Have you ever broken something? Most probably have. Some things aren’t worth repairing, but what about that expensive phone you bought last Christmas? The phone is really expensive so you look into fixing it. The nearest phone repair store is charging almost ¾ the cost of the phone to repair your phone. So you look into repairing the device yourself only to find the Manufacturer made the device purposely hard to repair. This is why the right to repair movement is happening.
The right to repair is proposed legislation that would provide the practical means for equipment owners to repair their devices. This could mean enforcing things such as making sure the device’s construction allows the device to be repaired, users being able to access original spare parts, repairs should not be hindered by software, and the repairability should be communicated clearly.
This movement has some notable examples of being needed. Louis Rossman, who runs a repair business, has a youtube channel and frequently talks about his customer’s horror stories with Apple Authorized repair centers. He also details how hard it is to acquire parts to repair these devices. He has been in some court cases relating to the right to repair.
Another example of Right to Repair being needed is coming from farmers. A major manufacturer of farming equipment in the US (John Deere), is preventing farmers from repairing their own tractors. They introduced software-based lockouts that prevent the tractor from working when only a minor repair has happened. This requires farmers to have to take their tractors to people John Deere has authorized to repair the vehicle. This can cause the farm’s productivity to go down while the repair is being done and the repair costs money. Some farmers have resorted to using cracked (illegal) software that they bought off the black market to gain access to their tractors to make their own repairs.
What are my thoughts on this issue? I think that devices should have the ability to be repaired. I think that hardware should have repairability in mind when it comes to designing devices and that parts and the ability to repair the device should be available to the average consumer. I also think this principle should be in more than just the electronic industry. For example, I already mentioned John Deere, which is a farming equipment company. I also believe the auto industry should follow in the right to repair footsteps. Each generation of car that has come out is getting less repairable. As an example, my car has a standard slot (DIN) to replace the stereo in case it goes bad, while newer cars just slap a touchscreen on the dash without the ability to easily repair it. We have come a bit closer to that goal. For example, companies like Framework have popped up that offer repairable laptops and the replacement parts for this laptop. Overall, I believe we the consumer should be able to repair the products we buy.

https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/25/john_deere_right_to_repair_lawsuits/

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/what-is-right-to-repair/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware