Apple stymies right-to-repair bills in CA, Ontario.

I didn’t know too much about this, because after my flirtation with the iPad back in the day I went back to using PCs and whanot. But apparently Apple is playing the lobbyist game in California and Ontario, where bills that would permit third-party repairs of brand name electronics were up. And the reason Apple gave? Hold on, you’ll love it:

According to Motherboard, Apple, along with lobbyists from tech trade organization CompTIA, reportedly told legislators that owners trying to fix their own iPhones could hurt themselves in the process if they damaged the lithium-ion battery.

…Maybe if you chewed on it. Or, I don’t know, stabbed it a few times with a conductive fork or something. Or ground it up and tried to use it for impromptu pharmacology?

Gonna be honest, here: I concede that there may be a more nuanced explanation for what’s going on. But in my actually relevant and highly cynical experience from the Before Times, when an org gives this absurd a reason for opposing something, there’s usually another reason that they don’t want to mention. In this case, the answer is obvious to everybody who I linked to above: Apple doesn’t want people fixing Apple products. Which they can’t come out and say, it seems. Wonder why?

Note: I do not actually wonder why.

Moe Lane

PS: I know that the other brand-name companies don’t want us fixing their products, either. But at least the Android companies have competitors. If you like Apple’s software but are getting tired of their BS, well, you have a problem.