Re: Hoorah !
The beauty of legislation in States is that there are 50 places to play. Whatever games OEMS play in one state can be fixed by another. It might take a few states to lock down all the bullies, but it will happen.
9 publicly visible posts • joined 5 Feb 2014
Parts are only 1/5 of the repair problem. Without service documentation, you won't know what procedure to follow to locate the broken part. Without schematics you can't fix leaking capacitors on motherboards. Without firmware access, you can't update parts to communicate with the device. Without diagnostics you cannot confirm your repair is complete.
Good luck fixing your digital world without a heck of a lot of information that manufacturers no longer share.
Not all repairs will be practical or economical under Right to Repair -- but the OPTION is essential. Apple is only the poster-child for destructive repair monopolies. We're all going to need the option to buy parts, tools, get service diagrams and restore firmware for our digital widgets.
Speaking for The Repair Association, which I lead, we've worked hard to recommend legislative wording that should constrain most of the bad behavior we see in the marketplace. Some OEMS will undoubtedly attempt to get around any statutes -- but the beauty of state laws is that they do not all have to match. Weaknesses in one state law can be fixed by another -- and so on until the task is complete.
Farmers are using non-John Deere software is a fact. See this recent documentary by Motherboard for some insight into the reality of having a monopoly on repair. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pamkqn/watch-tractor-hacking-john-deere-right-to-repair-documentary
HP has possibly changed their pronouncement and will offer "Safety and Security" firmware updates to existing customers. This brings up questions such as "How does HP differentiate between safety and security updates?" "What are the other updates and what is the value proposition" and "Why would anyone expect to be charged to help HP support their products as they promised they would work?"
Switching to another vendor does not solve the problem. The next vendor can make the same claim at any moment. This is a worldwide problem created by multi-national vendors. Don't complain here - complain to your local legislators wherever you live and tell them to require vendors to sell assets that can be repaired, reconfigured, resold, without paying a tithe to the OEM.
You nailed it. This policy, and the same policies from IBM and Oracle, has created new and indefinite revenue streams in order to use their products. This is licensing, not ownership. Everyone that thinks they own a piece of HP kit no longer owns it. No one is going to buy used HP equipment, so the used value has just evaporated. Everyone accounting for HP products is now depreciating "air" and every financial statement is now in error.
Every one of us can contact our legislators and ask for laws to protect us. The request is simple - make sure that vendors that sell IT hardware provide public access to service documentation, all patches and fixes that impact specifications, and sell parts on a non-discriminatory basis to owners for 7 years after product introduction. Owners can then decide whom they want to fix their equipment including themselves.