28 State AGs Urge Congress To Pass Stalled 'Right To Repair' Bills (techdirt.com) 11
The "right to repair" movement has made considerable inroads over the past five years, partially due to support from the Biden FTC. State-level legislation aimed at dismantling repair monopolies has made progress, despite industry lobbying efforts to weaken the proposals (e.g., Kathy Hochul in New York State). Federal legislation, however, faces challenges in a troubled Congress. In response, a bipartisan group of 28 state attorneys general has penned a letter to key congressional committee leaders, urging them to advance stalled right to repair bills. From the letter: "The Right-to-Repair is a bipartisan issue that impacts every consumer, household, and farm in a time of increasing inflation. It is about ensuring that consumers have choices as to who, where, when and at what cost their vehicles can be repaired. It is about ensuring that farmers can repair their tractors for a reasonable price and quickly enough to harvest their crops."
And If RTR Proposals Do Pass Into Law? (Score:3)
...will we see a multi-tier product system develop?
Will RTR be limited to products with BASIC features while products with more advanced features requiring some sort of formalized "service contract" in order to use those "advanced" features?
After all...wasn't there a publicized case in Massachussets where a manufacturer scaled back the features of their product, cars IIRC, in response to a State law mandating 3rd party repair shops could work on all aspects of those vehicles?
Re:And If RTR Proposals Do Pass Into Law? (Score:4, Interesting)
And that would be AWESOME!
Basic features means you can probably go to third parties to get the advanced stuff, with far greater ease at getting the feature set you want, and probably less hassle at updates. And it is easier to repair.
One of the problems with products today is the technology moves faster than even their limited lifespan. Modular components on a base operation just means even longer longevity, especially with RTR.
Dissapointments, and those new to them. (Score:1, Insightful)
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Like ... (Score:1)
I agree (Score:1)
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