Product repair technicians want legislative help
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A pending bill would require digital electronics manufacturers to offer independent repair shops information.
Like auto mechanics a few years ago, technicians who fix everything from iPhones to MRI scanners are feeling squeezed by equipment manufacturers and they want state lawmakers to help them out.
Legislation heard (H 143/S 96) by the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure Committee Tuesday would require digital electronics manufacturers who sell in Massachusetts to offer independent repair shops diagnostic and repair information, technical updates and corrections to firmware.
Manufacturers said that could present dangers and harm their businesses.
No other state has a law similar to the proposed legislation on its books, according to Matt Mincieli, executive director for Massachusetts and the Northeast for TechNet, which bills itself as the "Voice of the Innovation Economy" and opposes the digital right to repair bill.
If approved, the bills would present "significant and unknown risks" and "severely hurt the tech ecosystem" just as Massachusetts is competing against the rest of North America for the location of Amazon's second headquarters, Mincieli said.
Gay Gordon Byrne, executive director of the Repair Organization, said manufacturers have a financial interest in keeping all repair business for themselves.
"They have a very strong economic interest in monopolizing repair," Byrne told the committee.
Her organization, which was founded in New Jersey, cites the 2012 Massachusetts automotive right to repair law as an example of how to advance their priorities in the states. The Bay State law led auto manufacturers nationwide to agree to provide mechanics with diagnostic information on their cars.
Manufacturing industry representatives who testified Tuesday were uniformly opposed to the idea – or wanted their sector carved out.
"Without proper training, serious and significant damage can occur," said Sarah Faye Pierce of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers – an industry that is increasingly leaning more on digital technology for smart vacuums and networked refrigerators. Repairs made to a home appliance by someone unauthorized by the manufacturer will void the warranty, she said.
The auto industry should not get "swept into this hysteria," said Robert O'Koniewski, of the Massachusetts State Auto Dealers Association, who wants a clear exemption to keep motor vehicles out of this right to repair legislation. He said, "I don't really care about the bill whether you guys pass it or not."
While the manufacturing industry claims being forced to disclose information to independent repairers would compromise cybersecurity, Rachel Kalmar, a data scientist and fellow at Harvard University, said more openness would allow people to identify security holes and keep them patched.
"Security through obscurity doesn't work," Kalmar told the committee.
The bill was filed by Rep. Claire Cronin, an Easton Democrat who is House chairwoman of the Judiciary Committee, and Brockton Sen. Mike Brady.
"I'm happy if we need to tweak and change some of this," Brady said.
The bill exempts the most critical medical devices, such as replacement heart valves, from the disclosure requirements and defines digital electronics as devices that contain a "microprocessor originally manufactured for distribution and sale in the United States."
Representatives of the medical device industry – a key component of the Bay State's economy – told the committee they want Congress and the Food and Drug Administration to regulate third-party repairers, who they said now operate free of oversight.
"The issue at hand is there's no oversight and there's no standards," said Jeff Lersch of Karl Storz-Endoskope, a medical device manufacturer.
"Third party repairs of patient-sensitive devices can and do put patients at risk," said Massachusetts Medical Device Industry Council President Tom Sommer. He said if the legislation became law "the Commonwealth would be putting the safety of patients at risk."
Scot Mackeil, a biomedical technician who works at Massachusetts General Hospital but was not speaking on behalf of the hospital, said even though he is fully qualified to repair medical equipment some companies refuse to provide him with simple diagnostic information – telling him to ship equipment thousands of miles for costly repairs by the manufacturer instead.
Manufacturers have been putting pressure on the secondary market for computer products, refusing to provide security upgrades to resold equipment unless the owner pays a premium, according to Rohi Sukhia, who runs Tradeloop, a wholesale electronics dealer in Somerville. He said, "The used computer market is in trouble."
The video game industry has a particular interest in keeping its firmware under wraps, according to Tim Johnson, of the Entertainment Software Association. He said that firmware contains security features to block pirated software from working on game consoles.
Adam Fullerton, operations manager for Mega Mobile, which repairs smartphones, said manufacturers have dramatically raised the prices for spare phone parts and Apple won't sell any repair parts to consumers or independent repair shops.
The bill requires manufacturers to "make available for purchase by the product owner, or the authorized agent of the owner, such service parts, inclusive of any updates to the firmware of the parts, for purchase upon fair and reasonable terms."
Sen. Barbara L'Italien, the Senate chairwoman of the committee, said cellphone manufacturers have consumers "over a barrel" if they need a repair, and described the bill as "multifaceted and very complex."
Rep. Denise Provost, a Somerville Democrat, said her smartphone has been "misbehaving" and neither her cell service provider nor the device manufacturer has been able to solve the problem.
"I'd like to think that there's probably an MIT hacker within a few blocks of me who could fix it in an afternoon," Provost said.
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