
Repairing your smartphone or installing a ROM will now be a crime in Mexico - nan0
https://www.xataka.com.mx/legislacion-y-derechos/reparar-tu-smartphone-instalarle-rom-sera-delito-mexico-nueva-ley-que-proteje-candados-digitales-explicada
======
class4behavior
This is an unfortunate win against the right to repair, which is a concerning
issue everywhere around the world. Just recently, in Norway its last court
instance found a repair shop in breach of Apple's trademark as they used
imported third-party displays.

This stifles competition as corporations are in control for how long hardware
or software remain usable and who can provide alternative solutions. In the US
this topic flared up again once the farmers felt the consequences of this. Now
their modern vehicles and tools either have to be replaced a lot more often or
they can't choose where to seek replacements.

~~~
jacquesm
That Norwegian decision is a travesty as presented here, how can a _repair_
infringe on a trademark and how on Earth did that not lead to an appeal. Using
aftermarket parts is a well established practice in automotive, I see
absolutely no reason why that would not extend to phones. Are they going to
demand cars are only repaired with OEM parts as well?

~~~
izacus
The practice in automotive is there due to historical legacy - it would never
be allowed in modern world. If anything, the carmakers have started to prevent
you from doing your own repairs by demanding their own proprietary software to
pair car controller modules. That software is licensed only to dealers and
trying to use it outside those licensed conditions is a DMCA violation.

With BMW pioneering car microtransactions
([https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311332/bmw-in-car-
purcha...](https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/2/21311332/bmw-in-car-purchase-
heated-seats-software-over-the-air-updates)) you can be sure that the
corporations will bear down the DMCA/copyright/trademark lawyer hammer on
anyone that even thinks of trying to add features to such cars without their
consent. The times where you could upgrade your car with aftermarket parts are
coming to an end with the sound of cheers for Apple and other corporations
adding DRM everywhere to prevent your own repairs and upgrades.

~~~
jacquesm
Well, fuck BMW then.

~~~
throwlogon
For many reasons. Anecdotally every BMW owner I know is constantly taking
their car in for repairs.

~~~
izacus
They were also the only ones charging yearly fee to add CarPlay client to
their infotainment.

~~~
raxxorrax
They are also in favor of cleaning up the net in favor of advertisers.

------
jtvjan
The exceptions list mentions:

> When the purpose is to test, investigate, or correct the security of a
> computer, system, or computer network.

> When a person wants their device to stop collecting personal information.

Aren't those the reasons most people install custom ROMs? For getting security
updates past the life of the smartphone, and to stop Google tracking you.

~~~
yummypaint
I think it's more about boiling the frog. Temper the initial outrage with
exceptions, let people get used to the idea that repairs are wrong but it's
sometime ok, then remove exceptions later. It's the same long game the inkjet
printer people have been unfortunately winning for a while now.

~~~
tomcooks
Exactly, it all starts with exceptions until it's time for "think about the
children", "nothing to hide, right?" and it's easygame towards "safety of our
people"

~~~
as1mov
When it comes to phones, the excuse is "security" of the phone, locking down
the device as much as possible. And it's sad how that sentiment is echoed even
on forums like HN. Apple as already a closed walled garden, Android is quickly
moving that way with each release.

------
anonms-coward
It seems stallman had the foresight to predict things like this in 1997. I
think the days where one needs to be licensed to use a debugger might not be
far away.

~~~
gspr
> I think the days where one needs to be licensed to use a debugger might not
> be far away.

GNU/Linux and the BSDs have never before looked so essential to the survival
of computing as we know it.

~~~
matheusmoreira
What good is Linux and free software if the hardware won't let us run the
programs we want? Computers could ship with a preconfigured Linux distribution
that does all sorts of abusive things and since we wouldn't have the
cryptographic keys to the machine it's impossible to do anything about it.

In the future, all computers could very well be just like video game consoles:
devices which refuse to run software not cryptographically signed by their
true owners. Software development kits are restricted to corporations and
likely provised under strict licenses and NDAs. Users are supposed to just
consume content within the narrow context defined by corporations. We're not
supposed to create or change anything. They don't want us to be able to run
software they don't approve of.

~~~
drummer
Regarding the hardware, that is why we should support and use open and free
hardware solutions, such as the Librem phone etc.

~~~
ifmpx
We need to go much lower. Down to more manufacturers of POWER9 or RISC-V based
systems.

------
barney54
It appears this is a result of the harmonization of laws between Mexico,
Canada, and the US.

~~~
gruez
Repairing phones and installing custom ROMs are illegal in us/canada?

~~~
blendergeek
Under section 1201 of the Digital Millenium Copyright, it would be illegal to
install a custom ROM or repair your phone without permission from the
manufacturer.

However, the Copyright office get to make official exceptions to the law and
they made an exception for jailbreaking a phone. I'm not sure about repairing
or installing custom ROMs. Those might fall into different categories.

~~~
inetsee
Wouldn't the recent "Right to Repair" push in the US counter any efforts to
prohibit repairs by independent repair businesses?

------
cs702
Sometimes it feels as if politicians and lawmakers are drawing inspiration
from the direst scenarios envisioned in the science fiction literature.

Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing the
kind of tinkering, exploration, repurposing, interconnecting, i.e., hacking,
that leads to innovation?

Do they really not understand the long-term consequences of preventing new
kinds of competition from "garage upstarts" that find new, better, cheaper
ways of doing thins?

Do they really think this is beneficial for everyone in the long run?

~~~
nurettin
People are tinkering with phones in order to circumvent law and make quick,
short term profit at the cost of tax paying citizens. None of the noble
reasons you'd think of apply.

~~~
imtringued
You're overgeneralizing. A company has a limited amount of employees that are
working full time. Meanwhile the millions of people who install ROMs may spend
a week tinkering and then it's over for them. The chance that a few thousand
of them become interested in making their own ROMs (and therefore become
software engineers) will become zero thanks to this law.

~~~
nurettin
Governments should not enforce international trade agreements on the off-
chance that someone somewhere might have an epiphany while installing illegal
software? No.

~~~
samus
The term "illegal" deserves some definition. Arguing that something is
forbidden because it is illegal is circular reasoning.

~~~
nurettin
I would appreciate if you provide a definition of illegal that doesn't amount
to "prohibited by law". In this case, the set of laws that are placed in order
to protect international trade agreements.

------
gchamonlive
We need FOSS phones and a big enough company to implement the project and mass
produce it to lower costs.

~~~
HeckFeck
I'm optimistic with Pine64's PinePhone. It's bolstered numerous Free Software
projects who aim to produce mobile phone OSes, like UBPorts and PostmarketOS.
Hopefully the project proves that a workable and open smartphone can succeed.

Also, even if it isn't a _big_ success, the devs of those OS projects will
have experience building a Linux environment for a smartphone. There'll be
more documented knowledge of how to implement SMS, calling, powersaving,
telephoning and the rest. So even if it sinks, we still stand to gain.

------
FpUser
> _Do they really think this is beneficial for everyone in the long run_

Do you really think that politicians are concerned about "everyone's
benefits"? I think they do not give a flying f..k about it. They're being
lobbied by big corps and then after their terms they get cushy jobs in the
same corps. Joe/Jane Does are only remembered at the time of the vote.

------
jobigoud
Is it really "your" smartphone if you are not allowed to modify it?

~~~
HeckFeck
If the telcos had their way, once your contract ended the phone would vaporise
before your eyes.

~~~
aesthesia
If that's the case, why don't they already do this? It's totally feasible to
design a phone that will brick itself when your contract ends. There's no
legal impediment to doing it either.

~~~
HeckFeck
Don't give them the idea. I can imagine the reasoning: "We've had disposable
cameras that were never truly the customer's property, may as well extend it
to phones."

It could be argued that Apple were already doing this. Remember their updates
that knowingly slowed down older phones? They claimed it was for performance
reasons, but nowhere informed the user of this practice... Src:
[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171222/15380038868/apple...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20171222/15380038868/apple-
facing-bunch-lawsuits-after-admitting-it-slows-down-older-devices-insisting-
good-reason.shtml)

~~~
gdulli
I agree with that. The reason I'm on Android is because my only iPhone became
unusably slow 2 years into its life after a new OS update came out. I've never
retired any other phone I've had for performance reasons, and I've kept them
3-4 years

------
aurizon
Slim hates true competition, or even any competition

------
jostmey
No one will follow that law. Passing laws that no one will follow and that are
against the common good just undermines the authority of government and the
letter of the law

~~~
deelly
Heh, say that to Russia..

------
ex_amazon_sde
How does this interacts with FLOSS software used on the phone?

This is an example of "tivoization" and should be prevented by GPLv3

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Do any phones use GPLv3 code? Closest that I know of is Linux under v2, but
Android generally is permissively licensed.

~~~
zifnab06
The large majority of Android is Apache 2, rich requires attribution but no
release of source code.

------
burundi_coffee
Reparieren das ist schlecht, Neues kaufen, das ist recht! (Repairing is bad,
buying new is good, from Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling)

------
amelius
How about creating a "derivative work"?

------
gnu8
I am unclear on what is meant by ROM. Don't most smartphones store their
operating system on the same flash memory as user data? If it is all on one
writable device, then ROM chips don't enter into this discussion.

~~~
compressedgas
The device contains memory that is only writable during ROM image flashing.
The rest of the time this storage is not writable. So it is effectively ROM
even if it isn't implemented by actual read only memory.

------
prox
What if you build your own phone with a Pi, or similar?

~~~
unnouinceput
Then you become the new Apple and rule the world. And you'll see all these
politicians licking your shoes.

~~~
prox
If it was that easy!

------
anthk
This wont last. Once you buy hardware, it's yours.

~~~
corty
This will last. Similar legislation like the DMCA has lasted for 20 years now.

------
quantum_state
We need to take back the rights

------
lumberingjack
How are they going to enforce that? Halt aufhören und aufhören show me your
phone show me your stock ROM

~~~
samus
It's one more way to charge people who are suspected of something. Sometimes
law enforcement actually has a difficult time coming up with a charge that
sticks. If the phone does not respond to a backdoor that law makers require
vendors to deploy, they would have a convenient case.

