Long-fought right to repair passes House

Plus the Senate approves a half-billion in new education money, protections for student groups and domestic workers, and a save-the-date for our next event.

Fans of DIY repairs are closer to prying the parts to fix their smartphones and laptops from Big Tech following a House vote this week.

House Bill 1483 from Rep. Mia Gregerson, D-SeaTac, would require manufacturers to fork over the manuals and doohickeys needed to replace a cracked iPhone screen or your old MacBook’s battery.¹ Tech enthusiasts call this “the right to repair,” or the right to fix your own stuff. Gregerson framed the idea as a social justice issue for hard-pressed families who shouldn’t have to buy a new $1,000 phone or litter landfills with their old phones.

Under the status quo, people who own an Apple product have to buy special insurance, shell out hundreds of dollars to the Apple store to fix a glitching iPad or bite the bullet and buy a new one. As of now, third-party repairs are mostly limited to fixing a cracked iPhone screen rather than replacing a battery. Tech giants have pushed back against this, arguing the “right to repair” is a slippery slope to scatter trade secrets and might compromise users’ privacy.

Photo by Ali Abdul Rahman on Unsplash