Right to Repair laws have now been introduced in all 50 us states

Hard to imagine any reasonable individual being opposed to this, regardless of politics!

But there isn't really an "overwhelming majority political opinion" on this site? Hence the long threads of comments of people disagreeing on the merits of ideas. Unless you're referring to the anti-trump sentiment, which is more pan-political as there are obviously a whole bunch of Americans that don't want to see our country destroyed regardless of how we wish it might be reformed.

I want to think you're right, but most of the activation I've seen on RtR is from people who are mechanics and others whose livelihoods are threatened by this (like farmers). Most consumers (at least in my small sample of anecdata) don't seem to care at all for whatever reason. The ones who do are a small enough group to be safely ignored.

Also farmers, who have been turned upside down and shaken by John Deere and other manufacturers using locked down hardware. The farming lobby is powerful.

From what I can tell the only mechanics who care are trying to illegally bypass emmissions controls, or they are trying to run a chop shop steeling cars for parts. Cars are very repairable outside a dealer for most things.

though I'm told tesla is an exception and they are unrepairable - I don't drive one so I wouldn't know.

the above is my personal opinion. My employeer has an opinion on this subject, but I don't speak for them.

Proposed would have been more accurate, for the average person.

You are correct, something is not in sync with that map and their description. That is, their description says that five states have passed legislation: New York, California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Colorado. But in the "Passed" and "Active and Passed" categories on the map, it includes those 5 states plus Massachusetts.

FWIW, all of the searching I could find about Right to Repair laws in Massachusetts focused solely on vehicle right to repair (e.g. see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Massachusetts_Question_1), not on electronic devices generally, so maybe that's why Massachusetts was not included in the description (which specifically said "passed electronics right to repair legislation") but was categorized on the map.

Maybe they're excluded because they've already been praised, and they're focused on the new states joining in? I assume "active and passed" means that they not only passed the laws, but they are currently in effect. A law being passed doesn't necessarily put it into immediate effect.

Based on what I know about one of the states in question, I'm thinking that "Active and Passed" means they have both a passed bill and an active bill that isn't passed. Though I'd think they'd call that "Passed and Current" to match their other nomenclature.

It's better than nothing. But introduced and passed are different things. An introduced bill may never actually become law.

The upside is that this shows how popular RtR is, and there's a good chance at least several states may implement their laws. At some point, even if it isn't universal, all it takes is enough states to force manufacturers to support independent repair by default.

Because this just means a single legislator has sponsored a bill. It doesn't mean it has pass, nor does it it even mean it is likely to pass. It's actual laws getting passed that matter.

Of course this IS a milestone to getting a law passed, and shows that the campaign is getting legislators' notice etc. So it is still good.

Even the "active and passed" states (particularly New York) passed a neutered version of right-to-repair that barely does anything. I only understand vaguely, but Louis Rossman has been outspoken about the progress of NY right-to-repair in particular, and how it flopped hard. As much as right-to-repair seems like a party line issue, even many of the Democrats have thus far been all talk and no substance.

I think it is. But what company is going to advertise this on times square?

>Can someone explain why this isn’t the big win we think it is?

I mean, there is the psychological phenomenon known as the Just World Hypothesis. When presented with something that's simply bad, or simply good, people are skeptical and tempted to search for the counterbalancing element, treating it like a trick question even if it's not.

And so it can be hard to accept it simply is good. But that doesn't have to be the end of the conversation because that impulse can be channeled productively just by changing the baseline. Right to repair, I would think, simply is good, but since we need a bad thing, we can talk about the long road ahead to full implementation, or the effort necessary to overcome cultural inertia, as well as status quo extremism in our institutions.

But I think the right to repair itself is a good thing.

One drawback to consumer-rights laws is that we as consumers end up with less access to cool stuff. Some companies have chosen to stop selling into the B2C market altogether, to avoid incurring expenses and liabilities associated with conforming to right-to-repair and other pro-consumer legislation. Rohde & Schwarz and Keysight come to mind.

That is bullshit, of course -- just an excuse for companies to dodge basic business responsibilities, and a blatant failure on their part to acknowledge why consumers felt this legislation was needed in the first place. But it is certainly true that there are short-term drawbacks.

Lawyers and lobbyists paid lots of money to figure out how to subvert stuff.

OEMs may work to make stuff less consumer repairable/upgradeable to force folks to use their repair services that need stuff like bga reballing or soldering. Bye bye upgradable ram slots!

Things like software locks and restrictions in the name of ‘security’ will lock stuff down and make repair harder (see Apple’s part pairing)