On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 11:54 PM John Paul Adrian Glaubitz < glaub...@physik.fu-berlin.de> wrote:
> On 6/10/21 2:08 AM, Paul Wise wrote: > >> The report and its recommendations may provide a means > >> to pierce the veil of closed platforms, like closed-sourced firmware. > > > > It seems unlikely to me that we will ever see a "Right to Repair" for > > software, firmware or gateware. > > So, why should laws protect the intellectual property of software companies > but not the IP of hardware companies? > > What supporters euphemistically call a "right to repair" is in reality an > initiative against the right of companies to protect their intellectual > property. > > Why should any company take the risk of investment for new hardware > developments > when they have to fear that every other company in the world will get free > access > to their blue prints? > > The claim that hardware companies intentionally make it hard to repair > consumer > products is a conspiracy theory. In reality, a consumer product is > primarily optimized > for production costs which implies cheap capacitors or cases that are > glued together. > > Lots of consumers seem to forget that a product sold into the market not > only must > cover the material costs but also the costs of engineering, marketing, > customer > support, customs, compliance tests and so on. And in the end, you still > want there > to be a small profit left which is what makes the whole business model > viable in > the first place. > > If law initiatives also now want to take away the exclusive rights of > hardware designers > over their blueprints and hence the market advantage over competitors that > they took an > investment risk for, companies will lose the incentive to design and > develop new > products. > The financial payoff would shift from post production to pre production. There is still demand for hardware - thus supply would exist in some form. Companies would set up kickstarter-like agreements/contracts with customers. Companies that fail to produce would get weeded out similarly to companies that produce inferior products in the current legal and market economy. The government is of, by, and for the people - not the corporations. Laws that protect us are fundamental. -m
