Colorado Approves First-Ever Agricultural Right to Repair Bill

Denver legislators have just passed the first-ever agricultural Right to Repair bill. Today's landslide 44-16 vote in the House follows a successful vote in the Senate last month. iFixit reports: Once the Agricultural Right to Repair bill passes, manufacturers will be required to share all the parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, and documentation necessary for repair. One critical step remains: a signature by Governor Polis, who has signaled that he supports the legislation.

To support Right to Repair legislation near you, find your state on Repair.org -- or, if you're outside the US, look for your country's advocacy network here. The summary of HB23-1011 reads: "Starting January 1, 2024, the bill requires a manufacturer to provide parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, or documentation, such as diagnostic, maintenance, or repair manuals, diagrams, or similar information (resources), to independent repair providers and owners of the manufacturer's agricultural equipment to allow an independent repair provider or owner to conduct diagnostic, maintenance, or repair services on the owner's agricultural equipment.

The bill folds agricultural equipment into the existing consumer right-to-repair statutes, which statutes provide the following:

- A manufacturer's failure to comply with the requirement to provide resources is a deceptive trade practice;
- In complying with the requirement to provide resources, a manufacturer need not divulge any trade secrets to independent repair providers and owners; and
- Any new contractual provision or other arrangement that a manufacturer enters into that would remove or limit the manufacturer's obligation to provide resources to independent repair providers and owners is void and unenforceable; and
- An independent repair provider or owner is not authorized to make modifications to agricultural equipment that permanently deactivate any safety notification system or bring the equipment out of compliance with safety or emissions laws or to engage in any conduct that would evade emissions, copyright, trademark, or patent laws."

Re:

[Joe_Dragon]

and then rental place needs to cover the costs of all upkeep and repairs.

Re:

[misnohmer]

Ever heard of car leases? No upkeep or repair guarantees. There often is original car warranty, but that is the same whether you buy or lease the car, so not tied to a lease.

Re:

[taustin]

That's effectively what they do now, except they don't call it that.

And there's nothing wrong with leasing farm equipment instead of selling it, as long as everybody knows that's what's going on. Of course, many farmers won't be interested in a lease, and will shop elsewhere, which is why the manufacturers don't want to call it a lease now.

so ...

[znrt]

One critical step remains: a signature by Governor Polis, who has signaled that he supports the legislation.

mr polis' iphone is about to melt.

Re:so ...

[youngone]

Oh well, at least he'll be able to get it fixed. Wait..

Re:legal shenanigans

[narcc]

No, The key word is 'agriculture'.

HB23-1011
Consumer Right To Repair Agricultural Equipment

Concerning a requirement that an agricultural equipment manufacturer facilitate the repair of its equipment by providing certain other persons with the resources needed to repair the manufacturer's agricultural equipment.

Link [colorado.gov]

Was that some strange experiment in spreading misinformation? What was the goal? To get people to angrily post "it's not about farmers!" all over the internet?

Re:legal shenanigans

[narcc]

Just in case you thought you'd try to muddy the waters with yet another specious argument, the text of the bill contains the word "farm" exactly once, in the definition of "agricultural equipement":

AGRICULTURAL EQUIPMENT" MEANS
EQUIPMENT THAT IS PRIMARILY DESIGNED FOR USE IN A FARM OR RANCH
OPERATION.

Link [pdf] [colorado.gov]

So what's next?

[LatencyKills]

So next the governor signs it, and then what happens? Deere isn't going to let the family jewels go that easily - at this point they are essentially a repair company that occasionally sells new equipment. So do they jam it up in court? Stop selling in Colorado? Anyone who knows more about this stuff care to enlighten me about what this makes the future look like?

Re:

[Registered Coward v2]

So next the governor signs it, and then what happens? Deere isn't going to let the family jewels go that easily - at this point they are essentially a repair company that occasionally sells new equipment. So do they jam it up in court? Stop selling in Colorado? Anyone who knows more about this stuff care to enlighten me about what this makes the future look like?

The stuff will be available but at a cost that is very profitable. Just because you have a right to repair doesn't mean you'll be able to do it cheaply. A failed capacitor could require an entire board swap, plus a return of the defective ("core charge") as well as an expensive tool to properly reset the unit to ensure safety and emissions compliance. Replace a battery? Need to reset the computer. BMW did that years ago on the E9x series; and you needed a special tool to do the reset as a DIY repair. ,/

Trade Secret Loophole

[Canberra1]

Some locksmiths cannot cut spare keys because makers like VAG claim access to parts of the ECM is a trade secret. Toyota has hidden dealer ECM subcodes. But basically it stings the dealer or locksmith to make a 2 minute phonecall, maybe $500, which gets doubled or tripled for the person who misplaced their keys. Mercedes backs up the odometer in the gearbox (revolutions), oil change count, and other places, so winding it back is near impossible. Giving Ag repairers a SUBSET of the dealer software will be t

Re:

[The-Ixian]

Or, like we saw with Apple's repair "solution": Ship the end user thousands of dollars worth of heavy equipment for a limited time (sans the actual replacement parts) and then demand the equipment back whether or not the actual repairs have taken place yet.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

but we need to put our efforts into making sure another war doesn't happen.

If you do it often, you can buy the equipment yourself. You can rent it for a week for $50 shipping prepaid both ways, or you can buy the tools you need. They are apparently really high quality well made tools, and the prices Apple sells them for, they aren't making a ton of profit on them. Apple just used very high quality parts and manufacturing on the tools. Overkill if you want to replace a screen on a phone, but if you're replac

Re:

[ctilsie242]

Overall, if one buys the equipment, for a repair shop, it can be well worth it to buy those tools. They are not cheap, but Apple isn't price gouging on them either. A few are fiddly, but that is just how things are. I consider them similar to what one needs to fix a modern car, where there is a lot of specialized tooling needed, as well as knowledge. For example, something as simple as crush washers on an oil drain pan. A lot of people don't realize that once they pop the cork, they need to replace the

Re:

[HiThere]

Bud light is the 3rd worst beer I've ever tasted. You need to get drunk BEFORE drinking it.

Re:

[ctilsie242]

I wonder what beer would be worse. I know a lot of people gripe about Snow beer, but I've never tried it, and it tends to be something only sold across the pond.

Re: How can this bill actually stay law?

[registrations_suck]

Since when is a tax illegal?

Up next from John...

[Archangel_Azazel]

"Every part I sell is proprietary and a trade secret. Sorry, so sorry. "

Tenderness when we used to pass laws that at least on the surface looked good? Instead of this:
HEY EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION TO THIS RIGHT HERE! WE'RE GOING TO MAKE THEM DO THE RIGHT THING!
Then, in 2pt font "nothing in this bill is enforceable at all, be sure to make a big stink about this or they'll know!"
YEP, DOING THE RIGHT THING HERE FOLKS! VOTE EARLY, VOTE OFTEN FOR YOUR FRIENDS THE POLITICIANS!!

Wouldn't it be weird if we jus

Re: Up next from John...

[Archangel_Azazel]

/ sigh/ Remember when... stupid phone.