I’ve been following the discussions centered around the right to repair farm equipment for a couple of years. Here’s a couple of articles that will give you a primer on the issue:
- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvgx9w/farmers-are-buying-40-year-old-tractors-because-theyre-actually-repairable?fbclid=IwAR0rP3Yy8wNABaxSTe9ggcwZmhGnmMClvG5ORioV2VoBucZqne9wlik88ag
- https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware
Why would an archivist care about this movement beyond my general distrust of companies that don’t allow people to tinker with the products they buy? Well because where this movement goes so will go the archives. Why because if everyone is granted a right to modify source code to conduct repairs, it will only help provide archives a firmer legal footing to work on older equipment and software. We already have DCMA exemptions, but those are only rules and could be removed at any time. A nationwide right to repair law would only help us have safeguards any we modify the software or older equipment in order to adequately capture records from devices that are no longer supported. So roughly stated a right to repair is a right to preserve.