Digital Locks Are Shackling the Future of Tinkering

It's likely been decades since you last found a service manual included in the box with a new tech product. The Right to Repair movement seeks to change that.

- KYLE WIENS

WHEN I WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL, MY FIRST JOB involved repairing Apple computers for minimum wage so I could buy a laptop for college. When I finally scraped together the $1,800 or so for a midrange iBook, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, two months into the semester, I dropped my clamshell laptop on its power port, breaking it. I searched for a service manual online, but I was stymied by repeated copyright takedowns that are effectively “No Trespassing” signs.

Those takedowns were a clear sign that Apple didn't want me to fix my laptop; it had established a defensive perimeter of lawyers to enforce the knowledge ban. As it turns out, Apple isn't unique in this–Toshiba notoriously demanded that an Australian repair website remove all of its online manuals. The farm equipment manufacturer John Deere has secret diagnostic tools that it refuses to share with farmers. These legal tactics are standardizing an expectation of manufacturer control. Inspired by my frustrating dorm room experience, in 2003 I started iFixit, an online repair community dedicated to enabling people to fix all their things. Ever since, we've been systematically tearing down the obstacles that companies have erected to block repairs.