I don't know if it's of any use commenting on this. Please forgive my strong language when I do. I find it
hilarious how media instantly picked up on this for people to have something to riot upon.
It's so fucking ridiculous. I follow the US right to repair bill for over a year now and nobody gives a shit. The state senate hearings are so overwhelmed by lobbyists that any real argument just goes unheard. And tweeting "THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!" in social networks is
not actively caring for anything.
On July 1st the renewed NAFTA, now called CUSMA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement [or USMCA or T-MEC in Mexico]) came into effect legally. It is really just the same US-protectionism-treaty it's always been, adapted to digital age. Note that this treaty is nothing "new" as of now. It was first drafted on September 30 of 2018, and signed pretty swiftly after that on November 30 of the same year.
Right. Mexico has always been a vast source for the US in terms of work force and resources. Yes, almost all of the concessions for resources like crude oil, gas, water and minerals are in foreign hands. Mostly US companies. Spanish and Germans hold a tight grip on non-primary business like construction, producing industry, retaining dams, highway tolls and similar. Yes that's right, whenever I use a tolled interstate, my money mostly goes to the Spanish. I would even argue that Spain and Germany are the most active countries in Mexico right after the US. Another big player in Mexico is China (surprise surprise, where do they
not play now?)
They own a vast amount of hotel resorts all around the country in the major tourist locations. Also they are the major buyer of minerals for hardware production. And don't be fooled, we're not desert only. Mexico holds unknown amounts of rich minerals in the not yet exploited mountainous regions where I wanted to live with my ex-wife. The only reason they are still un-exploited for minerals (yet they are for gas e.g. [fracking has long been a major business in central Mexico]) is because the infrastructure is so incredibly horrible that even the people have difficulties getting from town to town by car. I love it,...I pray to god that it stays that way.
Sooo,...what's with all this "in Mexico you'll get jailed now for repairing your phone"-shit? Well you know, Mexicans have a few expressions to say that they don't give a shit about a lot of things in life. Explaining these here would be fun, but way too long a post to make you understand. Mexico (as is probably any latin american country) is filled with illegal copies of film and music industry. It's not even that you need to go into some strange back alley shop. On the contrary, anybody who wants to do so just opens a room with a garage-type access to the street (we call them "cortina(s)" [literally: "curtain(s)"]) and
fills it with clones. They even are a frequent sight on the sidewalk like a hot dog stand.
The government will mostly follow the major business players in their country, like anywhere else in the world. So they wanna comply with whatever they get pressured with. (Where the immigration "wall" was just a populist farce, this refers to actual business interests).
In line with this are shops that unlock your phone from phone company locks, so you may use a different companies SIM card, or other types of digital services that are not as used but still offered. And yes, independent repair is a big thing in Mexico. As it is in
any country where people just don't have the money to throw away their digital items every half a year. But: Don't be fooled again here. Mexico ain't
that poor either. Actually the market is
so big, that foreign interests need to keep a tight hold on regulations.
We are like the perfect mix of poor and rich. You can see the most expensive cars and luxury homesteads and yet have some of the poorest indigenous communities of the world mixed right in. What makes this country special is really only its location. And the implications are obvious. On another side note, a lot, and I mean A LOT, of Mexicans think of themselves as so much more than the rest of latin America because they're bonded with US and Europe that much but in the same run HATE on US Americans and everything they say or do. Whereas Europe is the holy land of glory history and success.
So since 1st of this month Mexico is now sort of the experimental "pioneer" in law-enforcement of this whole digital-age repair issue which is getting such a strong drift in the states. The whole discussion in itself is worth opening bills in your country/state and going to each and every hearing it causes. But we people don't do that. We prefer to rant a bit (like me now) and then get back to farting and viewing shit on YouTube (like me now).
What most concerns me about shit like this is that
- Nobody cares to link the actual text of the new bills
- Nobody cares to search for them
- Everybody instantly shit storms against "the bad people above us"
- Everybody instantly comes up with crap making naive people think that they'll now die for building their own PC...
Mexico has neither the financial infrastructure, nor the political or executive integrity to enforce any of this anyways. The only people really affected by this may be those who are selling illegal clones on the streets in major cities and offering phone unlocks in those cities. And not even for being fined legally. But for being blackmailed by a corrupt police force. (Not every Mexican police officer is corrupt, but the corrupt police officers destroy the image of a whole nations executive force). And we, the people are just as corrupt when we don't want to accept ourselves being fined for legal reasons.
So,...with this last sentence I don't wanna go on any more than this really. It's a complex issue. It's been discussed in the states for years now. Nobody gives a shit. I don't give a shit about people crying in the media now.
[/rant off]
P.S.: I don't wanna be a dick and just rant and not provide: Here is the paper of
chapter 20 of the new treaty, which is the one "discussed" right now about the new
intellectual property rights regulations:
In English
In French
In Spanish
(Note how these official publications are written in such a fucked up font that nobody even wants to read these ever. I'm a graphic designer by trade, I would tell you that is is most probably not a coincidence, in a time where speeches are written by trades people and political campaigns driven by marketing and design agencies. But have fun reading, none the less.)
More aftermath: I personally can't even find anything related to the general right to repair in chapter 20, which is the one every rainbow press and twitter expert seems to argue on (please show me wrong, cause I also didn't read it a lot...),...it's just the usual "you agree to commit suicide if you copy film/music made in the USA" (or vice-versa, but Canada and Mexico are not very well known for their HUGE international music and film industry...)
There's a "side letter" about the mutual acceptance on specific cheese type names though...
