Jason Koebler, Motherboard:

Apple is planning to fight proposed electronics “Right to Repair” legislation being considered by the Nebraska state legislature, according to a source within the legislature who is familiar with the bill’s path through the statehouse.

And:

The legislation would require Apple and other electronics manufacturers to sell repair parts to consumers and independent repair shops, and would require manufacturers to make diagnostic and service manuals available to the public.

Nebraska is one of eight states that are considering right to repair bills; last month, Nebraska, Minnesota, New York, Massachusetts, Kansas, and Wyoming introduced legislation. Last week, lawmakers in Illinois and Tennessee officially introduced similar bills.

And:

The bills nationwide are being pushed by Repair.org, a trade organization made up of independent repair shops who say that their companies have been harmed by an attempt by manufacturers to gain a monopoly over the repair business. Even without readily available repair parts or service manuals, a healthy DIY repair hobby has thrived thanks to online crowdsourced instruction manuals on sites like iFixit and grey market parts that are available directly from factories in China or can be salvaged from recycled devices.

The idea that it’s “unsafe” to repair your own devices is one that manufacturers have been promoting for years. Last year, industry lobbyists told lawmakers in Minnesota that broken glass could cut the fingers of consumers who try to repair their screens, according to Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of Repair.org.

First things first, this is a one sided post, almost a marketing piece from Repair.org. That said, repairability has become more and more of an issue. I’d like to hear Apple’s side of this. Macs, iPhones, and iPads have certainly become harder and harder to repair yourself.

But I think the claim that self-repair is unsafe is disingenuous. I think most self-repairers would agree to voiding their warrantee in exchange for self repair, and also be willing to hold Apple harmless for damage done doing a self-repair.

That said, let’s see what happens on March 9th:

According to the source, an Apple representative, staffer, or lobbyist will testify against the bill at a hearing in Lincoln on March 9. AT&T will also argue against the bill, the source said. The source told me that at least one of the companies plans to say that consumers who repair their own phones could cause lithium batteries to catch fire.

Until then, this is just a sourced rumor.

UPDATE: A little birdie told me about an Apple Store that had to be evacuated when a trained technician accidentally put a tiny screwdriver through the battery of an iPhone, starting a lithium fire that required special chemicals to stop. In another incident, those same chemicals were used in the repair room when someone punctured a MacBook Air battery.

Points well taken. Assuming these anecdotes are documented, I hope they are presented at that March 9th hearing in Lincoln.