Microsoft Wisely Gets On The Right Side Of History And ‘Right To Repair’

Microsoft has apparently realized that it's just good business sense to get itself on the right side of history, and the right side of the growing right to repair movement." The company has increasingly been urging lawmakers to support the Washington State Fair Repair Act, which would ensure that consumers and indie repair shops have the parts, tools, and documentation to repair their own gear.

Unfortunately, the bill bogged down in the Washington legislature thanks to opposition from both Republicans and Senator Lisa Wellman, a Democrat and former Apple executive. But right to repair activists say that Microsoft's support of the legislation has started to change the equation:

We are in the middle of more conversations with manufacturers being way more cooperative than before," Nathan Proctor, who heads the U.S. Public Research Interest Group's right-to-repair campaign, told Grist. And I think Microsoft's leadership and willingness to be first created that opportunity."

A long list of companies like John Deere have spent decades trying to monopolize repair options in everything from consumer electronics to medical equipment and agricultural gear. The end result is always higher repair costs, fewer repair options, and more waste. Microsoft and Sony have historically been part of the problem, with efforts to make it harder to repair game consoles.

Many such companies have been waging war on state and federal efforts to make it easier for consumers to fix their own tech hardware. That's ranged from Apple falsely claiming this will turn states into dangerous meccas for hackers, to the automotive industry falsely claiming that making it easier to access and repair modern cars will be a boon to stalkers and sexual predators.

But the more fiercely companies try to monopolize repair, implement obnoxious DRM, lock down repair manuals and tools, consolidate repair options and drive up costs, the more annoyed consumers, activists, and environmentalists get, and the greater the momentum for meaningful legislation becomes.

While US consumer rights are generally a hot mess right now, the right to repair movement is a refreshing exception. It's popular, bipartisan, and is only going to accelerate after decades of consumer anger. Companies can either try to swim upstream against it and make things even worse for themselves, or they can follow Microsoft's (belated) lead and make sure they're on the right side of history.