I think if this law is passed, companies will start subscription service where you'll be renting phones instead of owning then. Then onus and exclusive right for repair/replacement will stay with the smartphone company.
If you're currently licensing the software on your phone instead of buying a copy of it, then the situation today isn't really better.
You pay the full cost of the device, but you don't own it, and companies retain the exclusive right for repair/replacement. But, they don't have any onus for repair/replacement, and you need to pay full price for a new device if your current one gets damaged.
An honest rental system might be preferable. At least then people would know what they're getting into. At least when I rent a device, there's some real obligation for the actual owner to fix it when it breaks. At least then companies who legitimately sell their devices and don't block repair efforts would have a marketing edge.
By all means, let people rent software. Just make sure companies are correctly marketing that as a rental.
Aren’t we just allowing the idea of licensing contract overwhelm ourselves for little reasons?
When you buy a book, you own the hardware but not IP. You’re “licensed a nonexclusive irrevocable right to use, that allows reverse engineering but without sublicensing clauses” aka you can’t xerox the full book and sell it for $5. When you buy a sandwich, same except hardware can be eaten.
Really the deal of “mandatory licensed” software is that you can’t pirate it, and that should already be covered by laws. It should not require a million page contract and those contract mustn’t be much more than blank pages.
My u-verse dsl modem, owned by AT&T and rented to me, got an update pushed to it recently with lots of telemetry. no recourse. Comcast does similar things with their cable modems, such as opening them up as semi-public access points.
That's the classic predicted outcome for any new regulation... which rarely turns out to be true. Consumers will want to buy their own phones and as long as that is true, businesses will adapt to the new regulations to satisfy this need.
