"Right to Repair" - Potentially great news for DIY!

[Manatee Diver]

when you have the govt mandate that they do so...and making the govt mandate that a company sell certain products...and make the govt force a company to operate in a certain way.....at the behest of the people....yes.....yes it is.

how is that NOT the people seizing the means of production??

No, that is reasonable regulation as part of a free market economy. No different from prohibiting companies from deceptive warranty practices like voiding a warranty due to third party repair.

And no one is saying that the parts should be free, just available to purchase.

 

[M-Cameron]

No, that is reasonable regulation as part of a free market economy. No different from prohibiting companies from deceptive warranty practices like voiding a warranty due to third party repair.

And no one is saying that the parts should be free, just available to purchase.

"reasonable regulation"......forcing a company to sell you something you have no right to.....yeah, very "reasonable"

at the end of the day....you have no right to make them do anything...

calling it "reasonable" doesnt make it legal.....or any less socialist....


so long as they are not actually harming you, you have zero rights to demand any company operate in a certain way in a free market.

 

[Pipehorse]

how do you prove a regulator was serviced?

You are arguing in circles. If it can't be proved the regulator was serviced and how can the manufacturer be held liable?

 

[greeniguana]

Not just me, but a lot of people see the right to repair movement. Consumer protection laws in Europe mean that for most things parts and schematics are available including for scuba. If you visit European dealers you can order a ton of parts that you can't get in the US. How do you think @buddhasummer gets are the parts that he orders? When I need specialty gun parts for European brands, I send an email to a friend in Germany, he orders them through his local shop and drops it off for me when he visits here for the international match that we host once a year.

The US doesn't have those laws because corporations hold a stranglehold in Congress. The testimony for companies like Deere and Apple is eye rollingly bad.

US gun manufacturers can't be sued.

John deere and Apple are on pretty solid ground. People sign their DMCA agreements when they buy their products. Then they find out later they don't like the terms and make idiotic youtube channels. Too bad.

 

[Manatee Diver]

US gun manufacturers can't be sued.

Actually they can, for product defects (see the Remington class action that was settled in 2018, or the lawsuit against SIG due to the P320 not being drop safe, or the many Glock lawsuits due to Glock leg). They can't be sued if a product is functionally normally, and it hurts someone (ie when someone commits a crime). This came about as the anti-gun lobby thought up a new inventive way to force gun companies out of business, sue them for crimes committed with their guns. Congress put a stop to that fairly quickly. General Aviation companies have similar protections in that they aren't liable if the pilots screws up and creates a smoking crater in the ground.

John deere and Apple are on pretty solid ground. People sign their DMCA agreements when they buy their products. Then they find out later they don't like the terms and make idiotic youtube channels. Too bad.

When DMCA comes to your car and you can't change a spark plug without taking it to the dealer, you may change your mind.

 

[Pipehorse]

god this is like explaining things to children....

i buy a regulator.....and a service kit with OEM parts.....i decide to service the reg and screw it up....i go diving and get hurt....i sue the Mfg claiming it came from them that way, and since the parts are oem, there is no way to prove it didnt.

chances are the company will pay out in a settlement than avoid risking that possibility in trial.

but if the mfg inspects the regulator, and finds parts that are not OEM, then they know that someone was servicing that reg, that wasnt an authorized tech.....safeguarding the mfg

that is a big reason not to sell oem service kits to the public.

So to a point I made a while ago, an "authorized service tech" with four hours of training is not sufficient to shield the company from liability. Your argument that this is nothing but a liability issue is severely flawed. Manufacturers have/had other motives besides liability for not selling repair kits on regulators.

 

[Manatee Diver]

so long as they are not actually harming you, you have zero rights to demand any company operate in a certain way in a free market.

Once again you don't understand free markets, regulations comes with free markets, and the European markets work just fine with strong consumer protections like right to repair.

 

[M-Cameron]

So to a point I made a while ago, an "authorized service tech" with four hours of training is not sufficient to shield the company from liability. Your argument that this is nothing but a liability issue is severely flawed. Manufacturers have/had other motives besides liability for not selling repair kits on regulators.

Regardless of their motives....you have no right to force them to run their business how YOU want them to run.

 

[Manatee Diver]

.....the US isn't Europe....

I don't know what Europe considers "free"....but in the US, "free" doesn't mean loading up companies with regulations under the guise of "consumer protection".....


Forgive me if I want to avoid the German model of governance....

So requiring bumpers to survive 5mph impacts with no damage, or having bumpers that injury pedestrians less. Or having to get their products tested for energy usage so consumers can more accurately compare products. Or one of the other consumer protection laws we have in the US are fine. But requiring companies to provide parts, allow third parties access to necessary proprietary repair tools, or provide schematics that is a bridge too far.

 

[greeniguana]

regulations comes with free markets

"Free market"

Oil subsidies, farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies, healthcare subsidies, housing subsidies....

Socialism. For the rich.