Nathan Proctor
@nProctor
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Heads Right to Repair campaign w/ @USPIRG. Just let us fix our stuff #RightToRepair Member #Grist50
Boston
Joined March 2009
With three Right to Repair laws, Colorado has the broadest protections of any state. Here's what the new law does and what's next:
pirg.org
What does Right to Repair cover in Colorado, and what are the next steps for securing our repair rights.
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Great piece by @BooneAshworth today on our bounty program at @FuluFoundation. It’s crazy that when a company shuts down your app access for using a third-party part, the illegal thing is modifying that app to make it work again.
wired.com
Fulu sets repair bounties on consumer products that employ sneaky features that limit user control. Just this week, it awarded more than $10,000 to the person who hacked the Molekule air purifier.
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The idea of democracy is that if you want something to happen, you have to convince a large portion of people to agree with it, otherwise, they can overrule you, or block you, etc. When you try to enforce rules on people the majority reject, expect a bit of chaos.
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The thing that scares me the most about examples like this ... what are the limits? Software can be programming to do pretty much anything, and if you won't pay for remote start or GPS ... what's stopping the OEM from turning off something else you will pay for?
Popular Car YouTube Channel shows that just one year after purchasing a new Toyota Camry, many of your subscriptions run out To keep them you will pay $600 every year, just to use the features on the car you already bought “Toyota is charging us $600 a year to keep all of our
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Paul Wieland just wanted to use his garage door on his own terms. What he ran into was a much bigger fight — a monopoly on repair and use, as companies use software, servers, and subscriptions to change how products work after purchase. “They want people to pay for using zeros
nytimes.com
If companies can modify internet-connected products and charge subscriptions after people have already purchased them, what does it mean to own anything anymore?
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Here's a recent piece in WIRED which describes the debate: https://t.co/7mpO9vmt4N
wired.com
A push by military contractors could alter pending legislation that would have empowered servicemembers to repair equipment. Lobbyists are pitching a subscription service instead.
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The military's need for Right to Repair isn't going away, and neither are we. People should be allowed to fix their stuff.
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I was happy to see that the "Data as a service" provision was also struck, which is what the defense industry was pushing (because what manufacturer wouldn't love the idea of charging rent for the data generated or needed by products you already sold). 3/
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We saw this coming as defense industry lobbyist had really started pushing lawmakers to remove Right to Repair provisions -- and they certainly have better access to the top leaders in the Armed Services Committees than we do 2/
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Despite #RightToRepair provisions being included in both the versions passed by the House and Senate of the military funding bill (NDAA), today the final text reveals that it was removed by leadership of the Armed Services Committees 1/
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A toilet that spies on you adds new meaning to "enshitification" huh @doctorow
arstechnica.com
Kohler is getting the scoop on people’s poop.
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“They want people to pay for using zeros and ones,” Mr. Proctor said. “There’s a fight over whether the economy is going to function that way. What are the limits? ‘Oh, you want to turn on your headlights? I’m sorry, you don’t have the headlight package.’”
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💀
Not pictured: Nico Harrison.
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Fake tamale recipes, promoted in search to help make AI look good in some kind of investor report, trained of real human chefs whose work is now buried, which unsuspecting people try to make with bad results ... Just another day in the 2025 tech experience.
WithAI slop becoming the norm, and Google at the front of the line pushing AI at the top of search results, the question becomes, who or what is the web meant to serve? As agents become more and more prevalent, we might be creating a vicious cycle of AI serving, not humans, but
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It looks like House leadership (Rep. Mike Rogers and Adam Smith) are letting the defense industry pull Right to Repair out of the military funding bill ... (link in thread)
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Ah yes, but "Innovation." Innovation for who? The most important innovations we need are making good lives for people with the stuff we already have. When we create technology like this, it is awesome! But it isn't as good for shareholders, so it gets crowded out.
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