CD300: Right to Repair

You do not have the right to repair your own belongings because of intellectual property rights granted to corporations by Congress in 1998. In this episode, listen to the debate happening in Congress about if and how they should grant customers the right to repair and get a status update on the multiple efforts under way in the current Congress, including one with a good chance of becoming law. Please Support Congressional Dish – Quick Links Contribute monthly or a lump sum via PayPal Support Congressional Dish via Patreon (donations per episode) Send Zelle payments to: Donation@congressionaldish.com Send Venmo payments to: @Jennifer-Briney Send Cash App payments to: $CongressionalDish or Donation@congressionaldish.com Use your bank's online bill pay function to mail contributions to: 5753 Hwy 85 North, Number 4576, Crestview, FL 32536. Please make checks payable to Congressional Dish Thank you for supporting truly independent media! View the show notes on our website at congressionaldish.com/cd300-right-to-repair Background Sources Recommended Congressional Dish Episodes CD269: NDAA 2023/Plan Ecuador McDonald's Ice Cream Machines "McDonald's Ice Cream Machine Hackers Say They Found the 'Smoking Gun' That Killed Their Startup." Andy Greenberg. December 14, 2023. Wired. "McDonald's Broken Ice Cream Machines Lead to 'Right to Repair' Lawsuit." Joseph Fawbush. March 29, 2022. FindLaw. John Deere "How John Deere Hijacked Copyright Law To Keep You From Tinkering With Your Tractor." Luke Hogg. January 8, 2024. Reason. Internet of Things Updates and Maintenance "Old devices, new dangers: The risks of unsupported IoT tech." Márk Szabó. August 27, 2024. WeLiveSecurity. Massachusetts Auto Repair Law "Motor Vehicle Telematics System Notice Requirement." Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General. DoD's Revolving Door "Featured Revolver: Lloyd Austin." OpenSecrets. "Revolving Door: Mark Esper." OpenSecrets. "Boeing executive out, Raytheon lobbyist in to lead Pentagon." Karl Evers-Hillstrom and Reid Champlin. June 18, 2019. OpenSecrets. "Revolving Door: James Mattis." OpenSecrets. "General Dynamics Corp Board Member James N. Mattis." Salary.com. Military Right to Repair Issues "The U.S. Military Has a 'Right to Repair' Problem." Kyle Mizokami. February 11, 2020. Popular Mechanics. "Even The American Military Is Struggling With Right-To-Repair." Max Finkel. February 8, 2020. Jalopnik. "Here's One Reason the U.S. Military Can't Fix Its Own Equipment." Elle Ekman. November 20, 2019. The New York Times. "Letter to the FTC Chairman: Military Acquisition, Procurement, and the Right to Repair." Lucas Kunce and Elle Ekman. September 15, 2019. Technological Protection Measures (TPMs) "Technological Protection Measures (TPM) - Fact Sheet." Jennifer Zerkee. November 8, 2023. Simon Fraser University. Cyber Risks "Web Hackers vs. The Auto Industry: Critical Vulnerabilities in Ferrari, BMW, Rolls Royce, Porsche, and More." Sam Curry et al. January 3, 2023. samcurry.net. Apple Lawsuit "Apple, Corellium settle iOS virtualization case." Brandon Vigliarolo. December 18, 2023. The Register. NDAA Sec. 828 "Appliance and Tractor Companies Lobby Against Giving the Military the Right to Repair." Jason Koebler. August 28, 2024. 404 Media. "Letter to Sen. Jack Reed, Sen. Roger Wicker, Rep. Mike Rogers, and Rep. Adam Smith." AdvaMed et al. July 30, 2024. DocumentCloud via 404 Media. Laws Section 1201 of Digital Millennium Copyright Act Full DMCA Electronic Frontier Foundation Summary Bills S.4638 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 Sec. 828 : REQUIREMENT FOR CONTRACTORS TO PROVIDE REASONABLE ACCESS TO REPAIR MATERIALS. H.R.1707 - SMART Act Fair Repair Act House Version: H.R.8544 Senate Version: S.4422 H.R.906 - REPAIR Act H.R.6879 - Farm Freedom to Repair Act H.R.6566 - Freedom to Repair Act of 2022 Audio Sources To receive testimony on the posture of the Department of the Navy in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2025 and the Future Years Defense Program May 16, 2024 Senate Armed Services Committee Witnesses: Carlos Del Toro, Secretary of the Navy Clip Watch clip on YouTube Sen. Elizabeth Warren: So the Navy acquires everything from night vision goggles to aircraft carriers through contracts with big defense contractors, but the contractors often place restrictions on these deals that prevent service members from maintaining or repairing the equipment, or even let them write a training manual without going back through the contractor. Now the contractors say that since they own the intellectual property and the technical data underlying the equipment, only they have the right to repair that equipment. These right to repair restrictions usually translate into much higher costs for DOD, which has no choice but to shovel money out to big contractors whenever DOD needs to have something fixed. So take the Navy's littoral combat ship, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin considered much of the data and equipment on the ship to be proprietary, so the Navy had to delay missions and spend millions of dollars on travel costs, just so that contractor affiliated repairmen could fly in, rather than doing this ourselves. Secretary Del Toro, when a sailor isn't allowed to repair part of their ship at sea, and a marine isn't allowed to access technical data to fix a generator on a base abroad. One solution is for the Navy to buy the intellectual property from the contractors. So can you say a little bit about what the benefits are of the Navy having technical rights for the equipment that it has purchased. Sec. Carlos Del Toro: The benefits are enormous, Senator, and we've actually had tremendous success, I'd say, in the last year and a half to two years, through the taxpayer advocacy program that we initiated when I came in. There have been three examples, one, gaining the intellectual property rights for the new ACV class of ships that will replace the AAVs. The F-35 negotiations really proved themselves out in a significant way as well, too. And lastly, the 20 F-18s that the Congress authorized in '22 and '23, we were able to make significant gains in terms of the government finally getting the intellectual property rights that were necessary for us to be able to properly sustain those moving forward. Sen. Elizabeth Warren: So I am very, very glad to hear this. I like the taxpayer advocacy project and how you're training contract officers to secure technical equipment that the Navy buys, but I think you should have the support of Congress on this. Senator Braun and I have introduced the Stop price gouging the military act to give DoD more tools to get cost and pricing data so that you will be in a better position to negotiate better deals with contractors. There's also more that we can do to ensure that the Navy and the rest of the services have the rights they need to bolster readiness. So let me ask you, Secretary Del Toro, would having a stronger focus on right to repair issues during the acquisition process, like prioritizing contract bids that give DoD fair access to repair materials, and ensuring that contract officers are looking into buying technical rights early on, would that help the Navy save costs and boost readiness at the same time? Sec. Carlos Del Toro: Very much. Senator, in fact, one of the things that we have prioritized since I came in as Secretary of the Navy, given my acquisition background, is actually those negotiations need to happen as early as possible before that we even as we develop the acquisition strategy for that contract to go out to bid, and by doing so, we will reap tremendous returns. Is There a Right to Repair? July 18, 2023 House Judiciary Committee Watch on YouTube Witnesses: Aaron Perzanowski, Thomas W. Lacchia Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School Devlin Hartline, Legal Fellow, Hudson Institute's Forum for Intellectual Property Kyle Wiens, Co-founder and CEO, iFixit Paul Roberts, …