From Big Tech to politicians and individuals who don’t think product repairability should be government-mandated, it has been a tedious battle for a movement that has seen major wins lately.
The Scientology group’s letter seeks to alter exemptions granted for self-repairing some consumer electronics, like video game consoles, laptops, home appliances, and farming tractors.
With those products, the license agreement is “negotiated and agreed to in advance” of purchase and may include restrictions that are critical to “safe and proper” device usage.
“I can imagine manufacturers using the presence of a ‘quick start’ guide for a product as evidence that their consumers are ‘specially trained in use of the device’ and thus denying broad access to repair.”
Nathan Proctor, US Public Interest Research Group’s senior director, told 404 Media that Author Services’ requested DMCA changes would prevent people from repairing products with end-user license agreements (EULAs).
Regardless of how an organization representing the works of the creator of Scientology ended up in the Copyright Office’s mailbox, right-to-repair advocates say the amendment would harm the movement and would extend past electropsychometers if it were ever implemented.
The original article contains 830 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
From Big Tech to politicians and individuals who don’t think product repairability should be government-mandated, it has been a tedious battle for a movement that has seen major wins lately.
The Scientology group’s letter seeks to alter exemptions granted for self-repairing some consumer electronics, like video game consoles, laptops, home appliances, and farming tractors.
With those products, the license agreement is “negotiated and agreed to in advance” of purchase and may include restrictions that are critical to “safe and proper” device usage.
“I can imagine manufacturers using the presence of a ‘quick start’ guide for a product as evidence that their consumers are ‘specially trained in use of the device’ and thus denying broad access to repair.”
Nathan Proctor, US Public Interest Research Group’s senior director, told 404 Media that Author Services’ requested DMCA changes would prevent people from repairing products with end-user license agreements (EULAs).
Regardless of how an organization representing the works of the creator of Scientology ended up in the Copyright Office’s mailbox, right-to-repair advocates say the amendment would harm the movement and would extend past electropsychometers if it were ever implemented.
The original article contains 830 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 78%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Tl;dr: group of idiots finds something wrong with a perfectly reasonable proposal.
Gotta extract all possible monetary value before you stop existing!