I’d argue that there should be a parallel right-to-maintain movement. We have seen a global right-to-repair movement emerge from maker communities and start to influence public policy around such things as the availability of spare parts. That’s bad for consumers and bad for the planet. This corporate stinginess consigns far too many of our devices to the trash heap before they have exhausted their usability. As a result, many of them are apt to drop support for old gadgets faster than the gadgets themselves wear out. Doing so costs the manufacturer some of its profits.

Consumers have relied on the good graces of device makers to keep our gadget firmware and software secure and up-to-date.