Without such laws, there are products that would never come to market. Windows machines would only work with Internet Explorer for example. Windows machines would work with Linux. You would have to buy wiper blades from your car manufacturer.
The focus was farm equipment, not medical devices. The movement is a response to John Deere’s heavy handed policies.
On a related note, the patenting of DNA is something that should have never happened and would never have happened had the USPTO not been overrun with affirmative action know-nothings.
BS. Not worthy of FR. This was comment #2, deleted ...
Kaslin, are you a secret moderator here?
Can’t a buyer look into the availability of parts and repair manuals (and also youtube videos) before buying a product?
I thought John Deere did a good job at least supplying parts, but my new mower isn’t a Deere because my town no long has a Deere dealer. I got a Husqvarna from Lowes because the Lowes is close to where I live. It seems to be a nice unit, by the way. It has a sheet metal hood. The Deere had a plastic hood which developed cracks over the years to the point where I removed it.
If there’s a trend to not supply repair materials to users, it’s due in part because most users these days know nothing about how things work or how to fix them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act
“Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.[7] This is commonly referred to as the “tie-in sales” provisions[8] and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives.”
The current practice by John Deere and others effectively breaks the Magnuson Moss Act and goes well-beyond it to an infinite amount of future time for which you cannot use even original branded parts without required involvement of the original dealer to let you truly understand what it is you need to replace.
Motor vehicles, outside of tractors, typically use a universal bus to allow access to the diagnostic console YOU ALREADY BOUGHT in your vehicles. This allows you, or any other mechanic, to know what went wrong to fix it.
Any actions that stop these simple actions is truly bizarre and should be slapped down at all levels, unless it's for national security purposes, for some strange reason.
Why? It's perfect for my needs, and doing the upgrade would contribute to the growing mound of electronic waste. Not to mention the added cost.
As for John Deere, my grandparents were farmers. They would fix their own equipment, because when the crops are ready to harvest you can't wait just because something broke. Yet we have farm equipment manufacturers who don't understand their customers' needs.
If you were to say that John Deere had a fleet of service technicians that would go on-site to fix their product, I would agree that it reduces the need for right-to-repair. They don't.
Some years back, I bought a VGA monitor and video card. The sales guy asked me if I wanted it with or without a TV tuner. I got it without. About 6 years later, I needed a new driver for it and downloaded the driver from one of the many driver sites. Low and behold, when it booted up, I had a TV tuner.
Through the legislative process the public gets to decide what IP right are and how they should be protected.
Talking about medical device suppliers, the one my health insurance company uses for CPAP has so much business funneled its way that they are completely useless. It took months to get the machine and after that I just don’t go over there. Haven’t been there in 5 years. I can order the tubes and face masks and nose pillows on eBay. The only thing I can’t do is change the pressure settings. Fortunately I don’t need to do that. But the fact that CPAP is only available by prescription really works in their favor. I had to deal with them up to a point but after that I figured out I was better off on my own.
“In these statehouses, lawmakers considered bills that would undermine innovator intellectual property rights by forcing manufacturers of sophisticated medical devices – from infusion pumps to PET systems - to make freely available propriety service manuals, schematics, training materials and to their third-party servicing business competitors. Government forcing a business to hand over intellectual property to competitors strikes at the heart of our free market system.”
This is common in federal anti trust suits.
In fact, in the Bell System breakup, direct competitors were given access to the Bell infrastructure, which Bell had to sell at cost to them. They had to provide all technical standards so that myriad 3rd parties could interconnect to, or provide maintenance for their equipment.
This also happens in most regulated monopolies like energy distribution. PG&E must provide access to their distribution system, and pay full retail for excess power generated by any household or business.
And it sucks across the board.
This is bullshit. The oligarchy merely wants to protect the eternal revenue streams for certain industries.
they don’t want you working on stuff at all.
even without their manuals...