Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellphones Are Throwaways'

guest · Oct 26, 2019

Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellphones Are Throwaways'
A New Hampshire lawmaker suggested that we shouldn't fix the $1,000 devices we buy and instead we will "just get a new one."
October 25, 2019
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/...repair-bill-because-cellphones-are-throwaways

The New Hampshire State House rejected the Digital Fair Repair Act earlier this week in part thanks to a representative who seems to think that cell phones are literally garbage that no one should bother repairing.

The bill would have forced manufacturers such as Apple to share repair manuals and parts with independent repair stores. House members didn’t kill the bill, but sent it back to committee for a year of interim study, citing security concerns and, in the words of Rep. John Potucek (R-Derry) the ubiquity, cheapness, and—in his opinion—disposability of new smart phones.

“In the near future, cellphones are throwaways,” Potucek said, according to New Hampshire Business Review. “Everyone will just get a new one.”
That is, of course, the problem that right to repair is trying to solve.
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Right to repair advocates aren’t buying Potucek’s reasoning.

"If you told someone 15 years ago that by 2019 cellphones would cost $1,000 and be 'throwaway' device—and you wouldn't even bother to replace batteries—that very idea would seem completely absurd,” Nathan Proctor, the Director of the Campaign for the Right to Repair at US PIRG, told Motherboard in an email.
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New Hampshire Business Review: NH House panel votes to nix right-to-repair consumer electronics bill

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Lawmaker Kills Repair Bill Because 'Cellphones Are Throwaways'

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