[Discuss] [semi-OT] "Right to Own" law

[markw at mohawksoft.com (Mark Woodward)]

We've heard the ads on the radio for and against the "Right to Repair" 
law. This is a law that is intended to require automobile manufacturers 
to publish the technical specifications and the codes that the computers 
in your car produce for troubleshooting and repair.

I was thinking, what about a "Right to Own" law, that requires that 
*all* electronics be documented, all "general purpose" computers i.e. 
not embedded like a microwave, but everything from video games to 
iphones, tablets and computers be "user serviceable." No locking out a 
user from doing what ever they want with stuff they own.

Writing this law would be very tricky because you need a lot of legal 
intuition about the sort of attacks that will come at it from the likes 
of Apple and Microsoft, but also a lot of technical savvy to carefully 
define what is "general purpose" and what is "dedicated" and what the 
actual limits are. We want to protect innovation, but not at the expense 
of civil rights of ownership. For instance, we don't need to see the 
source code to Windows 8, be we damn well should be able to boot Linux 
or FreeBSD or whatever. We should be able to run what ever program we 
want on an iPhone or Android. These devices are our property, we paid 
for them, we are legally responsible for what is on them, we should have 
the ability to control them.

When I was a kid, almost *all* devices, from washing machines to 
televisions, had a schematic inside the case. CP/M came with the source 
code. We have lost a lot of freedom to the corporations locking up our 
property. How much crap that would have otherwise been semi useful have 
we had to throw away?

This is clearly a case where the invisible hand of capitalism will not 
help and an obvious case where regulation must. Agree? Disagree? it 
would be hard to find a politician who would even back such a bill, but 
maybe we can get a referendum on the ballot.