Week in Repair: Jan 11-18

John Deere is sued by farmers for violating Federal anti trust laws. Also: the worst of CES. And EFF challenges DMCA on free speech grounds.

🗞️Worst of CES Awards: The least private, least secure, least repairable, and least sustainable

Six right-to-repair advocates assembled on Friday morning to present Repair.org's second annual Worst in Show Awards, a selection of the "the least private, least secure, least repairable, and least sustainable gadgets at CES.

Kyle Wiens, co-founder of iFixit, gave the new Mercedes EQS EV the award for the worst product in terms of repairability. Showing a slide of the warning screen the car presents to its driver, he said, "You cannot open the hood of the car. It is locked, warning of accident, warning of injury if you open the hood. Mercedes' perspective is, 'Hey, this is an electric car. There's nothing the owner needs to do under the hood of this car. (theregister.com)

🎧  2021: The Year of Owning It

Talking over the year in review on the Hackaday Podcast, we brainstorm what we thought was the single overarching trend in 2021, and we came up with many different topics: victories in the right to repair, increasingly dystopian service contracts, a flourishing of cyberdecks, and even greater prevalence of reverse engineering style hacks. And then we realized: they are all different faces of the same beast — people just want to own the devices that they own. (hackaday.com)

Consumer advocates want the right to repairs as quickly as possible

A new ecodesign directive with the principle of “repairing instead of throwing away” has been in force in the EU since March 2021. Manufacturers of washing machines, dishwashers, refrigerators, and other large household appliances must ensure that replacement parts are available for seven to ten years. It is primarily about small parts such as seals or dishwasher spray arms. In addition, the products must be built in such a way that they can be disassembled with conventional tools without breaking anything. The aim is to reduce the huge mountain of electronic waste that accumulates every year in Europe.

German industry is open to a repair index and also to a right to repair. However, it must be adapted to the respective products, explained the deputy chief executive of the industry association BDI, Holger Lösch. In the case of large household appliances, it could make more ecological sense to buy new, energy-efficient products than to repair old ones. An EU-wide regulation and the avoidance of special national rules are important. (marketresearchtelecast.com)

Deere sued for anti-trust over repair restrictions 

Deere has deliberately monopolized the market for repair and maintenance services of its agricultural equipment with ECUs... by making crucial software and repair tools inaccessible to farmers and independent repair shops," the lawsuit (PDF) states. "Furthermore, Deere’s network of highly-consolidated independent dealerships... is not permitted through their agreements with Deere to provide farmers or repair shops with access to the same software and repair tools the dealerships have." (courthousenews.com)

Automakers launch last-ditch bid to delay Mass Repair law

Major car manufacturers aren’t giving up on their efforts to stymie Massachusetts’ right to repair legislation. Less than two years after residents in the state voted in favor of updated right to repair laws that would let independent auto repair shops receive telematics data from vehicles, groups representing auto manufacturers are now introducing their own new proposals that would delay the law’s implementation.

If passed, the two new proposals, first viewed by Motherboard, would push back the starting date of Massachusetts’ right to repair law to 2025, three years later than the original 2022 start date. Though supporters of the proposal argue the extra years would give automakers more time to comply with the laws, the efforts were derided by critics like Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition Director Tommy Hickey. (gizmodo.com) 

EC weighs law to favor repair over replace

From seeking voluntary commitments to forcing producers to repair goods for free, the European Commission has outlined plans to encourage the sustainable consumption of goods as it looks to tweak an economic model that currently favours resource depletion. (endseurope.com) 

Why Are McDonald's Ice Cream Machines Always Broken?

When it comes to McDonald's ice cream machines, franchise owners were only allowed to buy one type of machine, the same one that breaks down all the time. On the day we looked, 11% of McDonald's ice cream machines in the U.S. are broken. Even though they now have a choice between a couple of different models, a lot of McDonald's are still using the Taylor machines. Maybe because they like them, but also because replacing them is expensive. The machines are almost $20,000 apiece.

This is part of what the FTC calls device repair restrictions, aka the right to repair. A huge deal to franchise owners, but kind of small fries to a company as huge as McDonald's. (npr.org) 

Booming e-waste and how repair incentives can help keep goods out of landfills

Changing the way we consume is at the heart of the solution to e-waste. A circular vision for the e-waste sector will promote the elimination of waste and could yield up to $4.5 trillion in economic benefits by 2030. One barrier to repair can be the cost compared with buying a new product. This year Austria and the German state of Thuringia introduced a publicly financed repair bonus to reimburse consumers for part of their costs. (europeansting.com)

🇨🇦 Manitoba's New Democratic Party proposes right to repair bill for farmers

Bill 241, if passed, would amend the Farm Machinery Act to compel farm equipment vendors to provide “the most recent version” of manuals, parts, software and other tools to diagnose, maintain or repair their farm machinery, and to reset electronic security functions of those disabled during maintenance or repair.

It would also amend the Consumer Protection Act to add rights to repair for vehicles including off-road vehicles and mobility aids. (www.manitobacooperator.ca)

🏛️ EFF takes on DMCA provision criminalizing open speech in right to repair fight

It is amply clear that the EFF wants to address the growing number of threats to the ‘Right to Repair’ movement. The law, as it currently stands, makes it a crime to create or share tools or even videos about products or software that is copyrighted. Simply put, even discussing or actively dismantling a legally bought hardware could be an act of crime under Section 1201 of the DMCA.

This ban applies even where people want to make non-infringing fair uses of the materials they are accessing. To gain a waiver, there’s a lengthy and expensive process, held every three years, which involves petitioning the Library of Congress. Basically, there’s a dissuading and arduous process to seek an exemption on an individual and case-by-case basis, and the EFF wants to get rid of this problem in its latest appeal. (neowin.net)

🚲 Mechanics ask Walmart to stop selling "built-to-fail" bikes

The petition further calls for a creation of a “minimum durability standard” of 500 riding hours, designing bikes “to be serviceable,” and to “stop creating and selling bikes that are made to fall apart.” As of Wednesday afternoon, Liman said, the petition had almost 1,000 signatures. (vice.com)

📊 Poll: Washingtonians overwhelmingly support electronics right to repair bill

Legislation that would help Washingtonians get their broken or damaged electronics repaired is overwhelmingly popular and ought to be acted on during the 2022 session.

69% of likely Washington State voters surveyed backed a bill introduced by Mia Gregerson (House Bill 1810) that aims to promote "the fair servicing and repair of digital electronic products in a safe, secure, reliable, and sustainable manner." (nwprogressive.org)

🗞️ Other Repair News...

Ford faces pushback on their policy limiting resales of F-150 lightning trucks (ticketnews.com)

Webinar: Right to Repair in 2022 (niskanencenter.org)

Kyle Wiens: Advocating for Independent Repair and Restoration of Devices and Equipment (enr.com)

Know your parts – you are entitled to use non-original spare parts (roodepoortrecord.co.za)

Opinion: Apple still has much to fix on repair (resource-recycling.com)

Remember when Apple seemed to know about their own products? (asia.nikkei.com)

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