{"id":306847,"date":"2017-05-05T22:43:37","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T21:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/it-comes-down-to-monopoly-control-of-the-aftermarket\/"},"modified":"2017-05-05T22:43:37","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T21:43:37","slug":"it-comes-down-to-monopoly-control-of-the-aftermarket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/it-comes-down-to-monopoly-control-of-the-aftermarket\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It Comes Down to Monopoly Control of the Aftermarket\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Janine Jackson interviewed Kyle Wiens about copyright overreaching for the <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/craig-aaron-and-malkia-cyril-on-net-neutrality-kyle-wiens-on-copyright-overreaching\/\">April 28, 2017, episode<\/a> of <strong>CounterSpin<\/strong>. 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They do now, thanks to the argument, recently reiterated by agricultural machine maker John Deere, that farmers shouldn\u2019t be able to independently access the operating software in their tractors, for example, because they don\u2019t own that part, they just license it. As our next guest has explained, the line is, \u201cOld McDonald has a tractor, but he owns a massive barn ornament, because the manufacturer holds the rights to the programming that makes it run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ongoing fight highlights not just our increasingly wired world, but the ceaseless encroachments of corporations into physical and intellectual space. Kyle Wiens thinks and acts on these issues. He\u2019s co-founder and CEO of iFixit, the online repair community and parts retailer. He joins us now by phone from California. Welcome to <b>CounterSpin<\/b>, Kyle Wiens.<\/p>\n<p><b>Kyle Wiens:<\/b> Hey, thanks for having me on.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5589984\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Kyle-Wiens-Portrait.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5589984\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/Kyle-Wiens-Portrait.jpg\" alt=\"Kyle Wiens (image: Fraschini Heller)\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Kyle Wiens: &#8220;It\u2019s really an environmental imperative to figure out how we can make things last as long as possible.&#8221; (image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=POsd2hYuUJg\">Fraschini Heller<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>JJ: <\/b>Well, John Deere is not alone in this, naturally. What is the core of these companies\u2019 argument, and what legal leg are they claiming to stand on?<\/p>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> What\u2019s happening is that they want to control everything that happens with the life cycle of the product. With farm equipment in particular, the data that the equipment collects is actually worth a lot of money to John Deere. They\u2019re using every means possible to lock down what happens. They want to make sure that if you need to get it repaired, you go to the John Deere dealership rather than doing the repair yourself.<\/p>\n<p>The way that they\u2019re doing that is they\u2019re saying, hey, it might be a tractor, but it has a computer in it, and we own the software on the computer. And you have an implied license to operate the software on the tractor, but you don\u2019t actually own the software that\u2019s on the tractor. And that\u2019s the point I really disagree with them on. I think that if you bought a tractor it\u2019s yours, and you should be able to do what you want with it.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> And they\u2019re claiming it\u2019s a violation of copyright somehow or at least that was their initial argument. Now they maybe have tweaked that with this licensing agreement, with tiny print. But a lot of these companies are saying that this is an issue of copyright?<\/p>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> There\u2019s a few different ways that they go at it. One is, back in 1998, when we updated the Copyright Act and passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or the DMCA, they put a clause in there that said that it was illegal to circumvent a technological lock. And that was originally designed to prevent people from pirating DVDs. So they put locks or encryption on the DVDs to make it hard for people to copy them, and they said, we want to make it illegal to break that lock. And what\u2019s happened since then is the kind of locks that they put on DVDs now are in tractors, and in our cell phones and all kinds of other products that we have.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> And they have made the argument, haven\u2019t they, that somehow locking people out, it prevents harms if they try to repair something and they get injured. But then there\u2019s also a line that somehow it spurs innovation in technology. Does that make any sense?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5588416\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/John-Deere.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5588416\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/John-Deere.jpg\" alt=\"John Deere tractor\" width=\"350\" height=\"335\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>John Deere tractor<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> No, it doesn\u2019t make any sense at all, and that\u2019s just kind of a bogus claim that they\u2019ll make. It really just comes down to monopoly control of the aftermarket. They want to make as much money as they can on service, and they want to make sure that the data is streaming back to them. If you talk to farmers, that\u2019s really the nutshell. With the older equipment, farmers are absolutely able to maintain it themselves; it\u2019s really only the newer equipment. And these are fairly sophisticated machines. I\u2019m talking tractors with touchscreen.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, one of the arguments that John Deere said was that they didn\u2019t want people to be able to modify the software in the tractors because they might then use the tractors to pirate Taylor Swift music. And that sounds crazy, but it actually technically might be possible. Like there\u2019s a full-blown computer on the tractor, so you might be able to install Bit Torrent or something and do that. But clearly that\u2019s not the real reason they\u2019re trying to lock down the equipment.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> That sounds like a real bank shot. Well, it sounds like Monsanto patenting seeds and then telling farmers they can\u2019t save them year to year, because the technology of the seed belongs to Monsanto. It\u2019s the sort of thing that you think, well, this is too craven to actually be happening, and yet here it is.<\/p>\n<p>In your work, you make a number of interesting points, one of which is, what about when the company then just decides they don\u2019t want to repair that device anymore, or they don\u2019t want to make the parts for that anymore?