self-repair – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Stories filed under: "self-repair"

Lobbying, Corruption Stall Landmark NY Right To Repair Bill

Back in June New York state was the first state in the country to pass “right to repair” legislation taking direct aim at repair monopolies. The bill mandates that hardware manufacturers make diagnostic and repair information available to consumers and independent repair shops at “fair and reasonable terms.”

The final version of the bill enjoyed rare bipartisan support, passing the state assembly 147–2 and the senate 59–4. To make this happen, the bill doesn’t include vehicles, home appliances, farm equipment or medical devices — all sectors rife with obnoxious attempts to monopolize repair via DRM or by making diagnostics either expensive or impossible.

Activists had hoped to add such provisions later. But getting the bill as written into law has proven to be difficult. The bill has been parked for months without any movement on the desk of NY Governor Kathy Hochul. It seems likely that the bill will still pass, but lobbying has ensured that making that happen will apparently take as long as humanly possible:

The Digital Fair Repair Act, the first right-to-repair bill to entirely pass through a state legislature, is awaiting New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. But lobbying by the nation’s largest technology interests seems to have kept the bill parked on her desk for months, where it could remain until it dies on Dec. 28.

“Right to repair” gained an incredible head of steam thanks to public annoyance at repair monopolies. Whether it’s John Deere’s restrictive crackdown on tractor repairs, or the annoying, life-risking monopolies enjoyed by many medical device manufacturers, anger on this front is sustained, bipartisan, and shows no sign of slowing down.

Companies eager to build repair monopolies have spent the last five years lying about how such laws will somehow make the public less safe. Meanwhile, lobbying ensured that New York’s landmark bill was as weak as possible, and it’s still somehow laboring to find its way across the finish line more than half a year after it was passed with broad bipartisan support. This is, as they say, why we can’t have nice things.

Filed Under: customers, drm, electronics, freedom to tinker, independent repair, kathy hochul, new york, repair monopolies, right to repair, self-repair