Right to Repair -- the campaign to let you fix your stuff -- is off to the races in state capitols once again.
Turns out that people do want to fix there stuff, no matter where they live. Here's a quick 🧵 to give you a rundown:
As the details of the lawsuits against Deere for restriction Right to Repair get litigated, here's my quick explanation of what the fight boils down to, and why getting the remedies right is essential.
Your smaller competitors? they pay full freight. People who run a small business? They pay personal taxes and corporate income taxes, while the big companies pay tax lawyers, not income taxes. Anyway read this: https://t.co/gfpnxZqazm
I used to organize around ending tax loopholes, and it was quite a political education in the American system to learn how little the biggest companies pay in taxes relative to their smaller competitors.
It's just outright scandal. There is no justification.
The bigger you are, the more easily you can play shell games, like selling your patents to Cayman's Island based holding company (that you own), and then pay them royalties equal to 100% of your profits (there are usually more steps than this, but that's one example in gist)
The American Legion sends a letter to both House and Senate Armed Services Committee leadership urging Congress to include the Warrior Right to Repair Act in the fiscal 2027 NDAA, supporting fair access to the technical data and materials needed for the military to maintain and repair its own equipment.
Read more about why this matters: https://t.co/3UYJn6ymgu
We need to push back. The idea that a company would leave a patient on the table without life-saving care because of a dispute over the businesses model is unacceptable, and of course, not the only example I've heard.
great thread on the case, which PIRG also submitted an Amicus in regards to.
This conduct is unfortunately pretty common -- and not just in the medical industry. Printer companies do the same to reprocessed ink cartridges. However, the consequences in medicine are dire.
1. @openmarkets just filed an amicus brief in Innovative Health v. Biosense Webster, a case before the Ninth Circuit with important implications for American healthcare and the fight for the public’s right to repair cars, electronics, and other durable equipment
When we allow monopoly rent seeking to proliferate in our already outrageously overpriced medical system, the result is widespread. Coverage becomes more expensive, and therefore less available. Vulnerable rural hospitals close.
I can't believe people pay for ads on X. Some of these ads show another ad before showing their own ad ... How much does ET have to spend for AT&T to run an ad over their ad? Does ET get a cut of the ad revenue from AT&T?
Just another day wading through a sea of slop
If you believe that we have a truth problem in this country, I think you need to come to terms with how commonly industry does this, and how much it erodes our civic process. It's just so gross.
This text went out and was forwarded to me. The REPAIR Act lets a car's owner control its data to some degree, including the right to ask that data to be deleted. The Auto Alliance is trying to get people to see it as a threat to privacy to protect their financial interests
Tomorrow, May 20th, 13 Kindle models are going to be cut off from the Amazon Kindle store. Nathan Proctor breaks down what you need to know. #RightToRepair https://t.co/WkTRn0iPEF
The prevailing message about AI is 1) we need to win, and 2) if you don't compete you will lose, and be left out.
I don't want to compete. I want to live. I don't like AI stuff, I like human stuff. None of this seems necessary or beneficial.
The AI boosters like to assert that people have very unsophisticated views of AI, that the objections are more based in fear or other more primitive emotions. I have starting asking people what they think (as an organizer I talk to a LOT of strangers).
I find people inciteful!
It's being handled in a way that seems to demand we trust in its controlling executives, who not only do not seem personally trustworthy, most with power in our society seem to be racking up moral and ethical black marks.