Digital Right-to-Repair

For hundreds of years, Americans have been buying and selling products without worrying if they had the ability to tinker with, repair, and reuse those products. But more and more common goods now come with restrictions on your ability to do all that — or even hire someone you trust to do it for you. Some products even come with contracts and mandatory licenses that interfere with your right to resell your product.

A free, independent market for repair and reuse is more efficient, more competitive, and better for consumers. Repair helps create local jobs, and repair and reuse benefits the environment by reducing waste. The freedom to maintain, innovate, and improve upon our products is imperative. These basic freedoms are essential to American economic growth and creativity, and must be preserved for the 21st century.

As consumers, we have the right to the following from the companies that we support:

Information: The documentation, software, and legal ability we need to repair our own products — or choose someone we trust to do it for us.

Parts + Tools: Fair access to service parts and tools, including diagnostics.

Unlocking for Repair and Reuse: We should be able to unlock and modify the software and firmware that is required to operate our products.

Unencumbered Resale: We should be able resell our products (including the software needed to operate them).

Repairable Products: Designers should integrate design for repair and recycling principles into product development.