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The Videogame Industry Is Fighting 'Right To Repair' Laws (vice.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Motherboard:
The video game industry is lobbying against legislation that would make it easier for gamers to repair their consoles and for consumers to repair all electronics more generally. The Entertainment Software Association, a trade organization that includes Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, as well as dozens of video game developers and publishers, is opposing a "right to repair" bill in Nebraska, which would give hardware manufacturers fewer rights to control the end-of-life of electronics that they have sold to their customers...
Bills making their way through the Nebraska, New York, Minnesota, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Illinois statehouses will require manufacturers to sell replacement parts and repair tools to independent repair companies and consumers at the same price they are sold to authorized repair centers. The bill also requires that manufacturers make diagnostic manuals public and requires them to offer software tools or firmware to revert an electronic device to its original functioning state in the case that software locks that prevent independent repair are built into a device. The bills are a huge threat to the repair monopolies these companies have enjoyed, and so just about every major manufacturer has brought lobbyists to Nebraska, where the legislation is currently furthest along... This setup has allowed companies like Apple to monopolize iPhone repair, John Deere to monopolize tractor repair, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to monopolize console repair...
Motherboard's reporter was unable to get a comment from Microsoft, Apple, and Sony, and adds that "In two years of covering this issue, no manufacturer has ever spoken to me about it either on or off the record."
Bills making their way through the Nebraska, New York, Minnesota, Wyoming, Tennessee, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Illinois statehouses will require manufacturers to sell replacement parts and repair tools to independent repair companies and consumers at the same price they are sold to authorized repair centers. The bill also requires that manufacturers make diagnostic manuals public and requires them to offer software tools or firmware to revert an electronic device to its original functioning state in the case that software locks that prevent independent repair are built into a device. The bills are a huge threat to the repair monopolies these companies have enjoyed, and so just about every major manufacturer has brought lobbyists to Nebraska, where the legislation is currently furthest along... This setup has allowed companies like Apple to monopolize iPhone repair, John Deere to monopolize tractor repair, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to monopolize console repair...
Motherboard's reporter was unable to get a comment from Microsoft, Apple, and Sony, and adds that "In two years of covering this issue, no manufacturer has ever spoken to me about it either on or off the record."
What's to stop them from writing in the manual, "purchase and install Comprehensive Assembly #012934" and selling that part which is basically a replacement for the entire unit?
What you're describing is using a RaW (Rules as Written) legal strategy, and in the context of this type of legislation, this is usually not a winning approach because it clearly contradict the intent of the law. A RaW approach is better suited to administrative matters, such as a DMV dispute.
lucm, indeed.
The point of the law is to make it so that farmers can repair their tractors and other equipment. In the past decade, big tractor companies have been locking down their machines using the DMCA. Since it could take days or weeks for a repairman to come by and fix it, and that time lost without the machine could cost the farmer their livelihood, it has put them in an impossible position. That this affects pretty much every other market besides farm equipment and vehicles is an unintended side effect of the computerization of everything and application of the DMCA to lock down all those things.
I had a user break a screen on a Lenovo T540p laptop. It was 2 months out of warranty, so I asked Lenovo for a quote for repair.
They came back with 600$. We bought the laptop NEW for less than 900$.
The cost of the screen from the manufacturer was 70$. There are 10 screws in total that hold both the plastic case, and LCD in place. Without a manual, and on the first try it took me less than 15 minutes is dissemble the display enough that I could replace it. Expecting 500+ dollars for what is 15 minutes of work, and MAYBE another 30 to get it shipped back out is utterly insane.
In trying to replace the fans in a 2011 macbook pro this December, Apple quoted me about 150$, but they had to order the parts. I said go ahead, just so I could have some fans with an Apple warranty with them. I did tell them that I couldn't leave the laptop overnight, and work had to be done same day.
3 weeks, and 4 phone calls later they couldn't fit me in with a tech and I'd have to leave the laptop overnight and they could 'probably' have it ready by the end of the next day. Instead, I spent 15 minutes online, got 2 replacement fans for less than 50$, had them delivered 2 day later and 16 screws and 7 minutes later had replaced both fans immediately after receiving them.
Do you still have the book? If yes and it can't be found online, then scan it (or if you don't want the manual anymore then i guess you can send it) and contribute to http://www.oldcarmanualproject.com/
Not really IMHO.
They are at the same level as people who buy industrial plant and expect it to last for decades as well.
