The Right to Repair movement covers a wide range of products including heavy equipment and trucks.Image by iStockphoto.com/jossdim
Since the 2015 signing of the Right to Repair Memorandum of Understanding, supporters of the cause have continued to fight to enact RTR legislation. Over the past few years, the number of active bills has risen as more people and legislators have become involved, with 18 active bills in 2018.
Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association, says that each bill faces a long
Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of The Repair Association
series of hurdles, but every cleared hurdle makes room for others to get further along. With a number of bills that didn’t make it to a vote due to timing issues ready to move forward in early 2019, support seems to be growing. But what is driving that support?
“Pardon my language, but more people are getting screwed,” says Gordon-Byrne with a laugh. “And they’re starting to find out why. Apple has become the poster child of this. They seem to want to continue to make repair difficult, even when it’s visibly not, and then they offer up all of these excuses for blocking repair that just don’t hold any water. So thank you very much, Tim Cook. You’ve made this whole thing possible.”
AEM sends mixed signals
RTR has impacts on a staggering range of sectors, from home computing and mobile phones to heavy construction equipment. And while the RTR MOU signalled an intention to share crucial info and equipment with third-party repair shops, manufacturers appear loathe to have that enshrined in law. In February, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers announced a statement of principles on RTR, saying members would make crucial info and tools available by 2021. The same month, however, the association argued against RTR legislation in New Hampshire, deeming it unnecessary.
“It’s because they don’t really want to honor it,” says Gordon-Byrne. “Why not do it now? Customers want it now … You look at the details, they said they’re going to provide essentially a subset of diagnostics. Not all of them, and they’re going to decide which subsets the customer gets, and they’re going to decide whether or not that customer is going to be allowed to replace the motherboard or do an oil change.”
The AEM did not respond to a request for comment.
Gordon-Byrne notes that Vermont has established a special task force to study RTR as a legislative concept. The task force represents a diverse set of interests and their last meeting is set for mid-December with a report forthcoming shortly thereafter.
Kit Walsh, staff attorney for non-profit civil liberties organization the Electronic Frontier
Kit Walsh, staff attorney for non-profit civil liberties organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Foundation, says another crucial upcoming decision to monitor is by the Copyright Office and the Library of Congress, who were expected to publish a new rule regarding RTR in October.
“We’ll see if they’ve accepted the arguments about why this is an important, legitimate activity – that it isn’t something that interferes with any legitimate scope of copyright, that the freedom is important to prevent an unfair monopoly on repair from emerging,” Walsh says.
The influence of the manufacturers and their lobbying groups is the biggest challenge to RTR legislation. In some states, Walsh says, bills that would allow people to repair anything have removed vehicles or farm equipment from being covered.
“A lot of them exclude motor vehicles, because that’s a fight they don’t think they can win, politically, against the money of the auto manufacturers,” Walsh says.
Focus on heavy trucks
Marc Karon, a committee chairman and former president of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions
Marc Karon, a committee chairman and former president of the Commercial Vehicle Solutions Network
Network, says that they have had success by maintaining a very narrow focus on heavy trucks and independent distributors.
“I have preached to anyone who would listen, ‘if you do not have a seat at the table, you are likely to be on the menu.’ For that reason, CVSN, which is only focused on the independent distributor, has been able to get positive results,” Karon said. “We have used our own lobbyist, and our focus is solely on what is good for our association members.”
A significant issue for the heavy truck industry is telematics. Karon expects telematics to become even more important with the increasing use of computers on trucks.
“We are supporting the effort to pass legislation to make telematics more accessible and eliminate the monopoly the vehicle manufacturers have created,” Karon says.
The California Farm Bureau recently gave up the right to repair parts without going through a dealer. Karon says this is a common occurrence that illustrates a key difficulty in these issues.
“There are many associations that represent conflicting interests within their membership,” Karon says. “When this happens, the association is faced with a difficult decision and a neutral stance is usually the result. To take a firmer position might compromise funding.”
—Matt Jones
Matt Jones is a freelance writer based in Fredericton, N.B.
