Librarian of Congress creates exemption allowing smartphone repairs

The Librarian of Congress has created exemptions to the provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (‘DMCA’) that prohibits circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works, allowing individuals and repair shops to circumvent digital “locks” on electronic devices they own, such as voice assistants, tablets, smartphones and vehicles, so that they can repair them, the Washington Post reports. The rule went into effect Oct. 28.

The article quotes Nathan Proctor, the director of the campaign for the right to repair at the public interest group U.S. PIRG, with its main office in Denver, as saying the exemption “establishes that you have a legal right to repair something that you own and that does not infringe upon the copyright protection afforded to the manufacturer.”

“The Copyright Office clearly understands the frustration that the repair community is experiencing,” Kyle Wiens of IFixit writes in a blog post regarding the exemption on the organization’s website, www.ifixit.org. “In the introduction to their ruling, they include this quote, ‘[i]t’s my own damn car, I paid for it, I should be able to repair it or have the person of my choice do it for me.’”

Weins writes that the ruling allows for unlocking voice assistant devices; new phones and not just used ones. (“This is important for recyclers that get unopened consumer returns,” he says in his post.); repairing smartphones, home appliances or home systems; repairing motorized land vehicles by modifying the software (“Importantly, this includes access to telematic diagnostic data—which was a major point of contention,” Weins adds.); and third-party repairs on behalf of the owner.

Regarding the last point, he adds, “This is hugely important for the American economy, where repair jobs represent 3 percent of overall employment.”

However, the ruling does not allow for game console repair and excludes products that are not “smartphones, home appliances or home systems” or “motorized land vehicles.”

Weins adds that Congress still needs to address some limitations regarding the repair of electronics, such as the law against “trafficking” in circumvention tools. He quotes from United States Copyright Office rulemaking that “limiting the exemption to individual owners threatens to render it effectively meaningless for those who lack the technical knowledge to access and manipulate increasingly complex embedded computer systems.”

He writes, “Now that circumvention is required to perform repairs, and most repairs benefit from tools, we need to open up a market for developing and selling those tools. Legislation like Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’s Unlocking Technology Act would provide the clarity that tool developers need. It would also be helpful for service providers to codify the ability of third-parties to perform service.”