Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac: Apple’s Activation Lock for iPhone components will make a huge dent in the market for stolen iPhones, though it introduces another barrier to DIY repairs — Apple’s latest theft-prevention measure went live for beta testers yesterday: Activation Lock for iPhone components.
While annoying from a right to repair perspective, I do think this will be a good thing overall. There is a whole industry for snatching phones and getting them turned into parts.
In my city, go to the sketchy grocery stores and there are machines that you can just put a phone in and get cash for it. Pretty much no questions asked. Crackheads and tweakers on main street will smatch a thousand dollar phone out of someone hands so they can get $100 so someone can sell all the parts for a few hundred. I feel a pang of anger every time I see someone using one of those machines.
It’s kind of a simular to how there is an underworld for cadaleidic converters. I guess the government can try to make laws trying to somehow regulate used phone parts, but I’m not sure how that’d actually be effective.