Fight for your right, your right to REPAIR!

It's yours. You bought it, you own it and you reserve the right to do with it as you please. Unfortunately in some cases, especially with gadgets, that's not the case.

Consumers have a right to repair gadgets they own

What is the "Right to Repair"?

The Right to Repair is a concept that, at best, a manufacturer of a product should provide the documentation to fix and maintain a product you purchased from them.

If they're not going to provide the documents and tools to fix the product you purchased from them, they should at least stay out of your way if you chose to fix something on your own.

However, this issue has become increasingly more prevalent with the proliferation of complex gadgets.

Take Apple for example. They have essentially made it impossible for a consumer to fix their own iPhone issues such as a cracked screen or to replace a battery.

Apple forces a consumer to visit one of their authorized repair shops, thus increasing the cost of ownership and removing your ability to DIY.

Hack your Keurig

As American consumers, by allowing manufacturers to do this, we've cleared the way for them to take this concept beyond just repair but to everyday, product, use as well.

For example, the Keurig 2.0 coffee maker utilizes DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, making is so a user can only use a "Keurig approved" coffee cup.

Therefore, if you want to use generic or non-Keurig approved coffee, you'd actually have to hack your coffee maker!

Also, take printer ink replacement cartridges for example. I own an HP Color Jet printer. The ink is extraordinarily expensive. Therefore I sought and found a generic brand of ink. It works amazing. However, I frequently get a notification from the printer telling me that I don't have the official HP ink installed.

I've actually avoided updating the printer software, even though I frequently get notifications to do so, because I fear that on the next update HP will make it so I can never use non-HP approved ink again.

This absolutely infuriates me because I know from experience that the generic ink works just fine. When I paid for the printer, I did not agree to a long term engagement with HP.

Bad battery notification

Apple has continued to push the Right to Repair boundaries with a recent iOS update that yields a warning to the user if they did not replace their battery with an Apple Authorized repair shop. So, if you replace your iPhone battery, know what you are doing and do everything correctly, you will still receive an annoying, repeated, notification barking at you that you did it wrong. In addition, the only way to remove this worrisome message is to have the secret code, that Apple only provides to their Authorized repair shops.

The implications around Right to Repair are wide ranging. For starters, as a consumer we have the right to fix and maintain our owned products without being impinged upon by the manufacturer's attempt to exact more money from us.

Eco implications

In addition, Right to Repair is eco-friendly. Every year millions of toxic gadgets end up in landfills because consumers either cannot or do not have the proper documentation to fix something. For example, there are likely countless cracked screen smartphones that get tossed because the owner could not repair it or resell it.

Suffice to say, the toxic batteries in these gadgets will leave a environmental footprint for centuries to come.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what gadget manufacturers want. For a consumer to pitch the old and buy a new.

If you're like me and believe we as consumers have the Right to Repair our own stuff, call your local congressperson and push for federal legislation. To find your congress person visit house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative

#RighttoRepair #Apple #Samsung #Gadgets #iOS #Keurig #HPPrinters #PrinterInk #CrackedScreen #FixmyScreen #Ecofriendly #Congress #AmericanConsumers

Mark Anthony Torres is a writer, futurist and seasoned global technology expert with nearly 20 years of industry experience. He's passionate about simplifying technology and making it easy to understand. To get in touch, leave a comment below; email him at bizdev@markanthonytorres.com or call him at 248.786.7070.