letmedance Loc: Walnut, Ca.

So right, wait until you 7 plus decades of experience, you will then realize that you are not as smart as you thought you were.

WNYShooter Loc: WNY

LOL, These repair part/service manual issues have nothing to do with anyone stealing technology. Trust me, I have worked in a few large medical and aerospace manufacturers, and they usually have a bunch of competitor product in R&D for reverse engineering the first day of release, sometimes even before. There are very few unknown secrets in products once in the market. Typically, the hardest to reverse engineer is the build/assembly process, that's usually where the real secrets lay.

The real reason companies limit access to their repair parts and knowledge bases is twofold. One, parts and repairs are a revenue stream. Two, because they retain more control on product quality. Not only does it help manage product reputation and customer satisfaction, but is also allows for direct feedback of product deficiencies and failure modes to their engineering folks.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Well, yes you can make it silly! Parts for my Model A..... If you are all OK with buying products that last a couple years (or even less), fail, cannot be repaired due to no parts and no business's left in the repair world, then ignore this. Coming from decades in manufacturing, I know it can be done, but it does not fit the economic model of creating products that are designed to fail soon, that model perpetuates itself, at our great cost. If throwing away billions of (sometimes very expensive) electronic devices every year is your idea of a sustainable world, and sustainable economy, WOW! Then if you treat everything that way....what a pile of garbage we will leave for our progeny......

I'm not saying decades of support, but if I spend my good money on new - any device you would buy, that is in some way an investment....washer, dryer, motorized vehicle of any kind, TV/Computers/phones/cameras, etc. I feel I have the right to expect support for a reasonable amount of time.... say 10 years. If I can't count on support I won't buy it.

As WYNshooter notes, there is an entire revenue stream in the replacement parts and repair services....but is isn't as easy to have sustainable ops, as it is to perform planned obsolescence.

Regulation: You know what, if the majority of manufacturers are unregulated, then they have no interest in anything other than sales...why would they, why would they even care?.... They would sell you poison and tell you it is good for you (like the great majority of processed foods - a slow death sentence for you, your family, your pets, etc. etc.). Like most mines, great environmental harm is done by mining irresponsibly, because it is not cost effective (for them) to be worried about what flows down stream, they don't care, and the politicians they pay off just look the other way. You get to drink the water that is tainted by the run-off. Big Corporate food processors (slaughter houses and processing plants), you never want to be downstream from one of those, or live near where they dump.

Cities and town who rather than keep up their waste and waste water treatment systems, just flush the stuff into the rivers and estuaries when no one is looking, sometimes not treated at all....guess what, happens every day, all over the US , not to mention the rest of the world.

Yes - it sucks to be told your airbag will k**l you, but it sucks even more if it does, or k**ls or injures a family member, friend, etc. If not for "regulations" and regulators, it woould not have even been addressed. Same reason we have safety features in the first place....they discovered that a metal dash in your car will k**l or severely injure you if your head impacts it.... so through regulation the auto mfger's were forced into making things like seat bealts, soft dashes, air bags, and on and on. Sometimes regulation, supported by sound science, is a really good thing.

If all that is done, developed and manufactured, produced, mined, etc. etc. was all great and good, there wouldn't be any need for big corporate and dark money LOBBIES, and lobbiest, would there?

There are just way to many situations where regulations are the only thing keeping us from being poisoned, ripped off, manipulated and abused by our ever caring corporate world. I know this is true because I worked in that environment for big US corporations, I know what they will do for a buck - and it isn't caring about you. They just don't! Just look at how health care is done in the US...just a big money sucking profit machine...it's not cost effective to cure you, but it is profitable to sham us.

Thanks to all for your eye-opening sentiments - I will be supporting regulation towards a sustainable future. And I V**E!