Louis Rossmann and Right to Repair - TLDR

Proposed right to repair legislation tends to be too complicated to understand, but this is it's main goal: let replacement parts and schematics legally enter the free market.

Louis Rossmann repairs Apple products in New York. His business has 10+ technicians, who replace monitors, keyboards and other components in Apple laptops, BUT Louis, Paul and a few others also repair laptop mainboards by replacing liquid - or otherwise - damaged components on them.

Today, in order to repair mainboards, they have to take components off of donor mainboards, which are recovered from recycling bins near Apple factories in China. They have no access to new components from Apple, nor from Apple suppliers. Not even Apple authorized repair shops are allowed to repair mainboards for one single reason: they want you to buy a new product instead.

These components, needed for repairing mainboards, hold no trade secrets nor IP (Intellectual Property). If Apple would allow suppliers to sell these SMDs (Surface Mount Devices) to repair shops, then most defective mainboards could be restored to their original condition for just tens of dollars, without compromising encrypted data on them, which could cause legal problems for Apple or for the owners. This wouldn't require Apple to spend money on anything extra, just give written permission for suppliers to sell the parts on the free market.


Proposed right to repair legislation tends to be too complicated to understand, but this is it's main goal: let replacement parts and schematics legally enter the free market.