https://theintercept.com/2025/12/09/congress-military-ndaa-right-to-repair/>The idea of a “right to repair” — a requirement that companies facilitate consumers’ repairs, maintenance, and modification of products — is extremely popular, even winning broad, bipartisan support in Congress. That could not, however, save it from the military–industrial complex.>Lobbyists succeeded in killing part of the National Defense Authorization Act that would have given service members the right to fix their equipment in the field without having to worry about military suppliers’ intellectual property.>“Defense contractors have a lot of influence on Capitol Hill.”>The decision to kill the popular proposal was made public Sunday after a closed-door conference of top congressional officials, including defense committee chairs, along with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.>Those meetings were secret, but consumer advocates say they have a pretty good idea of what happened.>“It’s pretty clear that defense contractors opposed the right-to-repair provisions, and they pressed hard to have them stripped out of the final bill,” said Isaac Bowers, the federal legislative director at U.S. PIRG. “All we can say is that defense contractors have a lot of influence on Capitol Hill.”>The idea had drawn bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, which each passed their own versions of the proposal.>Under one version, co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mt., defense companies would have been required to supply the information needed for repairs — such as technical data, maintenance manuals, engineering drawings, and lists of replacement parts — as a condition of Pentagon contracts.
>I think rights come from duh gubbamint!>Your rights keep getting trampled onYou get what you vote for.
>hamstringing the military's ability to perform field repairs because "muh IP"We are not a serious country anymore.
>>107503594Comforting to see how at the end of the day, the world still runs on the "biggest stick" basis of authority. America runs the globe because of its military, and the american military contractors run America.Did I say comforting? I meant deeply unsettling
This sounds dire but was already the status quo. 90% of military equipment has to go back to the manufacturer for even the most basic repairs as it is.Also a lot of the crap coming out of those companies, once it becomes surplus or otherwise finds its way to civilian enthusiasts, is found to be staggeringly simple or just plain poorly designed. People would lose their minds if they found out that the 178,000 touchscreen-equipped "human-computer control interface unit" in their tank is literally cheaper than a Nintendo DS, half as powerful, and uses more chinese parts in it.
