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Hm. Wondering how planned obsolescence (PO) can be fought. The first step of solving a problem is defining it. Maybe if there was a website where enough peopl

Hm. Wondering how planned obsolescence (PO) can be fought. The first step of solving a problem is defining it. Maybe if there was a website where enough people self-reported device failures out of spite, wonder if that would help pinpoint PO cases. Incidentally it may solve the fake review issue. An open source bug reporting tool but for IRL failures. BBB comes to mind. Just a random and free idea.

InitialLastName 5y ago
If your friendly neighborhood government has a fully empowered consumer protection agency, said agency can enforce reasonable warranties on products. If companies have to replace any appliance (or whatever) that fails within 10 (or whatever) years, you can bet they'll make them more reliable.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y ago
  > you can bet they'll make them more reliable. Or a lot more expensive. And if you don’t care about the 10 year reliability, you are being hurt by having to pay more.
fmajid 5y ago
France has outlawed the practice as part of an environmental law.
- ineedasername 5y ago
  Easy to outlaw, difficult to prove unless the law also mandated minimum usable lifetimes & warranties for products. A company doesn't have to build in some sort of off switch to force obsolescence, all they have to do is use cheap parts to cut costs and put the burden of paying for maintenance on the buyer. Basically, planned obsolescence can be indistinguishable from a product that is cheaply made.
- simonh 5y ago
  They also outlawed managing cpu utilisation in order to prolong device lifetimes, so apparently it’s illegal to try to extend device lifetime and also illegal not to. Robespierre and Cardinal Richelieu would be so proud.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  Yeah, and manufacturers are allowed to assign their own repairability indexes to their products. That's how Apple ended up scoring the Macbook an 8, and the iPhone a 7.
smoldesu 5y ago
> The first step of solving a problem is defining it. Yep, and the issue is that most people will run from the opportunity to make their relationship with technology more complicated. Most people don't care if you can't replace the battery on the new iPhone because they intend to replace it in 2-3 years. As sorrowing of a statement as it is to say, it's hard to get first-class citizens to care about issues that don't affect them. In other news, the earth is round and gravity pulls downwards.
FridayoLeary 5y ago
how about forcing tech companies to state at the time of sale how long they plan on maintaining/ updating their product/program. Also, requiring hardware manufacturers to provide an estimate of the expected lifespan in cycles of their product, and/components. Figures that are too conservative must be punished with the same level of strictness as overestimations in order to maintain the integrity of the law. Obviously, these laws will only apply to the tech sector, but it's a start.

InitialLastName 5y ago

If your friendly neighborhood government has a fully empowered consumer protection agency, said agency can enforce reasonable warranties on products. If companies have to replace any appliance (or whatever) that fails within 10 (or whatever) years, you can bet they'll make them more reliable.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 5y ago
> you can bet they'll make them more reliable. Or a lot more expensive. And if you don’t care about the 10 year reliability, you are being hurt by having to pay more.

fmajid 5y ago

France has outlawed the practice as part of an environmental law.

ineedasername 5y ago
Easy to outlaw, difficult to prove unless the law also mandated minimum usable lifetimes & warranties for products. A company doesn't have to build in some sort of off switch to force obsolescence, all they have to do is use cheap parts to cut costs and put the burden of paying for maintenance on the buyer. Basically, planned obsolescence can be indistinguishable from a product that is cheaply made.
simonh 5y ago
They also outlawed managing cpu utilisation in order to prolong device lifetimes, so apparently it’s illegal to try to extend device lifetime and also illegal not to. Robespierre and Cardinal Richelieu would be so proud.
smoldesu 5y ago
Yeah, and manufacturers are allowed to assign their own repairability indexes to their products. That's how Apple ended up scoring the Macbook an 8, and the iPhone a 7.

smoldesu 5y ago

> The first step of solving a problem is defining it. Yep, and the issue is that most people will run from the opportunity to make their relationship with technology more complicated. Most people don't care if you can't replace the battery on the new iPhone because they intend to replace it in 2-3 years. As sorrowing of a statement as it is to say, it's hard to get first-class citizens to care about issues that don't affect them. In other news, the earth is round and gravity pulls downwards.

FridayoLeary 5y ago

how about forcing tech companies to state at the time of sale how long they plan on maintaining/ updating their product/program. Also, requiring hardware manufacturers to provide an estimate of the expected lifespan in cycles of their product, and/components. Figures that are too conservative must be punished with the same level of strictness as overestimations in order to maintain the integrity of the law. Obviously, these laws will only apply to the tech sector, but it's a start.