Colorado’s governor signed a straightforward, straightforward “right to repair” bill into law this afternoon, requiring companies to provide resources like parts, firmware, and manuals for devices that were previously classified and proprietary even if the owner wants to make the repairs themselves.
One of several bills proposed over the years, the Consumer Rights Reform Consumers Act is among the simplest, emerging from a bill intended to help wheelchair owners make their own repairs to cover all “farm equipment” as well.
As those in the field of intellectual property and hardware obsolescence likely know, farms have become an unbearable frontier of change in the tech world as companies like John Deere become inflexible about repairing their vehicles and equipment.
A tractor, in these days of precision farming, is of course more than a replacement for a pair of bulls—it’s as high-tech as any modern automobile, with GPS, automation, software updates, and all the rest. And like many cars, repairs to some parts have become impossible for owners – and increasingly even specialists – to perform.
Replace a tire, no problem—but increasingly complex problems or accidents require bringing the vehicle to the manufacturer or an authorized dealer, the only people with proprietary parts or even access to the software that runs on things.
This has long since gone from a nuisance into a serious problem for many people, and tractors have become a kind of alternative to technology in general that people feel isolated from maintaining themselves—so much so that manufacturers have deliberately excluded them in order to reap the benefits of being the exclusive repair shop for every tractor they sell.
The question many ask, as with phones, computers, and other forms of technology, is simply this: If you can’t fix it just because they won’t let you, can you really say you have it?
HB23-1011 applies strictly to agricultural objects such as combine harvesters, sprayers, balers, etc., as well as the power-driven wheelchairs that were its original target. Its manufacturers are required to provide:
Provide parts, embedded software, firmware, tools, or documentation, such as diagnostic, maintenance, or repair manuals, schematics, or similar information (Resources), to independent repair providers and owners of manufacturer’s agricultural equipment to allow an independent repair provider or owner to perform diagnostic, maintenance, or Repair on the owner’s agricultural equipment.
This at a reasonable cost does not discourage people from doing their own repairs. Failure to do so will be classified as deceptive business practice. The law contains two caveats: the manufacturer is under no obligation to “disclose any trade secrets” in the compliance process, and the owners or repair service providers are not permitted to deactivate security mechanisms or infringe copyright or patent laws. The latter might be sticky, but it wasn’t allowed anyway – mentioning it is more of an “as you know” rather than a legal prohibition.
“I am proud to sign this important bipartisan piece of legislation that saves time and money for farmers working hard on reforms, and supports Colorado’s thriving agricultural industry,” Colorado Governor Jared Polis said in a statement accompanying the signing of this and other bills today. “This is a reasonable, bipartisan bill to help people avoid unnecessary delays from equipment repair. Farmers and ranchers can lose precious weeks and months when equipment repairs are stalled due to long turnaround times by manufacturers and dealers. This bill will change that.”
appeals to State Representative Brianna Teiton for her leadership on the matter; I have contacted the Titone representative for further comment and will update this post if I hear back.
There have been calls for right-to-reform laws nationwide, but like everything else, they tend to get bogged down in partisan politics or maneuvering. The Colorado law is clear and straightforward enough not just as an example, but as a flexible and generalizable example of a law that other states can adopt.
No doubt the industries that have been negatively impacted (mostly agricultural equipment dealers, one would imagine, as well as companies that make equipment) will have something to say about this. But they’ll survive — John Deere reported in February that it was just shy of $2 billion in quarterly earnings, more than double its year-over-year net income. With its growing self-repair resources, the company seems to have seen the writing on the wall, too.