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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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Posted
by
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>