Machines
8
// BY K YLE WIENS //March/April 2022 39CO
UR
TE
SY
IF
IXI
T
Digital
Locks Are
Shackling
the Future
of Tinkering
W
HEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, MY FIRST JOB
involved repairing Apple computers for minimum
wage so I could buy a laptop for college. When I finally
scraped together the $1,800 or so for a midrange
iBook, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, two months into
the semester, I dropped my clamshell laptop on its
power port, breaking it. I searched for a service man-
ual online, but I was stymied by repeated copyright takedowns that are
effectively “No Trespassing” signs.
Those takedowns were a clear sign that Apple didn’t want me to
fix my laptop; it had established a defensive perimeter of law yers
to enforce the knowledge ban. As it turns out, Apple isn’t unique
in this—Toshiba notoriously demanded that an Australian repair
website remove all of its online manuals. The farm equipment man-It’s likely been decades
since you last found
a service manual included
in the box with a new tech
product. The Right to
Repair movement
seeks to change that.