Yes! Spread the word too. Also, if you know a professional that might be able to help him out with the legal/politics/etc., consider reaching out. He's a sharp guy but it's still a tough task and he is going to need all the help he can get. And so does our planet.
He's literally spent >8 years of his life posting free videos teaching people how to repair electronics, which is a worthy cause in itself. And he's been doing this actively against his own business's interests. And if you watch him you know he hardly ever even asks for financial help. He's put up with a lot of battles through the years and he's had trillion dollar companies try to shut his business down, and his no-nonsense attitude has kept him going to the point where he has a respectable business that now lets him devote 2 more years of his own life to fight this cause. You really feel your evaluation of him is accurate?
Oh come on. You're saying he's posting free educational board repair videos to advertise for his brand? Do you watch those videos? Like this one [1]? They're boring as hell. Their target audience is his competitors. You don't see the world flooding with repair shops doing the same thing if it's so profitable, do you? There's so much better advertising he could do if that was his goal. And I haven't even touched on everything else he has done to help other people get started doing board repairs.
It's such a cynical and uncharitable distortion of reality to claim he's doing this for advertising. What's a guy supposed to do to make it even less of an advertisement if he wants to post tutoring videos and pay it forward? Does he need to talk trash about his own business & skills too (which he sometimes does btw)? While simultaneously claiming he's good enough that people should learn from him? With this kind of logic it's practically impossible for a mere mortal to start a business toward a good cause and provide free tutoring to his competitors without getting accused of doing it for his own self interest.
Anytime someone does something good it works out to be advertising for their brand, whether that brand is a company or just a personal brand. Unless they do it in a way no one ever hears about it. In which case no one will ever be discussing it.
So your comment is less than trivial, unless you’re implying that it’s a bad thing to do something good if you benefit from it even in the slightest.
I suggest changing the title to "Crowdfunding a Direct Ballot Initiative for Right to Repair". The current title is probably not very attention-grabbing because it makes it sound like the video is just about Louis Rossmann's personal plans for the next couple years. If you don't know who Louis is, you'd probably overlook it without a second thought.
I didn't see this in time, and I don't know if it's OK to try this, but I guess someone can try posting the GoFundMe page as another link with that title?
It took me much longer to figure out that real change comes from policy work, legislation.
Activists don't have many case studies, role models, mentors. Rossmann just sort of bootstrapped himself.
$6m is a big lift. And I'm bearish about the initiative process, for this issue, at this time. It may prove a good move for the PR and awareness. And there's no shortage of consultants who will happily slurp up campaign dollars for no real benefit. (Noob groups and candidates are bread & butter for consultants.)
I anticipate the Repair Preservation Group Action Fund will step back, come up with another strategy. Maybe a 501c3. Run the ALEC playbook. Model legislation. Find state level allies, like farmers. Pick some low hanging fruit. Get friendly legislators to file their legislation. Do the stump speechifying and speaker tour circuit.
I really like Louis' approach to Right to Repair. He doesn't want to force manufacturers to re-design products for repairability or make their designs open source. He doesn't even want to force manufacturers to offer repair services or to supply parts. He just wants to stop manufacturers from going out of their way to screw over independent repair.
For instance, a manufacturer shouldn't be obligated to sell a part exclusively to another manufacturer in order to do business with them. Third parties should be allowed to ship used goods and parts through customs without having the seized as "counterfeits". Third parties shouldn't have to "partner" with manufacturers just to be able to buy parts. Third parties should be permitted to share technical details about a product (eg independently-developed board views or circuit diagrams).
That's what I want to see. I'd much rather see independent repair be given better legal protection than have a bunch of half-baked, hard-to-enforce regulations piled onto manufacturers who will inevitably find loopholes anyways.
The problem is, the market as a whole does not value repairability, so most products end up not being repairable - which ends up being a competitive advantage for them because you sell more units. Repairability becomes a disadvantage, left to market forces.
