This is exactly why “Right to repair” rose up to claw that ownership back.
If we don’t create laws, at some point down the road we will go from “not much recourse” to literally none.
What if Apple created a phone with no ports that was filled with epoxy as the last step in assembly? What if powering it on at all meant logging in to your apple account?
They could in every meaningful way take that device away from you at the run of a single function.
If that happens and there are no laws, it will affect more and more products.
Don’t buy a laptop? A car? A building? A slab of wood?
Yes, my examples are borderline unreasonable, but we’re already at the level of unreasonable products being licensed instead of owned (Tractors, DSLRs).
Unless your country goes full socialism and there is only the government as provider for all those things, competing companies can provide you with repairable products. If people actually want them (which I doubt), why shouldn't companies provide them?
With the tractors and DSLRs, again, if you don't like their licensing model, don't buy them. If nobody buys them, they will probably change their licensing model.
If we don’t create laws, at some point down the road we will go from “not much recourse” to literally none.
What if Apple created a phone with no ports that was filled with epoxy as the last step in assembly? What if powering it on at all meant logging in to your apple account?
They could in every meaningful way take that device away from you at the run of a single function.