"Right to Repair" also is Right to Digital DIY

These days, when some products break, especially if they are electronic products from TVs to software-equipped cars, it is quite often both easier and cheaper (even if it produces lots of unnecessary waste) to buy new ones. Repair is actively discouraged by several means, from simply refusing to publish repair information and manuals to using "digital locks or copyrighted software to prevent [repairs]". In order to fight this situation, a “right to repair” movement composed by of consumer advocates, repair professionals and ordinary individuals is actively promoting legislation that would "make it harder for companies to keep repair information proprietary". Other groups, like iFixit, "function as a sort of repair Wiki, with some one million users sharing knowledge" and data on how to repair many different products.

The "Right to Repair" (which, by the way, is also a "Right to keep buying"), is unavoidably linked to the "Right to Digital DIY". It is for this reason that we are are following and studying these movements, and the legal measures they propose. A good summary of the current sitation on this front in the USA is in this report of the Smithsonian magazine, from which we took the picture and quotes above. We welcome information (*) about similar movements in other countries, both in and outside Europe. Thank you in advance for your help.

(*) or even just pointers to it, especially when not available in English!)