Brian Merchant: Californians deserve the right to repair their electronics — even if Big Tech hates it

For years now, tech companies and manufacturers have been making it harder and harder for consumers to undertake the simple act of fixing their own stuff. They withhold crucial parts and repair manuals, and even install software locks that make it so that only authorized retailers — and the manufacturers themselves — can carry out repairs. At a premium, of course.

This sounds like predatory behavior when you look at it laid out like that, but so far, it's mostly worked — think of the last time your phone, smart watch or tablet broke down. Did you try to fix it? Did you consider taking it to a repair shop? Or did you shrug, shove it into a drawer, figuring it was too time-consuming, expensive and inconvenient to fix and, well, you were probably