Hacker News Reader

Comment by sleepybrett | Hacker News Reader

This law does not apply to tractors or game consoles. It's neutered as all fuck.

From the article:

Of course, these wins come with carve-outs. HB 1483 exempts:

    Video game consoles
    Medical devices
    Motor vehicles
    Agricultural and construction equipment
    Security systems and alarm equipment
    Internet and TV equipment from ISPs
    Off-road recreational vehicles
    Large-scale energy storage and solar gear
    Low earth orbit broadband gear (until 2044)

View on HN

By 2026 my dishwasher is going to have a forced update to run Doom in an effort to be classified as a video game console, isn’t it?

No need for that much effort, just have a horde of lawyers convince lawmakers that dishwashers are actually medical devices, that help relieve wrist pain from doing the dishes. A bit of brib- lobbying might help the lawmakers understand if the arguments aren't enough.

I think you’ll find “Hurt me plenty” is sufficient for all but the toughest baked on food stains.

It will be a patched Doom that doesn't let you upgrade or fix your armor.

If Samsung gets Doom to do LAN multiplayer with the coffee machine and the refrigerator, then they all deserve the title of video game console.

Anything connected to the internet ought to be a "Security system" and should therefore be exempt as well

I don't know if the assholes behind these restrictions are clever enough to think of that loophole. Thanks for giving them the idea!

Everything you listed is what the typical Washington resident will WANT to repair. How is this law even worth celebrating? And how did these companies obtain these exemptions?

.. just like every other carve out exception. Bribes.

Not sure if the link was changed by the mods or something, but just a heads up that your quote's from the iFixit article [1], not the EFF one [2]

[1] https://www.ifixit.com/News/110039/double-trouble-for-repair...

[2] https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/06/right-repair-law-washi...

"Low earth orbit broadband gear" is incredibly specific lol, I believe there's exactly 2 companies with large offices in Washington that would apply to.

Doesn't that include all home Starlink devices?

Starlink is one of those 2 companies (or grandfather commenter miscounted and meant 3)

Plus Amazon's Kuiper when it eventually launches

I'm not familiar with BO's rocket offerings other than the New Glenn phallic thingy. I chuckled thinking they'd just have the passengers open the hatch and push the new satellites out and hope they push hard enough to reach orbit.

Why do right-to-repair bills always have these kinds of exclusions? These are pretty important categories.

Lobbyists

So it carves out most of the stuff I could reasonably expect to be covered under this? The only thing I can see covered would be cell phones and DVD players

hilariously, this states right to repair law does not include road going or ag vehicles. Ya know, the impotus for this now hijacked initiative.

"tell me the state of washington protects failing US auto manufacturers and shade tree mechanics without saying it".

But hey, at least now I can rest assured knowing that korean smartphones are now going to be a little cheaper to repair in wshington.

Road vehicles should already be covered by existing right-to-repair rights, are they not? Otherwise, how would independent repair shops still exist?

Purely due to industry norms, no laws that I am aware of. For example Tesla makes it much harder for third parties to repair vehicles both by not making parts available and by using DRM/part-pairing/phoning-home to require authorization from them to replace some parts.

It's a traditional benefit of decoupling the sales and maintenance of vehicles from the manufacturer. The manufacturer should not care who buys their parts, so it should be purely an additional revenue stream. ASE certification means any shop can carry out warranty repairs and the manufacturer doesn't have to have repair shops and staff in every city/town.

That said, it's not just Tesla that has broken this model; Volkswagen Auto Group in particular are famous for requiring proprietary tools and software packages to diagnose and repair their vehicles, and refusing to sell tools/software to independent shops. I think some manufacturers are just more tightly coupled to dealerships, so there's a profit motive in forcing all repairs to happen through them.

Also the not-to-be-underestimated culture around car modding and the aftermarket, which has lead to a situation where you can build a stereotypical mid-century vehicle with entirely aftermarket parts, but parts availability falls drastically for anything newer.

...but those are most of the things I want to repair. Did the check from HP not clear?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com