A 17-Year-Old Has Become Michigan's Leading Right To Repair Advocate (vice.com) 79
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Surya Raghavendran of Ann Arbor, Michigan isn't your average 17-year-old. Not only does the high school senior run a small business repairing iPhones when he's not in class, but he's raising awareness about people's right to fix their own devices without paying companies like Apple exorbitant fees. "People should be able to choose where they want to get their devices repaired," Raghavendran told me over the phone. "Right to repair will decrease the amount of e-waste and people will retain their devices much longer with suitable repair networks." Raghavendran is doing more than just talking about right to repair, he's become one of the leading advocates for a right to repair law in the state by pushing his lawmakers to introduce legislation that would protect a consumer's right to repair.
Raghavendran started researching the laws around repairing electronics, and he joined up with Environment Michigan -- an environmental activist group -- and started going to Lansing, the state capitol, to ask politicians what they were doing to protect people's right to repair their own devices. Raghavendran sent an email to state senator Rebekah Warren who called him in for a meeting and told him to start a petition. Since July, he's been asking for stories from the public about why the right to repair is important. The right to repair fight is happening all across the country at the local level and Raghavendran's petition has drawn support from people like like Nathan Proctor, the Director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at US PIRG. Repair.org, a group pushing for right to repair laws all over the country, has draft legislation it wants to get in front of Michigan's state legislature. Proctor has been working with Raghavendran, Environment Michigan, and Michigan legislators to draft right to repair legislation. Proctor wants to pass a right to repair bill that is similar to the one passed in Massachusetts that forced automotive companies to share diagnostic information with third party repair shops. The law passed in 2012 "set a precedent and the industry rolled out the changes nationally," reports Motherboard.
Raghavendran started researching the laws around repairing electronics, and he joined up with Environment Michigan -- an environmental activist group -- and started going to Lansing, the state capitol, to ask politicians what they were doing to protect people's right to repair their own devices. Raghavendran sent an email to state senator Rebekah Warren who called him in for a meeting and told him to start a petition. Since July, he's been asking for stories from the public about why the right to repair is important. The right to repair fight is happening all across the country at the local level and Raghavendran's petition has drawn support from people like like Nathan Proctor, the Director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at US PIRG. Repair.org, a group pushing for right to repair laws all over the country, has draft legislation it wants to get in front of Michigan's state legislature. Proctor has been working with Raghavendran, Environment Michigan, and Michigan legislators to draft right to repair legislation. Proctor wants to pass a right to repair bill that is similar to the one passed in Massachusetts that forced automotive companies to share diagnostic information with third party repair shops. The law passed in 2012 "set a precedent and the industry rolled out the changes nationally," reports Motherboard.
Re: Millenials FTW (Score:1)
A 17 year-old is not a millennial. Millennials are ~22 to 38 years old at the moment. He is gen-z.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
President Trump speaks Truth to power.
Unfortunately he doesn't consider anyone powerful...
Re: (Score:3)
No need, they'll just design the devices differently [slashdot.org] so there are no parts to replace.
Re: (Score:1)
After all we can't have immigrant indians showing americans how to be american now, can we?
What if the devices are literally "unrepairable"? (Score:3, Informative)
The iPhone X has a logic board that consists of two PCBs sandwiched together with an interposer PCB running around the outside edge, essentially sealing some of the components inside a PCB sarcophagus. This could easily be considered as "unrepairable" by Apple.
If they were forced to give out new assemblies, they could charge an arm and a leg for them. Furthermore, they could easily say that due to the design of the system, replacing the main logic board requires replacing the screen and Face ID sensor assembly as well. This would easily exceed the cost of a new device, but hey- you can certainly order new parts and repair your own device if you want to. It's just gonna cost you.
Of course, I also don't see why they couldn't just seal up the entire unit- sonically weld it together or something, like some of the Surface computers. That way nobody can get into them and the entire unit is considered one disposable assembly. There are no parts to repair because the unit was never designed to be opened.
This is where the "right to repair" is heading- the tech giants aren't going to give up their profits, so they'll just declare all their devices as being literally unservicable and deal with it that way. The ramifications of this will just mean that those few devices that could be opened before (to some degree) will be completely sealed in the future, and the moment anything goes wrong with the device- you just throw it out and buy a new one.
Re:What if the devices are literally "unrepairable (Score:4, Insightful)
Then the right to repair imposes a 50% tax on such devices and suddenly screws and connectors appear in the next version.
