Summary
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The California state assembly has unanimously passed a bill that would require electronics manufacturers to sell repair tools and parts to consumers and to make repair guides available to the general public.
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The bill, known as the “Right to Repair” bill, previously passed the state Senate and now has the support of Apple, a longtime opponent of the legislation.
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If the bill is signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it would be a victory not just for Californians but for consumers everywhere.
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California would become the third state to pass right to repair legislation for consumer electronics, after New York and Minnesota passed laws earlier this year.
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The bill is seen as a victory for consumers and environmentalists, who argue that it will allow people to repair their own devices and reduce electronic waste.
Additional Details
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The bill was supported by a coalition of consumer groups, environmentalists, and small business owners.
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The bill’s supporters argued that it would be better for the environments and save them money on repairs.
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Apple supported bills after having spent millions of dollars against it.
Apple won’t be forced to change their current business practice if soldering everything to the logic board, security chips disabling devices after repairs unless unlocked with their proprietary software, etc, so it won’t affect their monopolizing of the Apple repair market. They’ll just have to offer logic boards for sale with a one pg PDF showing how to replace the board, and maybe they’ll make the security software fix more available (which would still be huge). But 99% of their users likely wouldn’t do it themselves anyway.
Either way, this is still a huge step in the right direction though!