Whether government should require companies to provide
independent shops — rather than just authorised dealers — access to the parts
and schematics needed to fix devices is one front in a larger societal battle
over how to regulate the technology industry as their products become more and
more necessary in everyday life. It distills anti-trust policy debates down to
how and where consumers can fix a broken smartphone and whether the companies
that have transformed communication by producing them have a right to safeguard
their intellectual property.
So-called "Right to Repair" bills, which are under
consideration in 25 statehouses, are loosely based on a Massachusetts ballot
initiative that voters approved last year to make car parts and plans available
to repair shops.
Nevada's bill would apply to consumer electronics worth less
than $5,000 wholesale and exempt equipment used for gambling. Lawmakers in
Nebraska have tailored repair legislation to agricultural equipment and farmers
while California is considering requiring medical equipment manufacturers make
available information on how to repair devices like ventilators.
Assemblywoman Selena Torres, a Las Vegas English teacher who
once worked at a battery store that did repairs, said adding the requirement to
state law would protect jobs in the electronics repair industry, enabling
people to fix their devices locally rather than having to ship them to
out-of-state manufacturers. She said she was sponsoring the bill to provide
consumers more affordable repair options — something that's particularly urgent
as the pandemic has forced students and remote workers to rely on technology,
she said.
The Clark County School District distributed tens of
thousands of Google Chromebooks to facilitate distance learning, but it took
months to ensure all students in the Las Vegas area had internet and device
access, according to Nevada's " Connecting Kids " task force.
"Early in the pandemic, a nationwide laptop shortage
left millions of students unprepared for virtual learning. As an educator I saw
firsthand how families struggled to share one device with several school-aged
children," Torres said. "The right to repair will give schools and
other institutions the information they need to maintain equipment and empower
the refurbished computer market, saving taxpayer dollars and improving digital
access."
TechNet, a trade group that lobbies for Apple,
Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, and other device manufacturers, has mounted
vigorous opposition to the repair bills in state legislatures.
Cameron Demetre, the organisation's regional executive
director, said manufacturers worried about "unvetted third parties"
having access to the personal information stored in consumer electronics. He
said the bill had "the potential for troubling unintended consequences,
including serious adverse security, privacy, and safety risks."
Repair businesses wonder why fixing batteries or smartphone
home buttons compromises cybersecurity and say that over the past decades,
manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult to purchase the parts needed
to fix machines. They say the companies direct customers to replace their
printers or computers even if only an inkjet or motherboard needs repair.
"It's changed from being able to do anything you want
to repair your computer or printer to 'You can't do anything now.' Everything's
changed to being disposable or impossible to repair," said Curtis Jones,
who runs the Technology Center in Sparks.
Without parts and schematics, Jones worries that his
business will soon have to shutter. His staff often jokes about how, in a few
years, they'll be packaging new devices in an Amazon warehouse rather than
fixing ones able to be repaired.
Jones believes tech companies want to control the repair
business and would rather customers purchase brand new devices rather than
repair aging ones. When devices are repairable, he worries about unnecessary
long-term environmental impacts pushing people to purchase new technology will
bring: "We're going to have landfills so overloaded, we're going to have
to start living on top of old printers or computers," he said.
Consumer Electronics Association lobbyist Walter Alcorn
noted how device manufacturers operate in a competitive marketplace and told
lawmakers that their worries about unauthorized repair shops tinkering with
their technology could compromise public perception of their products.
"One of the reasons that consumer electronics
manufacturers are so sensitive is that their business model is based on their
brand reputation," he said. "The concern that these companies have in
protecting their brands — and these products still carry their names on them —
is in particular that the repairs will be done wrong or that substandard parts
will be included and the customer experience will be different."
0 comments:
Post a Comment