Re: What if the devices are literally "unrepairabl (Score:4, Insightful)
If you believe in the market, someone will want to undercut everyone else and will make a repairable device to do it. If you don't believe in the market, next step is ban the irreparable devices entirely.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Other than the donation, Apple already does that if you return a used Apple device to th em. That's why they have all those robots - it breaks down the phone into separate components and they reuse what they can (e.g., camera modules that are functional are used to refurbish units with broken cameras).
Anyt
Re: (Score:2)
That's where the 50% tax on non-repairable hardware comes in. Make a device that doesn't incur the tax and consumers will easily see the benefit of not paying the tax.
Re: (Score:2)
"Is like buying a car, and a salesman gives you the contact for the local mechanic"
If you're under the impression that your car will never need expensive repairs, you're a special kind of stupid. You don't much bother with a $30 protective case for your $1000 phone either, right?
Re: (Score:2)
The tax should be for artificially shortening the usable lifespan of the device, causing it to prematurely enter the waste stream. That's objective, indisputable, and quantifiable. If the device (with repairs) is designed to stay in service for 10+ years, then no tax. 7-9 years, 25% tax. 5-6 years, 50%. 3-4 years 100%. 1-2 years 200%. This would also handle the problem of propriet
Re:What if the devices are literally "unrepairable (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, there will always be things that are not repairable. And sure, densely integrated electronics in maximally portable devices are a good candidate. I don't really care if a cellphone is like 3-4 parts... screen, PCB, battery, case. Or that if my earbug headphones break that they have no serviceable parts at all. I can deal with that.
But its a bigger problem than just cellphones; stuff like farm tractors, major appliances, hvac stuff, industrial robots/machinery... where the manufacturers are holding you hostage.
There are market forces and physical realities about cellphones that make repairing them legitimately impractical. The same is not true for this other stuff.
Re:What if the devices are literally "unrepairable (Score:4, Insightful)
If they were forced to give out new assemblies, they could charge an arm and a leg for them.
That's typical of the USA's bold and risk-taking attitude in politics: Let's not even try to solve the problem because we might fail.
Re: (Score:2)
Lots of stuff isn't 'worth' repairing. That by itself doesn't make it unrepairable, nor does it mean the manufacturer denies you the ability to repair it.
But deliberate manufacturing designed to prevent repair is an unfortunate choice. Denying you the necessary information to actually repair that which can be should not be permitted.
My early career included repairing IBM typewriters, and it was this which resulted in a variety of measures that made my work possible. I did not and never worked for IBM. But I
Re: (Score:2)
I remember when I first started encountering a lot of surface-mounted stuff (instead of socketed) back in the 1990s, where I couldn't just order a replacement because the soldering was beyond my skills (or at least motivation -- but really, I won't lie: it was lack of skill).
The lesson? Don't buy unmaintainable hardware .. unless it really is cheap enough that you think of it as disposable. Either that, or accept attrition as the cost of getting to have fun toys.
(Is it any wonder that I use a $225 phone,
Re: (Score:2)
And they do this because consumers keep buying them. Maybe the push for repairing should be aimed more at consumers than politicians. Nobody needs an iPhone 10, seriously.
Great Story (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
He has a lot to look forward to back where he came from. President Trump has his number now, and dot boy will find his ass shackled and thrown on a plane back to the land of Indochimps.
Says the troll speaking, and typing, an Indo-European [wikipedia.org] language. That's right, the very language with which you use to speak, read, and _think_, can be traced all the way back [wikipedia.org] to the land and culture of "Indochimps" [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
Would you rather have a leading advocate who gets no attention from the press?
Re:Leading? (Score:5, Insightful)
He started pestering legislators, met with one of them, started a petition that has drawn support from national organizations.
"Leading" in this context means "exercising leadership", so I'd say yes, he qualifies as *a* leading advocate. "*The*" leading advocate is clearly hyperbole, but that's the way people think about these things. We like to personify abstract issues, to put a single face on complicated political movements. George Washington is the undisputed "Father of His Country", but there were many others who could lay claim to that title with equal justice.
I'd like to turn this around and ask, what is it about this person that makes him undeserving of recognition as a leader?
Not Just Repairs (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the biggest issues with modern consumer electronics has been the shift towards devices in which the owner is actively discouraged from attempting to upgrade when a device reaches capacity or fails to perform adequately, in favour of buying a new machine from the vendor.
