[Discuss] Digital Right to Repair Bill, H.3383

[invalid at pizzashack.org (Derek Martin)]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 10:55:01PM -0400, Drew Van Zandt wrote:
> ....speak for yourself?  I fix electronics for myself and others.  0402, no
> problem.  0201, I'd prefer a stereoscope.  QFNs and DFNs are no problem,
> only BGAs are tough. Making it impossible, feh.
> 
> If you never get anything repaired, you are a wasteful human.  

Maybe.  It depends on the resource you're trying to conserve.  For
most of us, it's money that's the most scarce.  Then there's the fact
that while your device is being repaired, you can't use it.  It
generally is much faster, and often as cheap if not cheaper, to just go
buy a new one.  Or, due to technological advancements, you can get an
upgrade for only a small premium.  The market actively discourages
repair.  So I don't think it's as simple as that.

My dad fixed appliances for a living, until he retired.  He actually
refused to repair microwaves, because most often the cost of the
parts, plus labor and taxes, was close enough to the retail cost of
the microwave (or, often enough, more) that it made no sense to do the
repair, unless it was under warranty.  By the time he retired he found
that was increasingly true for certain other types of repairs on
"advanced" models of more conventional (er, fundamentally low tech?)
appliances...

> If you oppose the right of those who DO have the appropriate skills
> to repair things, you are actively awful.

I agree opposing choice is generally bad, though there could be specific
applications where allowing choice is the greater evil for reasons
you're encouraged to imagine for yourself.  I don't think this is one
of those...  But I also can only think of one case in the last, oh, 15
years where something I had which was not an automobile failed, and
getting it repaired was genuinely worthwhile.

-- 
Derek D. Martin    http://www.pizzashack.org/   GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02
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