They won't even let independent repair shops compete with their centrally planned, monopoly service programs:

pluralistic.net/2022/05/22/app…

Much less allow competitors to create rival app stores that compete for users and apps:

pluralistic.net/2024/02/06/spo…

They won't even refurbishers re-sell parts from phones and laptops that are beyond repair:

shacknews.com/article/108049/a…

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Apple repair critic Louis Rossmann takes on U.S. Customs 'counterfeit' battery seizure

Rossmann plans to fight the decision tooth and nail in a video he created outlining the situation.

^{Brittany Vincent (Shacknews)}

And they take the position that if you *do* manage to acquire a donor part from a dead phone or laptop, that it is a *felony* - under the same DRM laws that keep Amazon's racket intact - to install them in a busted device:

theverge.com/2024/3/27/2409704…

"Rip, mix, burn" is great when it's Apple doing the ripping, mixing and burning, but let anyone attempt to return the favor and the company turns crybaby, whining to CBPl and feds to protect itself from being done unto as it did.

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Oregon’s governor signs right-to-repair law that bans ‘parts pairing’

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek has now signed one of the strongest US right-to-repair bills into law, SB 1596, which bans “parts pairing” by manufacturers.

^{Jess Weatherbed (The Verge)}

Should we blame the paperclip-maximizing Slow AI corps for attempting to escape disruptive capitalism's chaotic vortex? I don't think it matters: I don't deplore this whiny cowardice because it's hypocritical. I hate it because it's a ripoff that screws workers, customers and the environment.

But there *is* someone I *do* blame: the governments that pass the IP laws that allow Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other tech giants shut down anyone who wants to disrupt them.

16/

Those governments are supposed to work for *us*, and yet they passed laws - like Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act - that felonize reverse-engineering, modding and tinkering. These laws create an enshittogenic environment, which produces enshittification:

pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/rec…

Bad enough that the US passed these laws and exposed Americans to the predatory conduct of tech enshittifiers.

17/

But then the US Trade Representative went slithering all over the world, insisting that every country the US trades with pass their own versions of the laws, turning their citizens into an all-you-can-steal buffet for US tech gougers:

pluralistic.net/2020/07/31/hal…

18/

This system of global "felony contempt of business-model" statutes came into being because any country that wanted to export to the USA without facing tariffs *had to* pass a law banning reverse-engineering of tech products in order to get a deal. That's why farmers all over the world can't fix their tractors without paying John Deere hundreds of dollars for each repair the *farmer* makes to their *own* tractor:

pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/abo…

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But with Trump imposing tariffs on US trading partners, there is now *zero* reason to keep those laws on the books around the world, and every reason to get rid of them. Every country *could* have the kind of disruptors who start a business with just a little capital, aimed directly at the highest margins of these stupidly profitable, S&P500-leading US tech giants, treating those margins as opportunities.

20/

They could jailbreak HP printers so they take any ink-cartridge; jailbreak iPhones so they can run any app store; jailbreak tractors so farmers can fix them without paying rent to Deere; jailbreak every make and model of every car so that any mechanic can diagnose and fix it, with compatible parts from any manufacturer. These aren't just nice things to do for the people in your country's borders: they are *businesses*, massive investment opportunities.

21/

The first country that perfects the universal car diagnosing tool will sell one to every mechanic in the world - along with subscriptions that keep up with new cars and new manufacturer software updates. That country could have the relationship to car repairs that Finland had to mobile phones for a decade, when Nokia disrupted the markets of every landline carrier in the world:

pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/fri…

22/

The US companies that could be disrupted thanks to the Trump tariffs are directly implicated in the rise of Trumpism. Take Tesla: the company's insane valuation is a bet by the markets that Tesla will be able to charge monthly fees for subscription features and one-off fees for software upgrades, which will be wiped out when your car changes hands, triggering a fresh set of payments from the next owner.

23/

That business model is *wholly* dependent on making it a crime to reverse-engineer and mod a Tesla. A move-fast-and-break-things disruptor who offered mechanics a tool that let them charge $50 (or €50!) to unlock *every* Tesla feature, forever, could treat Musk's margins as their opportunity - and what an opportunity it would be!

That's how you hurt Musk - not by being performatively aghast at his Nazi salutes. You kick that guy *right in the dongle*:

pluralistic.net/2025/02/26/urs…

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The act of unilaterally intervening in a market, product or sector - that is, "moving fast and breaking things" - is not intrinsically amoral. There's plenty of stuff out there that needs breaking. The problem isn't disruption, per se. Don't weep for the collapse of long-distance telephone calls! The problem comes when the disruptor can declare an end to history, declare themselves to be eternal kings, and block anyone from disrupting *them*.

25/

If Uber had been able to nuke the entire taxi medallion system - which was dominated by speculators who charged outrageous rents to drivers - and *then* been smashed by driver co-ops who modded gig-work apps to keep the fares for themselves, that would have been amazing:

pluralistic.net/2022/02/21/con…

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