this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2024
1182 points (99.2% liked)

Technology

59436 readers
4398 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 187 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Fuck yeah, and fuck any company that does that shit

[–] [email protected] 110 points 7 months ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 70 points 7 months ago (3 children)

That's the first one that came to mind. They started every shitty trend in the industry

[–] [email protected] 27 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Nah, fuck those mother fuckers. As a former farmer myself, I can tell you that fixing my own shit was an almost life or death situation. I can't just leave my crops without my machines more than a day. Shit needs to work right away. I used to grow rice and it needed constant flow of cold river water for 6 months straight ~~up~~. I had two diesel water pumps on the river, one is running 24/7 and the other is back up in case the other broke. If that shit broke and I waited for a day or two without giving the rice cold water, it all dies. Completely dies

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (9 children)

I feel like printers started it. Everyone I had used to setup came with some insane cable. Not to mention the actual cartridge

load more comments (9 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago

There are others. Apple wasn’t the first, nor the last, but they were the most notorious for sure.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 126 points 7 months ago (39 children)

Some products — like devices powered by combustion engines, medical equipment, farming equipment, HVAC equipment, video game consoles, and energy storage systems — are excluded from Oregon’s rules entirely.

It's interesting to me that Game Consoles get an exception... Not sure whats up there, other than straight up ~~bribery~~ lobbying.

HVAC makes sense when you consider environmental concerns (some refrigerants are really terrible pollutants).

Medical equipment, particularly equipment in public health care should be held to high standards. Authorized, properly trained repair; peoples lives depend on it.

Energy storage when attached to public infrastructure (you back-feeding the grid) can be a saftey concern for workers and the supply/load needs to be balanced to prevent damaging that infrastructure and other private equipment attached to it. Not sure preventing repair is the right move here; you can still buy and install new without oversight. Perhaps it's again a saftey concern (for the person performing repair).

Vehicles, farming or otherwise, I'm on the fence about; there's an argument to be made for public saftey/roadworthness, but I'm not sure that's enough of an argument to prevent home-repair. Again seems more to do with lobbying than anything else.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 7 months ago (4 children)

The farming equipment exemption smells like John Deere's lobbies have been involved.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago

Oh definitely.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 83 points 7 months ago

John Deere probably ~~bribed~~ lobbied hard for that carve out. It was their practices that helped drive the right to repair movement. Giving them a pass really diminishes the accomplishment.

Smaller farms are going to get screwed over with all the fees and mandatory maintenance that can be imposed.

Everyone gets angry about printers needing a debit card on file but manufacturers like John Deere do similar stuff. If they think you've tinkered with it, they can disable the equipment remotely.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (21 children)

Cars have been home repaired since cars existed. It has never been a notable safety concern. Somehow it suddenly is?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

It's always been a concern; just not enough of one to explicitly forbid working on a vehicle without specific training/licensing. Hence vehicle inspections/roadworthy tests; someplaces more strictly than others.

It's possible that concern was part of the justification for not requiring manufacturers to make it easier. Spitballing.

As I said, I'm on the fence about it myself. Thing is, a vehicle on public roads has a lot of opportunity to injure or kill someone if a repair was made incorrectly. It's about more than just a person and the thing they own.

load more comments (20 replies)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

HVAC makes no sense to me considering the only real hazard in there is the actual refrigerant gas.

unless they manage to pair the gas, im sure they would if they could

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (2 children)

You joke but we're almost there. Refrigerants are getting more and more proprietary. I work in the industry and with the push to go to lower global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants manufacturers have developed their own formulas here. It varies from manufacturer to manufacturer even amongst almost identical equipment. Getting the right refrigerant will only become more and more expensive the more boutique it is. The equipment can already tell what kind of refrigerant is in there based on the system pressures and temperatures.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I work for a medical device manufacturer and you are missing a important reason for that exception. Yes human lives are on the line. In addition WE (meaning my company) are responsible for finding out why it broke and how we will prevent other devices we make from breaking.

We make a device and say it will last 10 years, 2 years later it stops. We have to replace it, We have to investigate to the best of our ability, We have to report our findings to the government, if several cases happen We need to come up with a prevention for the future dailures(or prevention if severe enough). We have entire departments for this. It is our burden not the consumer and it's our burden so we have enough evidence to determine root cause and final solution so we can prevent further failures.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

It’s interesting to me that Game Consoles get an exception… Not sure whats up there, other than straight up bribery lobbying.

Lots and LOTS of lobbying.

Let your representative know that that is not ok with you.

load more comments (33 replies)
[–] [email protected] 94 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

It's funny that this article doesn't mention the one company that pretty much single handedly created the need for this legislation in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 99 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 54 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Too bad this doesn't affect them because they managed to get themselves an exception to the rule...

Anything powered by a combustion engine is an exception.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I’m looking forward to Apple’s gas powered iPhone.

38 calls to the gallon!

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

Why not both? 😂

[–] [email protected] 42 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

HP printers?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 89 points 7 months ago (1 children)

this just in.....Apple to stop selling devices in Oregon.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago (1 children)

And HP will stop selling printers.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Keep going...I'm almost there...

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Sorry to ruin the mood for you, but John Deere will continue to sell tractors.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

Oh you blue-ballin' son of a biscuit-eating bulldog.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 7 months ago (7 children)

From the article, parts pairing is “a practice manufacturers use to prevent replacement components from working unless the company’s software approves them.”

[–] [email protected] 58 points 7 months ago (12 children)

It's the practice of preventing you from even using genuine parts. If you buy two identical iPhones, you can't even use parts from one to repair the other. The one phone won't accept the genuine part from the other because it's not paired to that phone by the manufacturer's proprietary tool.

load more comments (12 replies)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago

And since the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent copy protection, they just put copy protection on the software (sometimes laughably weak - still counts!) and if you try to get around the hardware lockout you’re officially breaking the lawwww

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 62 points 7 months ago

I wonder if this will apply to generic printer cartridges

[–] [email protected] 48 points 7 months ago (5 children)

won't companies respond by just saying "not for sale in Oregon? "

[–] [email protected] 76 points 7 months ago

Let's find out together!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Do it in enough places and every won’t.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Cutouts for farm equipment. I guess John deer got ahold of the legislature

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has now signed one of the strongest US right-to-repair bills into law after it passed the state legislature several weeks ago by an almost 3-to-1 margin.

Oregon’s SB 1596 will take effect next year, and, like similar laws introduced in Minnesota and California, it requires device manufacturers to allow consumers and independent electronics businesses to purchase the necessary parts and equipment required to make their own device repairs.

Oregon’s rules, however, are the first to ban “parts pairing” — a practice manufacturers use to prevent replacement components from working unless the company’s software approves them.

According to iFixit, “The exemption list is a map of the strongest anti-repair lobbies, and also of the next frontier of the movement.” However, iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens also said in the statement, “By applying to most products made after 2015, this law will open up repair for the things Oregonians need to get fixed right now.

Another similarity between Oregon’s and California’s right-to-repair laws is that both push manufacturers to make any documentation, tools, parts, and software required to fix their devices available to consumers and repair shops without overcharging for them.

But while California’s law requires this support to be available for seven years after production for devices over $100, Oregon hasn’t mandated any such duration.


The original article contains 400 words, the summary contains 217 words. Saved 46%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago
[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago

Now we need to do this California to seal the deal.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I have no issue with security devices requiring some sort of approval (which should be made available to self service), but devices like the screen, camera, battery, buttons, memory/storage, ports, speakers, etc, should be allowed whether or not they are factory.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›