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                <span id="m_-2333154584736294956title-89456149" class="m_-2333154584736294956story-title"> <a href="https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/02/25/231234/the-videogame-industry-is-fighting-right-to-repair-laws" target="_blank">The Videogame Industry Is Fighting 'Right To Repair' Laws</a> <span class="m_-2333154584736294956no m_-2333154584736294956extlnk"></span></span><span class="m_-2333154584736294956comment-bubble"></span>
                
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                        <span class="m_-2333154584736294956sodify" title="Filter Firehose to entries rated red or better"></span><span class="m_-2333154584736294956icon-beaker m_-2333154584736294956pop1" alt="Popularity" title="Filter Firehose to entries rated red or better"><span></span></span> 
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                        Posted
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                                  EditorDavid
                        
                
                

                
                
                <time id="m_-2333154584736294956fhtime-89456149" datetime="on Saturday February 25, 2017 @11:34PM">on Saturday February 25, 2017 @11:34PM</time>
                
                
                         from the <span class="m_-2333154584736294956dept-text">proprietary-consoles</span> dept.
                
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                                An anonymous reader quotes Motherboard:
<i>The video game industry is <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/the-video-game-industry-is-lobbying-against-your-right-to-repair-consoles" target="_blank">lobbying against legislation that would make it easier for gamers to repair their consoles</a>
 and for consumers to repair all electronics more generally. The 
Entertainment Software Association, a trade organization that includes 
Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, as well as dozens of video game developers 
and publishers, is opposing a "right to repair" bill in Nebraska, which 
would give hardware manufacturers fewer rights to control the 
end-of-life of electronics that they have sold to their customers...
<br> <br>
Bills making their way through the Nebraska, New York, Minnesota, 
Wyoming, Tennessee, Kansas, Massachusetts, and Illinois statehouses will
 require manufacturers to sell replacement parts and repair tools to 
independent repair companies and consumers at the same price they are 
sold to authorized repair centers. The bill also requires that 
manufacturers make diagnostic manuals public and requires them to offer 
software tools or firmware to revert an electronic device to its 
original functioning state in the case that software locks that prevent 
independent repair are built into a device. The bills are a huge threat 
to the repair monopolies these companies have enjoyed, and so just about
 every major manufacturer has brought lobbyists to Nebraska, where the 
legislation is currently furthest along... This setup has allowed 
companies like Apple to monopolize iPhone repair, John Deere to 
monopolize tractor repair, and Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to 
monopolize console repair... </i> <br>


Motherboard's reporter was unable to get a comment from Microsoft, 
Apple, and Sony, and adds that "In two years of covering this issue, no 
manufacturer has ever spoken to me about it either on or off the 
record."</div></div></div>