Right to Repair Now

Rolling stock manufacturer NEWAG was discovered to have been bricking trains if they were not serviced at their facilities.

It was unbelievably bad PR for the train manufacturer, and their response is to sue rail lines, repair shops, and tech experts who made it possible for the trains to run, claiming that repairing and running equipment that you purchase violates their copyright.

Because owning a 50 tonne locomotive doesn't mean that you can operate it as if you own it.

This is what is wrong with our current IP system.

It encourages rent-seeking, increases inequality, and stifles innovation:

Back in 2023 we wrote about how regional Polish rail company and a train manufacturer NEWAG had taken to using DRM to lock down trains that are repaired by independent technicians, in a bid to both monopolize — and drive up the costs of repair. This kind of effort to monopolize repair is common across numerous industries, driving an organic, grass roots “right to repair” reform movement.

The original story by 404 Media noted that NEWAG put code in their train’s control systems preventing them from running if a GPS tracker detected that it spent any time at an independent repair company, and if certain parts had been replaced without a manufacturer-approved serial number. Some independent companies responded by hiring a white hat hacking group dubbed Dragon Sector to bypass the DRM and get the trains running again.

Two years later and it sounds like NEWAG has taken all the wrong lessons from the experience.

The folks at iFixit note that the company has now sued both the Polish repair service SPS that fixed those original trains, and has also gone after the individual members of ethical hacking group Dragon Sector for helping them. NEWAG is looking for $1.7 million for copyright violations and “unlawful competition” in one court, and $1.36 million for unlawful competition and infringement of personal rights in another.

 This, as well as the sh%^$ that John Deer, and HP printers, and Tesla, and Ford, and GM, etc. pull needs to stop.