This covers a broad range of technology, from laptops and portable computers (where a tech-savvy user might like to upgrade RAM, storage and/or battery units), through desktop PCs, mobile phones, all types of personal transportation, but especially cars, trucks and motorcycles. Indeed, as computing power and technology becomes more prevalent, so the right to repair and upgrade becomes more important.
Manufacturers are going to argue that (for example) components soldered to motherboards are inherently more reliable than socketed or cabled components, since the soldered approach can reduce the chance of "dry joints". But that is a false claim. For a start, manufacturing has reached a level of sophistication where this sort of risk can be "designed out" with good component layout. More importantly, though, shouldn't we be able to choose?
Re: (Score:3)
I've said before that if companies want to control how you use the devices they sell you (e.g. printers which reject 3rd party ink cartridges, iPhones which brick themselves if you use a 3rd party replacement screen, etc), then you don't own the device. You're leasing it from the manufacturer. And like when something breaks in the apartment you're leasing, any repair costs need to be paid by the manufacturer, not the lessee. The current s
Re: (Score:1)
So you never owned your old analog cell phone, since it's not upgradeable to current digital networks, no matter what you try.
Change my mind.
Re: (Score:2)
I've said before that if companies want to control how you use the devices they sell you
So you never owned your old analog cell phone, since it's not upgradeable
Your reading comprehension skills could use an upgrade; there are more ways that a device is controlled by the manufacturer or distributor than limiting upgrades.
OP is right on point here, and pretty much every EULA you ever agreed to will confirm it - if you bothered to actually read them.
false equivalency (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a monster difference between iPhones and situations like John Deere tractors (their owners real victims in the right to repair wars)
iPhones are only hard to repair by virtue of the fact that to get them so small and meet their design goals, yeah, they're hard to repair, and the reason 3rd party components are cheaper is because yeah, they are cheaper, meaning not made to the same specifications and backwards engineered, so they may fail down the road because of incompatibility with software upgrade
Re: (Score:2)
I dont think "right to repair" means companies have to change their designs. What it means is that anything the company gives to its own shops or to its authorized repairers must be made available to anyone who wants to buy one and do repairs.
Right now Apple only sells replacement iPhone screens to Apple's own service centres and Apple Authorized Service Centers. Same with whatever gear you need to actually do the replacement and have everything continue to work. Under "right to repair" Apple would be force
This topic reminds me of Repair Cafe's (Score:2)
This reminds me of something I read a few months back Repair Cafe's [repaircafe.org], where volunteers run a cafe not for profit, and you bring your broken kit there, and get it repaired.
Personally I'm sick and tired of these manufacturers that like nothing better than to glue in their components, and to make them as unrepairable as possible.
Manufacturers really need to start thinking about environmental sustainability and responsibility in their designs, and I welcome anyone who like the person in the article, set out to s
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Epoxy -> smush together is quicker than dropping tiny screws and not stripping out the heads when installing them.
If these devices weren't being mass-manufactured on assembly lines by purpose-built robots, I might agree with that.
I doubt an actual human employee has physically turned a screw in an Apple parts factory in 20 years.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Aside from a not-for-profit venture, or as I do for my own benefit buying stuff that needs a cap job, or power transistors or broken connectors replacing, it's far too often that electronics falls in to the Beyond Economic Repair box.
This sounds like a job for expensive (once) automation. A repair robot, equipped with an arm of solder braid, a gripper arm, and a soldering iron arm. And maybe a heat gun arm. Trained with modern machine vision to avoid bumping into and damaging adjacent components, the user just points and clicks: replace this cap with these specs. The robot has replacement caps in reels just like the original pick and place machine, and the tools required to separate the old component and attach the new one.
This does
Re: (Score:2)
"Yet GM will sell you a machine that ignites a gallon of explosive vapour 100 times a minute and won't get in your way if you want to replace the individual parts. And somehow you're alive."
Bearing in mind that the gasoline explosion is enclosed in metal, vented through a somewhat complex system, and is itself somewhat small and brief. But I sort of agree, they will happily sell you brake parts with no assurance that you won't put the replacement pads in backwards...
But try and replace the radio in a GM W-
Plan for a fault and buy new (Score:1)
The phone was $100 because of automation and whatever helped in bringing the production cost down. Even the $1k one is not fault proof.. it is going
Travel is impossible without the right to repair (Score:2)
Apple is not located conveniently, if at all, outside the U.S. It became a joke traveling South America when my iPad mini stopped working. Apple had no presence in Uruguay nor Argentina. I had to send it off or buy a new one and have it mailed down to South America.
Right to tamper (Score:2)