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Right To Repair Legislation Is Officially Being Considered In Canada (vice.com)
Canada is the newest frontier in the fight for the "right to repair" after an Ontario politician introduced a bill on Thursday that would ensure individuals and independent professionals can repair brand-name computers and phones cheaply and easily. From a report: Manufacturers make it incredibly difficult to repair our broken devices ourselves. Instead of taking a smashed phone to a local repair professional for an affordable fix, a complex matrix of trade secrets and government intervention often means consumers have to make a pricey trip to the Genius Bar or buy a new device entirely. This is bad for your wallet, but also bad for the planet.
Ontario Liberal Party MPP Michael Coteau ran into this issue head-first after his daughter dropped his Samsung smartphone. An official repair job from the manufacturer was more expensive than just getting a new phone from his carrier, he told me over the phone. "It's a shame," Coteau said, "because the Samsung S8 was very good for me. Everything was perfect. I would've kept using it. But now I've replaced it." On Thursday, Coteau introduced a private member's bill in provincial parliament that, if passed, would be the first "right to repair" law for electronic devices in North America. More than a dozen US states are currently considering similar bills, but nothing is on the books yet in the US or in Canada.
Ontario Liberal Party MPP Michael Coteau ran into this issue head-first after his daughter dropped his Samsung smartphone. An official repair job from the manufacturer was more expensive than just getting a new phone from his carrier, he told me over the phone. "It's a shame," Coteau said, "because the Samsung S8 was very good for me. Everything was perfect. I would've kept using it. But now I've replaced it." On Thursday, Coteau introduced a private member's bill in provincial parliament that, if passed, would be the first "right to repair" law for electronic devices in North America. More than a dozen US states are currently considering similar bills, but nothing is on the books yet in the US or in Canada.
The Samsung Galaxy S5 had: .
.it was also WATERPROOF. There are YouTube videos of people taking their S5 phone swimming, shooting video underwater with it, and coming up to the surface. A video of someone washing their S5 in a front loading washer with the screen locked to the on position so you could see the well lit up phone during the entire washing.
* removable back, which covered a . .
* replaceable battery
* SIM card
* SD card
* A headphone jack (how cowardly compared to Apple's "courage")
BUT . .
Wow. A phone that was waterproof, with headphone jack and replaceable battery. Somehow we no longer have the technical capability to build that combination of features in a phone.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.