[mikewarot]

Apple has been trying to crush repair supply chains for years claiming that any parts entering the country that could be used to repair them aren't legitimate parts, because of infringement of patents, etc...

on parts that Apple made, and put into devices that failed, and were then pulled for use elsewhere.

Provenance is to prevent forgery, there's no forgery going on here... just Apple trying to eliminate the concept and tradition of property rights for someone who buys something from them, using whatever flimsy excuse they can find.

[fwlr]

Perhaps the term provenance was misleading. I simply mean that those MacBooks are not perfectly good, because it’s not clear that they were legitimately and willingly sold. The activation lock release procedure is simple to follow during a legitimate exchange, and quite amenable to a follow-up if the sale was legitimate - therefore a MacBook with activation lock is less likely to have changed hands legitimately.

Relatedly, I really couldn’t disagree more with this being an attack on “property rights” by Apple. If anything, I feel like activation lock has given me a strong new right over my Apple property, a right that most laptop owners do not have.

[mikewarot]

Wait until it breaks, or Apple arbitrarily decides not to support it any longer. You'll likely have second thoughts.