PowerBook hinge failure reports

We have two reports (from Zed Kato and Douglas Broussard) of problems with the hinge breaking on G3 PowerBook models (especially WallStreet models). Douglas writes: The clutches or hinges of the display seem to deteriorate prematurely, causing them to rotate freely then snap, possibly destroying the video or display power cable. Apple is now backordered on these parts. This happened on my PowerBook back in February. Now, many more reports of this phenomenon are surfacing through sites like Go2Mac.com. The vast majority of these failures have occurred within the first two years of ownership." Apple's policy on replacing these hinges has been inconsistent. In some cases, they agreed to do so at no charge; in other cases, they refused.