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The right to repair movement is still facing an uphill battle in Congress but they have won a reprieve, at least for the next three years. The US Copyright Office has just passed a ruling that modifies exceptions to the section 1201 section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in favor of third-party repairs. In a nutshell, it will be legal next week to jailbreak Amazon Echoes and Google Homes and, to some degree, repair smartphones on your own.
Section 1201 of the DMCA actually has nothing to do with repairing smartphones or unlocking smart speakers. Instead, it makes it illegal to break the deadlines of copyright protection, a.k.a. piracy. Such "financial measures" normally refers to DRM but has been used by companies to repair devices. The reasoning is that software, which falls under DMCA Section 1201.
Fortunately, lawmakers left the door open for exceptions to be made and modified every three years. That time has come to the fore for the United States Copyright Office for that very purpose. The good news is that the new exceptions do cover a lot of things having been waiting for all this time. The following will be legal starting next week:
1. Jailbreaking smart speakers
2. Unlocking new phones, not just old ones
3. Repairing smartphones, home appliances, and homes ystems
4. Repairing cars, tractors, and motorized land vehicles
5. Repairing above devices on behalf of an owner
The ruling, which goes into effect October 28, is not complete win, however. It's still illegal to repair game consoles, for example, and the exceptions only cover motorized land vehicles, not air and water vehicles.
Most importantly, it's still illegal to sell the tools needed to perform those repairs. So you can legally make your own tools and be paid for others, but not to sell those tools. That requires a more comprehensive Right to Repair Act that is still in progress in Congress across different states.
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