New York: Support Your Right to Repair

New Yorkers, we need you to speak up today to expand your digital rights. Tell your Assemblymembers to support A7006-B (Fahy), which would make it easier to repair phones, tablets and other digital electronic equipment, and make these repairs more accessible for all New Yorkers. But we need your help to make it happen.

These bills have the support of leading national proponents of the right to repair. They require companies to give people access to what they need to fix their stuff by selling spare parts and special tools at “fair and reasonable terms.” They also provide all customers and third-party repair technicians access to repair information, software and the ability to apply firmware patches.

Right now, big companies do not want independent repairers to have access to these materials. Instead, these corporations want to have total control. The end result: users are disempowered, trained to go hat in hand to the Apple store just to change a battery when they should have the right to do it themselves. Independent repair shops are driven out of business. The electronic waste piles up, as users discard their devices rather than fixing them or donating them for re-use, and consumers pay the price.

Establishing a right to repair in New York makes it easier for people to fix their broken devices, helps independent businesses, and helps the environment.