Apple Folded, But Why On Earth Is Tom Cruise's Cult Opposing Right To Repair?

Apple Inc. AAPL fought the Right to Repair movement for a long time, but now that it has folded, there is an unexpected new adversary on the horizon – Tom Cruise's cult Scientology.

What Happened: Author Services, owned by a church within Scientology, has filed its opposition to the Right to Repair legislation, asking the government to make it illegal to work around the software locks on its electronic meter, reported 404media.

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Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's organization, Author Services, sent a letter on August 10 to the US Copyright Office voicing its opposition to the Right to Repair.

The organization cited the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) Section 1201, which "makes it unlawful to circumvent technological measures used to prevent unauthorized access to copyrighted works."

What Is This About: The Scientology group opposes Right to Repair because it doesn't want its customers – cult members, in this case – to circumvent the software locks on the Scientology E-Meters, or electropsychometers.

According to the Church of Scientology, this E-Meter "is an electronic instrument that measures mental state and change of state in individuals and assists the precision and speed of auditing."

It adds that only a Scientology minister or a minister-in-training should use this E-Meter. The group justifies its opposition to Right to Repair by saying that unauthorized repairs could adversely impact the "reputation and goodwill" of Scientology.

Why It Matters: Right to Repair will ensure end users can buy original spare parts based on their requirements. This will help make repairs easier and also make them more competitively priced, resulting in improved accessibility to everyone.

More accessible repairs will also help reduce e-waste, which is another growing problem.

Image – Wikimedia

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