Recyclers willing to violate the R2 cert sell to uncertified barbarians like me who use them for parts, but most just scrap due to liability paranoia,” tweeted John Bumstead, a refurbisher.

For instance, if a thief takes your locked MacBook off a coffee shop table while you’re not looking, it will prevent them and their fences from getting into it.

But now the legitimate secondhand market has been caught in the crossfire, as Mac owners innocently turn in activation locked MacBooks that will become bricks upon leaving their hands.

Vice reports that the original owners of these computers are usually schools or companies that have a bulk contract with Apple for tech.

Refurbishers would have to obtain the login information for each laptop in order to factory reset them for resale, but Bumstead said that previous owners are rarely responsive.

In an ideal world, users would factory reset their computers before they are sent to a refurbisher, but instead, Bumstead and his colleagues are forced to accept reduced profits.