from the fix-your-own-shit dept

Good News: Canada Passes Major New ‘Right To Repair’ Reforms

The world might be going to hell, but at least activists’ efforts to protect consumers’ rights to affordable and easy tech repair continue to gain steam.

Most recently in Canada, where the country’s Copyright Act was amended by two different bills allowing the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) if done for the purposes of “maintaining or repairing a product, including any related diagnosing,” and “to make the program or a device in which it is embedded interoperable with any other computer program, device or component.”

These TPMs take on a variety of shapes, whether it’s just password protected access to administrative functions, or the need for a USB dongle to unlock access to copyrighted parts of software. Initially implemented to “fight piracy,” such restrictions were quickly expanded to be leveraged to help companies monopolize repair. Like in the U.S., Canadian copyright bars circumvention.

Overall, Canada’s legal updates should be a great boon to independent repair shops looking to provide affordable repair options to Canadian consumers, and to tinkerers wanting to repair devices and hardware they own. iFixit calls the amendments a “huge step forward” for right to repair:

“These bills are a huge step forward for the right to repair, giving Canadians more freedom to repair their own devices without breaking the law. They make Canada the first country to tackle copyright law’s digital locks at a federal level in favor of repair access.”

iFixit notes there’s still work left to be done, given that Canada’s latest legal updates do nothing to help improve access to the needed repair tools:

“While Canadians can now legally bypass TPMs to fix their own devices, they can’t legally sell or share tools designed for that purpose. This means Canadian consumers and repair pros still face technical and legal hurdles to access the necessary repair tools, much like in the US.”

Here in the States, any hopes for a federal right to repair law have been crushed by Trump’s electoral win. Activists have, however, had considerable luck passing numerous state right to repair laws.

Last March Oregon became the seventh state to pass “right to repair” legislation making it easier, cheaper, and more convenient to repair technology you own. The bill’s passage came on the heels of legislation passed in Massachusetts (in 2012 and 2020), Colorado (in 2022 and 2023), New York (2023), Minnesota, Maine and California. All told, 30 states contemplated such bills in 2024.

The problem: I’ve yet to see any examples of these laws actually being enforced. And with Trumpism ushering in a whole bunch of new life and death legal struggles hinging at the state level (immigration, the dismantling of all federal consumer protection), I strongly suspect going toe to toe with major companies over right to repair won’t be a priority for state officials with limited resources.