*some restrictions apply, because of course they do. 😕 In today's episode of Veronica Explains, I talk about Minnesota's new right-to-repair law, the "Digital Fair Repair Act". Which is epic, yet sadly has some "interesting" carveouts. I also interview two awesome staff members at Free Geek Twin Cities, one of my favorite places in all of the land! Minnesotans will now get free manuals for most consumer electronics, thanks to this new law! And because most manufacturers will be expected to make the free manuals available online, that probably means everyone gets free manuals! Links for you: ⚖️ The law: https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/Session+Law/Chapter/57/ (it's Sec. 11. [325E.72], search for "Digital Fair Repair") 🔧 iFixit's read on it: https://www.ifixit.com/News/75965/ 💾 Free Geek Twin Cities: https://freegeektwincities.org 👕 Buy my shirt on my website: https://vkc.sh/merch Chapters for you to peruse: 0:00 I'm no lawyer but I think it's an introduction 0:22 More repair manuals than ever before! 1:31 What exactly does the new Minnesota repair law say? 2:10 Of course there's carveouts 3:35 Interview with Free Geek Twin Cities about Right to Repair! 7:44 What's next for us in repairland? Lastly, my channel wouldn't be possible without support from viewers like you. If you'd like to help me make more Veronica Explains, I would welcome you to become a channel member at Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/VeronicaExplains) or Patreon (https://patreon.com/VeronicaExplains). I appreciate you for thinking about supporting me in my endeavor to explain Linux, vintage tech, and more. #righttorepair #retrocomputing #minnesota
I’m really glad to hear this. Hopefully over the coming years with laws like this allowing service manuals and laws like the EU’s right to repair and get parts we’ll see much better devices that we can hang on to longer. It’s unsustainable to continue using and throwing away devices at the rate many do.
Agreed. Id also like to see some laws requiring OEM/hardware sellers to free up their hardware a bit more too.
I have an older pixel phone that i cant give more life to because the boot loader is locked. I got it from Verizon, so its just a paperweight now.
I got my new one from Google, so at least when it goes eol from them i’ll be able to put some sort of rom on it and extend the life.