But I don't know if there is a pragmatic way to approach that. I mean, I could also say "it should be illegal to produce e-waste", but what does that mean and how do we actually do it?
Simple things like "if an electronic device, through no fault of the owner, can no longer perform it's main function, then the owner is due a full refund. A company may escape the refund by placing all software required to run the product in the public domain."
It'd miss cases like fly by night companies, but you could catch big players like google disabling their thermostats for non-hardware reasons.
that seems like it can be addressed by making sure that the regulators who enforce these laws have more object permanence than a 6 month old baby.
like, if I try to sell a "metal sculpture" that by sheer coincidence is capable of firing 9mm ammunition, I'm going to have the ATF knocking on my door real quick, and they're not going to be fooled by me claiming "no that's art"
Why would the ATF go after them instead of YOU?
But then again, one problem is that Big Tech has enough money and power to completely overwhelm the regulators...
Open source windows 10 would cannibalise Microsoft’s long term objectives.
Let’s all not forget the ones who wouldn’t want this to happen are the same ones who hold all the power. No government will ever force this.
I think this is an important point: it's already impossible to enforce antitrust laws because TooBigTech has the power, and when an entity big enough tries to regulate (like the EU), then the US government prevents them from doing it.
Equally, nothing stops you running XP on the device forever. (There are plenty devices out there that are.)
So this whole line of comments is somewhat off-topic to when hardware is bricked.