Right to repair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_repair

The right to repair is included in the proposed right to property:

“No government or person shall deprive a person of the use, modification, improvement, or repair of their property except in accordance with a lawful process.”

That aspect of the right to property is further explained:

This right is not intended to imply that a person can do whatever they want with property. The government may restrict some modifications or require inspection of modifications for the purpose of ensuring public safety.

However, a seller, after having sold an item to a customer, cannot assert any control over that sold item such as, for example, rendering it inoperable if the customer attempts to modify some aspect of that item, or in retaliation for a customer’s public comment about the seller.

This right is not intended to imply that people cannot get together and enforce standards of conduct, for example by creating an “original item club” that is only for owners of “original” (un-modified) items. This does not deprive anyone of their right to modify such items that they own, because membership in the club is voluntary.

This right is not intended to imply that an arrangement cannot be made wherein a person uses an item and is prohibited from modifying it. It only prevents such arrangements from being called a sale, because sales result in the customer owning the item. If a company intends to maintain control over an item it provides to a customer, then the transaction must be called what it is, such as a “lease” or “loan” of the item, so that everyone involved has the appropriate expectations. Such arrangements also mean the customer must be able to return the item to the company and, whether it’s returned or not, the company is responsible for disposal of the item.

This right is not intended to imply that merely by using their own property, a person has freedom to violate other people’s rights. The ownership, use, modification, improvement, and repair of one’s property that is protected by this proposed right to property is limited to such ownership, use, modification, improvement, and repair that is lawful and does not violate the rights of others.

Some manufacturers design their products deliberately to interfere with repair efforts, or scare customers from attempting repair efforts. Such designs would violate the customers’ proposed right to property because they directly or indirectly attempt to deprive the customer of the use or modification of property that they purchased.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *