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Understanding 9/11EFF's How to Fix the Internet podcast: Right to Repair Catches the Car
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If you buy something—a refrigerator, a car, a
tractor, a wheelchair, or a phone—but you can't have the information or
parts to fix or modify it, is it really yours? The right to repair
movement is based on the belief that you should have the right to use
and fix your stuff as you see fit, a philosophy that resonates
especially in economically trying times, when people can’t afford to
just throw away and replace things.
Companies for decades have been
tightening their stranglehold on the information and the parts that let
owners or independent repair shops fix things, but the pendulum is
starting to swing back: New York, Minnesota, California, Colorado, and
Oregon are among states that have passed right to repair laws, and it’s
on the legislative agenda in dozens of other states. Gay Gordon-Byrne is
executive director of The Repair Association, one of the major forces
pushing for more and stronger state laws, and for federal reforms as
well. She joins EFF’s Cindy Cohn and Jason Kelley to discuss this
pivotal moment in the fight for consumers to have the right to products
that are repairable and reusable.
In this episode you’ll learn about:
- Why our “planned obsolescence” throwaway culture doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, a technology status quo.
- The harm done by “parts pairing:” software barriers used by manufacturers to keep people from installing replacement parts.
- Why one major manufacturer put out a user manual in France, but not in other countries including the United States.
- How expanded right to repair protections could bring a flood of new local small-business jobs while reducing waste.
- The power of uniting disparate voices—farmers, drivers, consumers, hackers, and tinkerers—into a single chorus that can’t be ignored.
Gay Gordon-Byrne has been executive director of The Repair Association—formerly
known as The Digital Right to Repair Coalition—since its founding in
2013, helping lead the fight for the right to repair in Congress and
state legislatures. Their credo: If you bought it, you should own it and
have the right to use it, modify it, and repair it whenever, wherever,
and however you want. Earlier, she had a 40-year career as a vendor,
lessor, and used equipment dealer for large commercial IT users; she is
the author of "Buying, Supporting and Maintaining Software and Equipment - an IT Manager's Guide to Controlling the Product Lifecycle” (2014), and a Colgate University alumna.
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