batteries WILL lose charge and fail. Disks have a finite life. RAM and CPUs tend to outlive their devices. I am fine with fixed RAM and CPUs for that reason. Batteries are practically disposable and will always be the first thing to fail. I don't care if they're not easy to replace, but they need to be replaceable. For example, I bought a set of nice large noise-canceling headphones from Anker. If Anker decides the
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It seems like the right to repair people are the Amish of computer nerds. They want the technology to be frozen at a particular time in its evolution rather than accept that things change. It's more nostalgia than best practices or environmental concerns.
I don't think that's fair. First, there's an important distinction between "things change" and "we change things with the specific purpose of making them harder to repair and/or artificially shortening their useful lifetimes". We've had LOTS of examples of the latter.
Second, there's the question of who has the moral / ethical right to make very large-scale decisions that negatively affect the continued viability of human civilization. The proliferation of e-waste increases man's carbon footprint and consume
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I'd draw the line between things that tend to last and typical wear and tear parts. With some common things explicitly named in a bill like this. For instance, batteries or lightbulbs, where these are still used (for instance in the oven).
In these cases, the manufacturer of the device would have to use a socket so the part could be replaced. If it ends with the smart phone a millimeter thicker? The customers will have to live with that.
Re: Chicken vs Egg (Score:2)
I half agree. Iâ(TM)d like it if my iPad were repairable, but I donâ(TM)t want to make any of the size or weight or trade offs to get it there. I think this legislation needs to exist because while Iâ(TM)m unwilling to make those trade offs, I know that a sufficiently skilled person with schematics and parts can make the repair. I think THAT'S what the market wants. Hardly anyone wants to repair their own phone, but theyâ(TM)ll happily pay a small fee to keep it running.
I am skeptical anything is better glued (Score:2)
I half agree. Iâ(TM)d like it if my iPad were repairable, but I donâ(TM)t want to make any of the size or weight or trade offs to get it there. I think this legislation needs to exist because while Iâ(TM)m unwilling to make those trade offs, I know that a sufficiently skilled person with schematics and parts can make the repair. I think THAT'S what the market wants. Hardly anyone wants to repair their own phone, but theyâ(TM)ll happily pay a small fee to keep it running.
You don't have to make it EASY to repair. Weather sealing is complex. It'll never be as convenient or easy as home computer to repair/upgrade. However, I don't believe there is an actual benefit to GLUING the battery down. There's a reasonable middle ground where the companies can create compact innovative designs, but not go out of their way to sabotage repairs as Apple and Microsoft have done in the past.
I strongly dislike it, but am less livid about airpods on one extreme, but tablets and laptops,
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To Apple's credit as well, they've started using those removable glue strips that are easy to buy and replace. So they still get the benefits of gluing things, but it's not so catastrophic if you want to replace something.
I agree about the AirPods etc. For now, there's really just no way to make any other sort of fastener small enough. I wish the batteries were replaceable, and I'm sure they will be someday, but I accept that gluing is the only way to do things right now.
Oligarchy or plutocracy (Score:4, Interesting)
So corporations have 'veto' power over a bill that politicians have decided is necessary: What could go wrong?
Tell me again, the USA is a republic, I keep remembering "oligarchy" and "plutocracy".
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This all comes back to the supreme court ruling that corporations are people. Only a constitutional amendment will end this. Good luck with that.
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A less corrupt Supreme Court could overturn corrupt rulings. It's not like they had very cogent arguments to begin with. Their reasoning on Roe was about as bad as "separate but equal" and should be easy to overturn with competent arguments if you added enough honorable judges (of just about any political leaning.)
They were not legitimate since they ruled to end the counting of votes in 2000 with BS arguments so bad they even said their argument couldn't be used again in future rulings; although, that has
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Ummm...the ruling that made corporations "people" was NOT Roe-v-Wade, The ruling in question was made in 1906...
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Ummm...the ruling that made corporations "people" was NOT Roe-v-Wade, The ruling in question was made in 1906...
Let me familiarize you with the concept of an example that is used to emphasize a particular point. In this case, the point is that prior decisions can be overruled.
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Obviously not all the politicians decided it was necessary.
Desperation 101 (Score:3)
After-sale parts and servicing are how many companies make a profit, not on original sell. If your income is on the line and you have deep pockets, you'll bribe and entice everyone and everything to keep your income stream. Once addicted to beemers, pools, yachts, and hookers without tire marks, it's hard to go back.
Full of hypocrits. (Score:2)
Let me explain why these people are such hypocrits.
I'll get to the part about this topic specifically, but let's start of with an example to help prove my point.
People in power claim we need to recycle. This sounds good and makes sense. We cause a lot of pollution and we're piling up garbage.
But the amount of actual recycling and reuse is very questionable, sometimes, they'll call it recycling, but it's really just shipping the garbage to another country.
They do some clever tricks to make it look like the p