Some Electronics Repairs Are Illegal: Federal Law Could Change That

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 03:45:00 GMT
Scientific American - Technology

The U.S. Copyright Office has helped, but fixing the right to repair is now up to Congress

Solving the problems with Section 1201 is an essential part of the broader right to repair movement, which aims to combat the measures that make it difficult or impossible to improve or fix electronics.

Limiting the ability to repair a broken device destroys independent repair shops, drives up the price of repairs and encourages consumers to dispose of a machine instead of fixing it.

These measures make it difficult for anyone not affiliated with the company to perform repairs.

In response, legislative proposals to restore access to repairs are sweeping the country, with at least 27 states proposing laws on repair limitations so far this year.

As a result, the potential application space is incredibly vast-anything with software and a digital lock falls under Section 1201, which means any repairs that require the breaking of a digital lock are illegal.

Last year my team-which included iFixit, the Repair Association and the Electronic Frontier Foundation-asked the U.S. Copyright Office to make fixing things by bypassing software locks legal.

Effective October 28, it is now legal to break locks for the purposes of "Diagnosis, maintenance, and repair" on any "Software-enabled device that is primarily designed for use by consumers," as well as on vehicles, marine vessels and medical devices.

There is one even bigger catch: the rule does not allow you to distribute repair tools that circumvent manufacturers' digital locks.

Every three years advocates for fair repair and digital rights must ask for new, narrow exemptions and request that all the previous exemptions be upheld.

These limited exemptions show that it's time for Congress to step in and permanently exempt repair, and especially repair tools, from Section 1201.

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