They are buying commercial grade equipment and expect commercial grade parts availability instead of the cheap short lifetime stuff the retail consumer is expected to put up with. I once visited a foundry for an agricultural pump manufacturer. They had the patterns for up to 70 year old equipment and cast those parts every now and again to maintain their policy of "lifetime" support. While that's an extreme example that is what is sometimes expected of equipment that is used in production instead of the throwaway consumer items we are expected to put up with.
You're thinking direct computer hardware. Nebraska is thinking tractors and farm equipment. Locking farmers into long term hugely expensive repair contracts on absolutely critical pieces of equipment has become the norm for many "tractor" companies. When one piece of equipment costs millions and you need to spend thousands or more to recalibrate after some common mishap or loose your harvest then it's not so trivial.
USB2.0 is faster than many optical disc drives, AC.
For reference, the max bandwidth of USB2.0 is 480mbit, or about 60MB/sec.
A typical DVD drive (we will even say that this is a fancy 12x drive, just to give it the benefit of the doubt), such as found in an xbox360, has a max potential bandwidth of 132mbits. (16.5MB/sec)
So YES, AC. A "Fast" USB2.0 device is one that favors the top possible speed allowable by the bus, which mechanical disk drives have no problems whatsoever providing.
The drives in question were capable of sustained sequential reads in excess of 40MB/sec, and arbitrary random reads of about 20mb/sec.
The Microsoft branded flash module? about half that.
That was because you had to mod the console to use your own HDD originally, you weren't banned for using your own HDD, you were banned for breaking the online service terms and conditions of not using a modded console.
Those terms and service were illegal right on their face, because the Magnuson-Moss act prohibits voiding a warranty for a repair if the repair uses compatible parts. And the video game companies already lost the legal battle to prohibit people from using their trademarks as an unlock; if you make that the unlock, then you simultaneously give everyone permission to use it for that purpose.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Federal law says no such thing. You're presumably referencing the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, which prohibits
If warranty work is provided free (i.e. parts and labor warranty), there's no issue. In fact, the Act refers to the use of authorized agents:
No, a car manufacturer can't require you to get oil changes from their dealer, unless they provide those changes free as part of the warranty. But if a belt breaks, they can require you get it repaired at a dealer if you want warranty coverage, since the warranty pays for both parts and labor.
You're probably also under the false impression that a warrantor has to somehow "prove" a user modification caused an otherwise warranted issue in order to deny coverage. Nope - if they want to say your engine warranty is voided if you hang fuzzy dice on the mirror, they can. They just have to state so clearly.
Read the Act, it's short and not a hard read.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
You're thinking direct computer hardware. Nebraska is thinking tractors and farm equipment. Locking farmers into long term hugely expensive repair contracts on absolutely critical pieces of equipment has become the norm for many "tractor" companies. When one piece of equipment costs millions and you need to spend thousands or more to recalibrate after some common mishap or loose your harvest then it's not so trivial.
This. Why do you think it's starting in Nebraska?
There are quite a few electronic objects out there that having nothing to do with Microsoft or Sony. There is a huge outcry amongst farmers and small industries with the trend towards essentially leasing complex expensive equipment even if you buy it. Farmers have been sued for the temerity of trying to fix their own gear. For John Deere stuff, you could not even buy parts that just plug into the system - they had to be 'installed' by the dealer. When they could get around to it.
IIRC, Deere got some really bad press about that a awhile back and at least lets you plug things back in (that you buy at the Deer store). It is a much larger problem than a dead X-box.
There are more things, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
And the video game companies already lost the legal battle to prohibit people from using their trademarks as an unlock; if you make that the unlock, then you simultaneously give everyone permission to use it for that purpose.
Specifically, in the case Sega vs Accolade.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Exactly. ...
John Deere is using copyright and the DMCA to keep the farmers who spend 150K+ on their tractor or farm equipment from working on their own property.
Or is it really the farmers property? Apparently not according to Deere.
That is why these bills are in farm country, the populous of these states don't care about game consoles or Blu Ray players, a tractor, absolutely, a game console not so much.
The farmers want to be able to work on their property, Deere says otherwise.
Take a read here: https://www.wired.com/2015/04/...
here: http://modernfarmer.com/2016/0...
and here http://www.npr.org/sections/al...
All because software is used in a number of places in the vehicle
Automobiles, now also because of software, are covered under the DMCA , can Ford or GM now claim the same as Deere?
Sorry, but you really don't own that Ford GT 350 or that Corvette Sting Ray you think you own.
How long before Ford, GM or any other automobile manufacturer for that matter do what Deere has done?
The fact that they can do this, should scare anyone.
That is why this type of legislation is needed everywhere.
It is not about game consoles, it is about much, much more.
The DMCA was bad legislation 20 years ago when it was passed.
This really proves it.