<\/p>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> They can absolutely just decide repair isn\u2019t an option anymore, and that\u2019s something that we\u2019ve seen folks like <b>Apple<\/b> and Samsung do. It\u2019s very hard to get the screen on a Samsung phone fixed, because <b>Samsung<\/b> just won\u2019t sell repair parts. We see this over and over again, where manufacturers will lock down the aftermarket. There\u2019s a problem with the iPhone 7 right now. If you break the home button on the iPhone 7, there\u2019s no way to fix it, because repairing it requires a special calibration machine only <b>Apple<\/b> has, and they refuse to sell it to aftermarket repair shops.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> As you say, it really is criminalizing repair, which seems like such a strange kind of value to be pushing. But I just would underscore for folks who think, oh well, yes, it\u2019s an irritation, you need to buy a new phone every few years, and they\u2019re kind of forcing you into that. But you point out that, for one thing, there\u2019s an environmental impact to that. It\u2019s really a societal-level question that we should be thinking about.<\/p>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> Yes, there\u2019s a huge amount of raw material that goes into these things. It\u2019s really an environmental imperative to figure out how we can make things last as long as possible. You know, repair jobs are green jobs, and they need time. You can fix a cell phone, or keep some device that you have working longer. It prevents having to manufacture a new one. So that\u2019s a fantastic thing.<\/p>\n<p>And fortunately\u2014I mean, this sounds all doom and gloom, these manufacturers are doing all these evil things, and everyone\u2019s going to start doing it soon. There actually is hope on the horizon. This year, 11 states have introduced right-to-repair legislation that would require manufacturers to help farmers, and local self-owned repair shops and others, stay in business.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Well, it\u2019s not insignificant that automakers are prominent here. How do you think that this story relates to, for example, what happened with Volkswagen?<\/p>\n<p><b>KW: <\/b>Yes, it\u2019s interesting. So before the Volkswagen case came out, I was actually arguing for an exception to the copyright law to be able to do repairs on vehicles. And the Association for Global Automakers, which included Volkswagen, was at the table across from me negotiating, and they said that the automakers were the only ones that should be trusted to manipulate emission settings on vehicles, and that no one else should have access to the software. And then three months later, we found out that they\u2019d been manipulating the emissions readings.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the same things with TVs. Samsung and LG were caught cheating on energy efficiency ratings in TVs the exact same way that Volkswagen was: When it read that the test code was being played, they had different energy outputs than the rest of the time.<\/p>\n<p>So we have to find a way that the rest of us can inspect and verify. It\u2019s OK for manufacturers to make these products, they can certify them, but there needs to be a mechanism for third-party auditors to come in and inspect the source code, and for the rest of us to be able to fix it if it breaks.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> And finally, I know that repair is at the core of what you do, and I wonder if you could explain the power of the teardown. Because I think that it has not just an immediate value of showing people how things work, things that are often very mysterious, but it sends a kind of message about, dare I say, consumer empowerment. Can you let us know briefly what the teardown is, and how it fits with what we\u2019re talking about here?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5589985\" style=\"width: 361px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/iPhone-Teardown.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-5589985\" src=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/iPhone-Teardown.jpg\" alt=\"iPhone 7 teardown (iFixit, 9\/16\/16)\" width=\"351\" height=\"263\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>iPhone 7 teardown (iFixit, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifixit.com\/Teardown\/iPhone+7+Teardown\/67382\">9\/16\/16<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> Sure, yeah. So I run a company called iFixit, and every time a new gizmo comes out, we get our hands on it however we can. So we\u2019ll go to the <b>Apple<\/b> Store and we\u2019ll wait in line, we\u2019ll fly overseas wherever we have to go to get it, and we take it apart and we post pictures online of what\u2019s inside. So the day the \u00a0iPhone 7 came out, we got the iPhone and we took it apart and we showed all the bits and pieces inside: the microphone, the USB connector and everything that\u2019s inside the phone, and we explain how it works.<\/p>\n<p>And we do that for two reasons. One is we wanted to demystify technology; we want people to understand a little bit of what goes inside, and make it so we\u2019re not afraid to take apart a phone. Because, actually, if you need to put a new battery in your iPhone, it\u2019s actually very easy. That\u2019s the first reason.<\/p>\n<p>The second reason is that we want to encourage people to buy products that are easy to repair. And so we\u2019ll give it a repairability score, and we rate products on how easy or hard they are to fix. So actually right now, it\u2019s easier to fix an iPhone than a Samsung S8, so if you\u2019re thinking about buying an S8, consider buying an iPhone instead, or possibly something like the <strong>Google<\/strong> Pixel that\u2019s even easier.<\/p>\n<p>People can get engaged with the right-to-repair legislation that\u2019s moving right now, and New York and Massachusetts are two very good places, where I think you probably have a lot of listenership, where they can get engaged immediately. Things are going to happen in the next month or two that will dictate whether we\u2019ll get right-to-repair passed this year or not.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> But the idea is, you can do it.<\/p>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> You absolutely can.<\/p>\n<p><b>JJ:<\/b> Well, thank you very much, Kyle Wiens of iFixit, for joining us this week on <b>CounterSpin<\/b>. You can find that work online at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ifixit.com\/\">iFixit.com<\/a>. Thanks again, Kyle Wiens.<\/p>\n<p><b>KW:<\/b> Thank you. And you can get involved in the right-to-repair movement over at <a href=\"http:\/\/repair.org\/\">Repair.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"et_bloom_bottom_trigger\"><\/span><br \/>\nThis piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission from <a href=\"http:\/\/fair.org\/home\/it-comes-down-to-monopoly-control-of-the-aftermarket\/\">FAIR<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Janine Jackson interviewed Kyle Wiens about copyright overreaching for the April 28, 2017, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. Play Stop pop out X MP3jPLAYLISTS.MI_0 = [ { name: &#8220;1. 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