Originally published at: Consumer rights organizations petition FTC for right-to-repair legislation | Boing Boing
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I love this as much as I hate the Apple store, which refuses to support older machines & operating systems. Theirs is the landfill model. Thank you for posting.
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Apple has recently softened their stance on right to repair laws, actually supporting the one in California. I’m not sure why, and I don’t really trust them, but they did support that law.
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Verizon Wireless is running a promotion that gives you an iPad and a phone for turning in an old iPhone in any condition. I suspect Apple is trying to get all the old phones out of circulation so they won’t be repaired and put back into use if right to repair keeps spreading. You can’t reuse a phone if you don’t have it.
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I’d like to see this on other things, like LED lights.
I’ve had to junk one of the LED shop lights I have because in order to dig out the failing driver board, I have to drill out six rivets, THen figure out how much voltage the board was supposed to put out, and possibly replace the LED strips if it’s an oddball voltage.
The same manufacturer also makes a strip light with a driver module that puts out ~63 VDC (!) to drive the LED strip, AND the drivers have a tendency to blow out one of the two smoothing capacitors, resulting in a strobe effect. The strip lights are at least built in such a way that I can rip out the failed module and LED strip (more e-waste! 
) and put in a 12 volt LED strip and driver module back into the fixture, but still… if they had used a 12 volt LED strip, then it’d be a simple driver module replacement. (or hell, sell me replacement driver modules, but this company is a ‘store brand’ so that’s never going to happen.)
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I think if a state passes a law for right to repair, they also need to support it by creating ways for consumers to safely dispose of things like old lithium batteries. I think that is one of the biggest dangers of user repair – that old batteries, especially ones that are bulging, are a hire hazard and toxic waste. Create a ‘Jiffy Lube’ for battery changes so that you don’t have these things buried in back yards everywhere.
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Relevant comic from yesterday - Edith hitting the nail on the head as usual:
A couple of the cities here in Central Arizona have either ‘household hazardous waste’ collection events throughout the year, or have a dedicated place for same. They will cheerfully take old batteries off your hands. I know Batteries Plus will accept all used batteries for recycling or proper disposal. (link)
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I know that people like to dump on Apple for this, but are other manufacturers really supporting their products longer? Apple keeps parts and service available for their laptops for at least 7 years, even if the hardware doesn’t necessarily support the latest operating system revision.
I’m typing this on a 10 year old iMac. I just don’t recall any Dell, Lenovo, or HP products I’ve used having that kind of lifespan.
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