Right to Repair or Repurpose

Right to Repair or Repurpose

The right to repair or repurpose is a basic right that has been whittled away. Software locks and planned obsolescence are now very common - costing consumers money and limiting freedom.

A limited version of right to repair has passed in 8 states with wide bipartisan support and is supported by 84% of Americans. We must build upon these state-level efforts and expand them in three key ways, with the full backing of the federal government, to protect consumers from corporate overreach:

End Special Rights for Manufacturers

The DMCA allows a manufacturer to make a software lock and have it be illegal to get around it. The original intention was to prevent media copying like from a DVD. It has been abused to put lots of other digital locks from forcing you to get "official" ink cartridges to limiting what your cell phone network you can connect to.

The anti-circumvention needs to be fully repealed. Corporations should not have that kind of power over consumers.

Expand Rights to Everyone

Farmers and Ranchers are left out by the bills in Texas and California among others. Many are forced into expensive long term contracts with the manufacturers. We need to empower farmers to be in control of all the equipment on their farm.

Businesses Many laws exclude products sold to businesses. Why should they not enjoy the same rights to repair their fleet of cars, laptops, or other devices - let's empower them too!

Government The government has tremendous purchasing power and should use that to ensure the devices they buy are repairable in the most expansive definition. This will allow us to save money and ensure competitive contracts for repairs.

The government should prioritize devices that utilize open source software and allow user modification of them. That enables us to more easily repurpose government devices.

Military The military trusts the devices they use with their lives. The idea they need to ask for an unlock code or have any limitations on the repairs is not mission acceptable. There is a proposed bill that we heartily support - S.2209 - Warrior Right to Repair Act of 2025, but it doesn't go far enough.

Regulated devices Some devices like security systems and medical devices are more complicated due to regulations (as well as the usual industry push back). Regulation should never be an excuse to deny repair - we can safeguard safety while still ensuring repair and reuse rights Require Transparency at Checkout Even with a right to repair and repurpose there will still be variability in how devices respect your freedoms as a consumer. Expanding a program like Energy Star to cover these variables will help provide an incentive in the market to improve..

Let's take a look at a simple score card for two gaming handhelds.

🎮 Gaming Handle 2

🎮 Gaming Porch OLED

With this simple scorecard it's now a lot clearer what you get from each and can make an informed decision. Now imagine it actually relates to a farmer's tractor with AI built-in, a smart fridge, or a car. We don't get this kind of easy to digest information from any of them today - we should.

There are many ratings already published by organizations like Mozilla, iFixit Repairability and Consumer Report's https://thedigitalstandard.org/ could form the basis for such a device scorecard. It could also be expanded to provide transparency around disabling network functions or unwanted AI features. Other countries already are providing repairability info on product pages, we can lead in consumer transparency.

Privacy - A simple, clear rating to replace unreadable policies. Security - Protect consumers and national security from weak designs. Updates - Guarantee minimum years of software updates for both new and resold devices. Ownership - Freedom to repurpose or modify beyond original intent. Repairability - A commitment to user-friendly repair that surpasses our new minimum legal standards which already includes access to diagnostic info and tools. This would judge how expensive or hard to get those tools are for instance.

Taken together, these reforms will ensure devices last longer, power local repair careers, reduce waste, strengthen security, and unlock innovation from everyone — not just manufacturers.