The US president is weaponising tech, but his tariffs and Brexit provide a surprising opportunity to gain back digital control of our lives, says science fiction author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow
The issue is not whether people are willing to do it, but whether they should be allowed to.
I can’t think of any situation where disallowing people from repairing their own property makes any sense. The only ones it makes sense to are the ones who profit from it.
I can’t think of any situation where disallowing people from repairing their own property makes any sense.
I can think of one, but the issue is largely a thing of the past: old CRT TV’s or monitors. If you attempt to repair one without knowing what you’re doing, you literally could get yourself killed.
That said, I still agree with you wholeheartedly. I’d much rather mandate dangerous to repair products be labeled as such, but the design and construction of consumer products should never prohibit the end user from being able to repair their own property.
The issue is not whether people are willing to do it, but whether they should be allowed to.
I can’t think of any situation where disallowing people from repairing their own property makes any sense. The only ones it makes sense to are the ones who profit from it.
Also, it won’t always be them. It will be a repair shop. If things were built to be repaired, it would be quicker and cheaper to repair them.
I can think of one, but the issue is largely a thing of the past: old CRT TV’s or monitors. If you attempt to repair one without knowing what you’re doing, you literally could get yourself killed.
That said, I still agree with you wholeheartedly. I’d much rather mandate dangerous to repair products be labeled as such, but the design and construction of consumer products should never prohibit the end user from being able to repair their own property.
It’s also super easy to die when your car falls off a jack and you’re working underneath, but we don’t forbid homemade oil changes nonetheless.
And the when we had CRTs maintenance was actually encouraged, one of the oldest TVs I remember using had circuit schematics in the manuals.