Could the Right to Repair Come to Court Reporting?

As told to me by a valued reader, the right to repair movement is coming to U.S. Industries. Simply put, it’s a demand on manufacturers to make parts and manuals more accessible so that people can repair their own devices.

And again, as told to me by this valued reader, United States farmers have made ground in this area against John Deere.

Apple has had pressure placed on it by consumers — and consumers want more!

There was even a bill introduced when it came to automobiles.

So could stenographers, voice writers, and even digital reporters fight for this same right to repair? I think so. To be fair, when it comes to electronics, I’ve always run into “this would be cheaper to replace.” But now, looking back, I don’t know how much of that is because of labor cost and how much of that is because manuals are not readily accessible to fix these things.

I imagine our own right to repair movement would start with our stenotypes. Sure, Stenograph could see the writing on the wall and issue these manuals and parts listings freely, but I sense it’s something we’d have to force through legislation. Since getting the federal government to do anything is nearly impossible, it would probably have to happen at a state level in states where Stenograph and others have significant business such as New York, California, Texas, and Illinois — the four biggest states for court reporting identified by the Ducker Report over ten years ago.

Let’s put it this way, it would help stop them from holding us hostage by stopping support for our older stenotypes every few years.

Maybe our associations could even team up with Right to Repair Associations like The Repair Association.

(In fact, their website mentions the state legislature too. I guess they have the same faith in the federal government I do.)

After targeting our stenotypes — or perhaps concurrently — I would target our laptops. Imagine every laptop coming with a nice booklet about how to troubleshoot and repair certain parts? Sure, this information exists out in the world, but it would be nice if it was accessible by default from manufacturers. As an example, I recently had a laptop malfunction. Luckily it was under warranty. But it needed a new motherboard and RAM. Imagine if it had been out of warranty! How nice would it have been to have a step-by-step guide explaining how to get into the laptop casing without accidentally ripping the thing in half?

(The joke is I did that while extracting a hard drive from an ancient laptop very, very recently. I was too stupid to figure out how to slide the case off even with all the screws out.)

The point is simple. Taking the repair monopoly away from manufacturers and putting it firmly into the hands of consumers that want to “risk it.” Life’s all about risk and reward. Don’t we deserve our shot?

After reading more into this movement, I’m in full support. This is something we can and should do — with price raise caps implemented right into the law to douse the fire on any manufacturer that thinks they’re going to use this as an excuse to significantly raise prices.

Any New Yorkers that want to get together on this, let me know.

I’d offer elsewhere, but if there’s anything I’ve learned from life it’s that you can’t be everywhere at once without burning out.

Is the right to repair worth fighting for?

You decide!