Podcasting “Apple’s Cement Overshoes”

Thinking different about right to repair.

This week on my podcast, I read my recent Medium column, “Apple’s Cement Overshoes,” about the incredible, cynical fuckery that Apple engages in to sabotage right to repair and ensure that its devices end up in overseas e-waste landfills rather than being fixed and kept in service.

https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13

For all the debate around Right to Repair, it’s amazing how simple the actual issue is. On the anti- side, you have companies who say that their users are a bunch of idiotic babies who can’t be trusted to make their own choices about who fixes their stuff, and which parts they use. The companies say that they should be given the authority to decide who can effect repairs, and under which circumstances — and that they will only use this authority to keep their users safe.

On the pro-repair side, you have people who say that companies aren’t always the best choice for fixing the products they originate, and that the more companies have to block repair competition, the worse their own repair services get. When companies have to compete against an independent repair sector, they have to offer attractive prices and they have to keep up a supply of parts so older products can be kept in service.