from Hacker News

Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico

by nan0 on 7/4/20, 11:50 PM with 110 comments

by class4behavior on 7/5/20, 12:57 PM
This is an unfortunate win against the right to repair, which is a concerning issue everywhere around the world. Just recently, in Norway its last court instance found a repair shop in breach of Apple's trademark as they used imported third-party displays.
This stifles competition as corporations are in control for how long hardware or software remain usable and who can provide alternative solutions. In the US this topic flared up again once the farmers felt the consequences of this. Now their modern vehicles and tools either have to be replaced a lot more often or they can't choose where to seek replacements.
by jtvjan on 7/5/20, 8:51 AM
The exceptions list mentions:
> When the purpose is to test, investigate, or correct the security of a computer, system, or computer network.
> When a person wants their device to stop collecting personal information.
Aren't those the reasons most people install custom ROMs? For getting security updates past the life of the smartphone, and to stop Google tracking you.
by anonms-coward on 7/5/20, 12:26 PM
It seems stallman had the foresight to predict things like this in 1997. I think the days where one needs to be licensed to use a debugger might not be far away.
by barney54 on 7/5/20, 11:45 AM
It appears this is a result of the harmonization of laws between Mexico, Canada, and the US.
by cs702 on 7/5/20, 3:14 PM
Sometimes it feels as if politicians and lawmakers are drawing inspiration from the direst scenarios envisioned in the science fiction literature.
Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing the kind of tinkering, exploration, repurposing, interconnecting, i.e., hacking, that leads to innovation?
Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing new kinds of competition from "garage upstarts" that find new, better, cheaper ways of doing thins?
Do they really think this is beneficial for everyone in the long run?
by gchamonlive on 7/5/20, 1:31 PM
We need FOSS phones and a big enough company to implement the project and mass produce it to lower costs.
by FpUser on 7/5/20, 3:33 PM
>Do they really think this is beneficial for everyone in the long run
Do you really think that politicians are concerned about "everyone's benefits"? I think they do not give a flying f..k about it. They're being lobbied by big corps and then after their terms they get cushy jobs in the same corps. Joe/Jane Does are only remembered at the time of the vote.
by jobigoud on 7/5/20, 1:27 PM
Is it really "your" smartphone if you are not allowed to modify it?
by aurizon on 7/5/20, 12:12 AM
Slim hates true competition, or even any competition
by jostmey on 7/5/20, 4:29 PM
No one will follow that law. Passing laws that no one will follow and that are against the common good just undermines the authority of government and the letter of the law
by ex_amazon_sde on 7/5/20, 2:20 PM
How does this interacts with FLOSS software used on the phone?
This is an example of "tivoization" and should be prevented by GPLv3
by burundi_coffee on 7/6/20, 12:05 PM
Reparieren das ist schlecht, Neues kaufen, das ist recht! (Repairing is bad, buying new is good, from Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling)
by amelius on 7/5/20, 12:37 PM
How about creating a "derivative work"?
by gnu8 on 7/5/20, 2:42 PM
I am unclear on what is meant by ROM. Don't most smartphones store their operating system on the same flash memory as user data? If it is all on one writable device, then ROM chips don't enter into this discussion.
by prox on 7/5/20, 12:11 PM
What if you build your own phone with a Pi, or similar?
by anthk on 7/5/20, 2:55 PM
This wont last. Once you buy hardware, it's yours.
by quantum_state on 7/5/20, 2:29 PM
We need to take back the rights
by lumberingjack on 7/6/20, 8:44 AM
How are they going to enforce that? Halt aufhören und aufhören show me your phone show me your stock ROM