But the market do value durability, which is not something most product end up with.
Repairability is not something we want, but as a result of real world trade offs or manufacturer refuse to take durability seriously. ( Look at Apple MBP 2016 ) Apple could have repair it themselves, but it is increasingly clear Apple Store tries to push for buying new product over simply fix.
Mmh It should value it, but I’m not so sure that it does beyond a fairly low threshold. People dont like buying cheap things that break easily; once you are out of the worst options bag... I’ll keep it anecdotal and say that I haven't seen anyone ponder relative durability of different brands, ever. Even on professional review articles. Where is the discussion of surface vs. Ipad duranbility?
This guy has been fighting for repair for years. He shows just how wasteful companies like Apple are by always quoting a $700 motherboard instead of fixing common board failures. Yes, macbooks have common component level failure points that apple knows, doesn't fix, and don't want you to be able to fix it.
Independent repair has to take to the underground to operate and provide working class people affordable services.
I hope the rest of the tech youtuber jump on this especially LTT and other PC/phone hardware channels.
Unlike youtubers planting 20 million trees this would actually be useful.
23 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 70.1 ms ] threadDonation link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/lets-get-right-to-repair-passed
Pitch for non-techies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Npd_xDuNi9k
I have a macbook pro[1]. Who am I going to send it to if not Rossmann?
[1] Assuming it's possible to get repairs for it.
It's such a cynical and uncharitable distortion of reality to claim he's doing this for advertising. What's a guy supposed to do to make it even less of an advertisement if he wants to post tutoring videos and pay it forward? Does he need to talk trash about his own business & skills too (which he sometimes does btw)? While simultaneously claiming he's good enough that people should learn from him? With this kind of logic it's practically impossible for a mere mortal to start a business toward a good cause and provide free tutoring to his competitors without getting accused of doing it for his own self interest.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR94QHGlYRs
So your comment is less than trivial, unless you’re implying that it’s a bad thing to do something good if you benefit from it even in the slightest.
If anything, his non repair videos are pretty awful emotional clickbait, but hey at least they are not advertising, right guys?
That said, his actions around right to repair have been consistent and productive. I see them as a overall positive thing for society.
Like most people things are seldom simple, and neither is he in my opinion. However I still choose to support his work on right to repair.
It took me much longer to figure out that real change comes from policy work, legislation.
Activists don't have many case studies, role models, mentors. Rossmann just sort of bootstrapped himself.
$6m is a big lift. And I'm bearish about the initiative process, for this issue, at this time. It may prove a good move for the PR and awareness. And there's no shortage of consultants who will happily slurp up campaign dollars for no real benefit. (Noob groups and candidates are bread & butter for consultants.)
I anticipate the Repair Preservation Group Action Fund will step back, come up with another strategy. Maybe a 501c3. Run the ALEC playbook. Model legislation. Find state level allies, like farmers. Pick some low hanging fruit. Get friendly legislators to file their legislation. Do the stump speechifying and speaker tour circuit.
For instance, a manufacturer shouldn't be obligated to sell a part exclusively to another manufacturer in order to do business with them. Third parties should be allowed to ship used goods and parts through customs without having the seized as "counterfeits". Third parties shouldn't have to "partner" with manufacturers just to be able to buy parts. Third parties should be permitted to share technical details about a product (eg independently-developed board views or circuit diagrams).
That's what I want to see. I'd much rather see independent repair be given better legal protection than have a bunch of half-baked, hard-to-enforce regulations piled onto manufacturers who will inevitably find loopholes anyways.
Repairability is not something we want, but as a result of real world trade offs or manufacturer refuse to take durability seriously. ( Look at Apple MBP 2016 ) Apple could have repair it themselves, but it is increasingly clear Apple Store tries to push for buying new product over simply fix.
Independent repair has to take to the underground to operate and provide working class people affordable services.
This is something so very worth getting behind.