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Government United States Hardware Technology

California Becomes 18th State To Consider Right To Repair Legislation (vice.com) 96

Jason Koebler shares a report from Motherboard: The right to repair battle has come to Silicon Valley's home state: Wednesday, a state assembly member announced that California would become the 18th state in the country to consider legislation that would make it easier to repair your electronics. "The Right to Repair Act will provide consumers with the freedom to have their electronic products and appliances fixed by a repair shop or service provider of their choice, a practice that was taken for granted a generation ago but is now becoming increasingly rare in a world of planned obsolescence," Susan Talamantes Engman, a Democrat from Stockton who introduced the bill, said in a statement. The announcement had been rumored for about a week but became official Wednesday. The bill would require electronics manufacturers to make repair guides and repair parts available to the public and independent repair professionals and would also would make diagnostic software and tools that are available to authorized and first-party repair technicians available to independent companies.
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California Becomes 18th State To Consider Right To Repair Legislation

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    seriously they live in a state that is fucked up beyond belief, try repairing that first imo

    • California is a lovely place to live outside of LA and Silicon Valley. Plenty of nice places that aren't out in the desert. High (progressive) income tax + low (regressive) real estate taxes are actually a good thing.

      And as goes CA, goes the country -- hope this one passes.

      • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

        by whoever57 ( 658626 )

        In general I agree with you, but the problem is that anywhere in the USA is a shitty place to live in comparison to most Western Democracies if you are poor.

    • ...and would also would make diagnostic software and tools that are available to authorized and first-party repair technicians available to independent companies.

      Can't have mere users having diagnostic tools... they might find that they can repair the thing without paying a repair technician.

      • It'll end up costing more for the cable to connect to it than it would cost to replace the unit.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        No way, diagnostic tools are known to cause cancer to the state of California.

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        How about source code, the right to repaid the broken arse POS Windows anal probe 10 and get rid of the privacy invasive shit and permanently block the cunts at M$ from installing software on your property, your digital life, those fucking sickening scum, the filth right out of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four, their ideas are as sick as fuck.

    • says the AC too ashamed to use a real account?

      no details, either? just a shitpost and an exit.

      not even sure why we reply to AC's. and not sure why his was voted up. it was as content-free as it gets.

      I live here in cali and while its not perfect, its heaven for hardware types like myself, who also do software for their day-jobs. just come visit HALTED electronics (well known in the bay area) and go show me other places that have this kind of surplus gear for sale. there are places in the US who have sto

      • food is great out here, we're not all one culture, the only down-side other than house prices is the ageism in hiring. once over 40, its hard to find and keep tech jobs.

        That's true in the Midwest, where I live, too. I had to take a job writing (shudder) Windows ERP SW.

  • Can I ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday March 07, 2018 @09:01PM (#56225087)

    ... order some parts to fix my AR-15? The full auto mode is inoperative.

    • Nope (Score:3, Interesting)

      ... order some parts to fix my AR-15? The full auto mode is inoperative.

      Your AR-15 doesn't have a full auto mode.

      You can modify an AR-15 to be full auto, but it's tricky and probably won't work. The AR-15 tends to jam when fired at full-auto rates.

      Also, such modifications are illegal.

      What you *can* do is modify a liberal so that they know what they're talking about when it comes to guns.

      That's also tricky and probably won't work, but it's not illegal.

      • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

        Your AR-15 doesn't have a full auto mode.

        You can modify an AR-15 to be full auto, but it's tricky and probably won't work. The AR-15 tends to jam when fired at full-auto rates.

        The "AR" in AR-15 stands for "The Actually Rifle 15" because any time someone gets some inconsequential fact wrong about it, 15 idiots will appear out of thin air to "actually,,," you with some boring nonsense about their stupid murder machine.

        Nobody really cares except other potential school shooters.

        • by nasch ( 598556 )

          If you're participating in a debate/conversation, you should care about facts.

          • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

            by PopeRatzo ( 965947 )

            If you're participating in a debate/conversation, you should care about facts.

            And if you're participating in a debate about preventing school kids from being shot up, you should care at least as much about the school kids as you do about whether someone is using the proper terminology for the killing appliance that was used to slaughter them.

            • Grandstanding on freshly dug graves to push your politics while bemoaning the ones with facts... How admirable.

              • Grandstanding on freshly dug graves to push your politics while bemoaning the ones with facts

                I guess you're not old enough to remember 9/11.

                • I didn't like the emotionally driven reaction policy after 9/11 as I don't like it now with Florida. If you didn't like that done after 9/11 but do it now then you are a hypocrite.

                  A grandstanding fact-deriding hypocrite. How admirable.

            • by nasch ( 598556 )

              What did you want him to say, "here's a correction to your misinformation, also I care about kids"? Just because the thing he was correcting is not the most important part of the debate doesn't mean he shouldn't have done it.

      • by swb ( 14022 )

        I think the only tricky thing is that most civilian AR lowers have a shelf/obstacle that prevents a selective fire trigger group from being installed.

        But if you didn't have this, I'm not sure why an AR would be any more jam prone than a selective fire rifle from the factory.

        Gimmicks like filing the disconnector down may produce "automatic fire" but are dangerous and illegal. When I fit a new precision trigger group, the instructions had a section about making sure you didn't relieve the disconnector too mu

  • Modern electronics is becoming impossible to repair, by its nature

    Replacing a BGA chip is not feasible with normal electronic tech tools

    • by dszd0g ( 127522 )
      I don't think this law requires them to sell replacement BGA chips. However, they generally sell the whole board to swap out. If it's not under warranty, for some electronics buying a replacement board is more expensive than buying a new one. I don't know if this law changes that.
    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      Fortunately, most failures are the battery, the screen, or a broken connector. Those can be easy fixes if they're allowed to be.

    • what a stupid and partial argument.

      so, when one cap blows inside (mostly it IS caps, from china, the fake ones that have electrolyte that lasts one year+one week) you want to throw the whole thing away because 'big chips' scare you?

      get out of the way, adults are here and we want to do real work. you should go to your room and let the adults talk.

    • I've repaired dozens of iPhones and iPod Touches and have yet to replace a BGA chip. Most times, it's a battery or a screen. Maybe a home button. In the one case where I had to replace a motherboard for an iPhone 5, I replaced the entire mobo unit, which was actually not that difficult. It was more trouble finding a suitable replacement unit.
    • Modern electronics is becoming impossible to repair, by its nature

      Replacing a BGA chip is not feasible with normal electronic tech tools

      I've been saying this since this idiotic legislation has been being pushed by know-nothing legislators.

  • no BS rule need as well.

    I have head that We can't give out full restore images as some people may mess and write the image to there hdd and not a SD card. That is from someone who works at (withheld) that makes (withheld) they said also said that it will make the about 1GB or more updates (more like full images packaged in a way that device can read from usb and will work on any (withheld) even the wrong one for your (withheld) as you just need an basic boot to load the right code for your device. They said

  • when you can't buy an OEM part or need to buy from distributor? Or when some stuff is only sold to certificated techs (that may have to pay a lot / follow rules that drive up costs to be on the list)

    In past apple sold parts for big $$ with an refund when the old part was sent back.

  • This is good news indeed, as there's plenty of legislation in need of repair.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday March 08, 2018 @01:45AM (#56225909)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Please, please, please make it illegal to manufacture or offer for sale any device into which a battery has been glued.

      Single issue vote from me. e-waste ain't no laughin' matter, yo.

      Well, then Apple is safe. They have used adhesive strips that are designed to "release" when stretched, like 3M "Command" Adhesive.

      Tape is not glue, per se.

  • ... there is so much legislation that needs to be repaired.

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