Hacker News Reader

Right to repair means that if the company A making the product buys a component from another company B, then A cannot forbid B from selling the same component to a repair shop. It does not mean that Apple is no longer allowed to glue their battery into the iPad.

View on HN

So that means if Apple buys their chips from TSMC, then TSMC can now sell Apples chips directly to whoever wants them?

It’s not surprising it’s a dead bill. That leaves a nice opportunity for TSMC to capture a bunch of Apple’s margin without having had to do any of the chip R&D.

No. TSMC does own that IP. This is about instances where the IP is owned by company B. I don't know how the legislation would work in a case like that. Most likely Apple would be required to sell replacement parts to everyone, rather than only to its licensed repair shops.

In any case this is a theoretical point, it's usually some stupid little chip on the motherboard that got wet and rusty, not the CPU. Or the screen broke. Or the battery is too old.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com